The Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, formerly National Research Institute of Legal Policy, is a research institute at the University of Helsinki, specialising in research and monitoring of crime and legal policy in Finland.
As specified in the law on the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy (1139/2007), the tasks of the research institute are:
- to practice independent research on legal policy, with regard to needs of the ministry of justice and society at large;
- to monitor legal policy and crime, to analyze their trends;
- to maintain research databases that are necessary for the research specified in the law.
The institute became part of the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1 January 2015. It is the only academic research unit in Finland that specialises in research on crime and legal policy.