Our Senior Researchers

This page introduces our senior researchers, including their contact information, background, and areas of expertise. They contribute to advancing knowledge in their respective fields.
Maija Helminen

University Lecturer

Research area: Legislative studies, sociology of law

Research interests: I am a university lecturer in the sociology of law, and I am currently researching legislative consultation practices as part of the SILE research consortium. In general, I am interested in the power dynamics in legislative processes and the penal system, as well as the role of non-governmental actors in the (criminal) justice system.

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: anna-maija.helminen@helsinki.fi

Markus Kaakinen

Associate Professor

Research area: Criminal Policy

Research interests: My research focuses on crime, victimisation, and criminal policy responses. Recent themes include youth and gang crime, hate crime, the effectiveness of prevention, and the role of technology and social media in youth offending and risk behavior. My work is characterised by a mixed-methods approach, where I have utilised a range of quantitative, computational, and qualitative methods.

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: markus.kaakinen@helsinki.fi 

Janne Kivivuori

Professor

Research area: Criminology

Research interests: My main research field is historical criminology, covering both history of criminology, and history of crime. In addition, I have research interests in the fields of homicide and delinquency studies, with particular focus on international research networks such as the International Self-Report Delinquency Study and the European Homicide Monitor

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: janne.kivivuori@helsinki.fi 

Riikka Koulu

Associate Professor (social and legal implications of AI)

Research area: Legal policy, Access to justice

Research interests: I am a socio-legal scholar working at the intersections of law, technology, and society. My current research interests include European and national technology regulation, digital public administration, automation of legal practices, as well as theoretical and empirical approaches to socio-technical changes of law at various levels. 

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: riikka.koulu@helsinki.fi 

Jukka Könönen

University Researcher

Research area: Criminal Policy, Border Criminology

Research interests: I am a social scientist conducting critical multidisciplinary research on crimmigration, control policies, and criminal justice. My research interests include policing, immigration enforcement, and the prison system, as well as broader socio-legal and theoretical analyses of state powers and the governance of marginalized populations.    

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: jukka.kononen@helsinki.fi 

Antti Latvala

Professor

Research area: Criminology

Research interests: I study criminality and other antisocial behavior using data from population registries and longitudinal cohort studies. I am especially interested in the interplay between individual, familial, and social risk factors for criminality and use a variety of advanced research designs to better understand causes and consequences of criminal behavior.

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: antti.latvala@helsinki.fi 

Karoliina Majamaa

University researcher 

Research area: Debt and debt problems 

Research interests: My academic background is in demography and social policy. My research focuses on changes in the regulation related to consumer credit and their societal impacts, particularly on the position of indebted consumers. I am especially interested in the expansion of issues related to payday loans and their consequences on people's daily lives. I primarily use quantitative methods to analyze debt problems with diverse data sources.

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: karoliina.majamaa@helsinki.fi 

Kimmo Nuotio

Director, Professor of Criminal Law

Research area: Criminal Policy, Criminal Law

Research interests: My research focuses on the principles of criminalisation, with a particular emphasis on hate crime, terrorist offences, and organised crime. I also investigate international core crimes and strive to develop sustainable criminal law practices. My work is deeply rooted in the context of a security and risk society.

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: kimmo.nuotio@helsinki.fi 

Matti Näsi

University lecturer

Research area: Criminology

Research interests: I am currently co-coordinator of the Finnish Crime Victim Survey. Besides victimology, my other research interests include youth delinquency and cybercrime. In particular I've been interested in long term trajectories in youth offending. My future focus is also developing the Finnish Crime Victim Survey, which will include combining survey and register data.   

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: matti.j.nasi@helsinki.fi 

Yaira Obstbaum

University Researcher

Research area: Sociolegal research, Access to Justice

Research interests: I am a sociologist with interest in sociolegal research and particularly empirical Access to Justice studies, using different methods. I am the main developer of a Finnish population survey about everyday legal problems. My current interests involve empirically investigating Access to Justice questions in the everyday lives of people and of specific groups of people, currently older people and people with dementia, as well as Access to Justice in specific (legal and non-legal) settings.

Tuhat research portal | E-mail: yaira.obstbaum@helsinki.fi

Kati Rantala

Research Director

Research area: Legislative studies, research on debt

Research interests: I am a sociologist of law, also engaged in political science, with a special interest in lawmaking—its knowledge base, epistemic struggles, and the realization of democracy in its various forms. My other special interests include the functioning of laws and research on debts in relation to insolvency proceedings.

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: kati.rantala@helsinki.fi 

Virve Toivonen

University lecturer 

Research area: Access to justice 

Research interests: My background is in law and my research is focused on how regulation is applied in practice and how its goals are achieved. I am especially interested in children’s rights and study the topic in different environments (family, health care, social welfare, courts, and authorities etc.) with multidisciplinary and mixed-method research approach. 

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: virve-maria.toivonen@helsinki.fi 

Miisa Törölä

University Researcher

Research area: Criminology

Research interests: I am currently the principal researcher of the Finnish Homicide Monitor and contact person for the European Homicide Monitor network. I study social and situational characteristics of severe violence and homicides. My research interests also include offenders' mental state evaluations and violence risk assessments and their consequences for offender rehabilitation and criminal policy, mental health work in prisons, and social and health services provided for offenders.

Tuhat Research Portal | E-mail: miisa.torola@helsinki.fi