Study: Teenage street violence in Oulu, Tampere and Vantaa is group-based and opportunistic, not gang-driven

On 24 August 2026, the research association Nuorisotutkimusseura published a working paper via ePressi based on 158 district court files from Oulu, Tampere and Vantaa. It finds that 15–17-year-old street violence from 2019 to early 2024 was typically group-based and opportunistic rather than the work of organised gangs.

Most incidents were relatively minor, occurred in public spaces, targeted other young people and showed little premeditation. Offences were often carried out with peers, and the authors found no documentary evidence of adult criminal networks or structured street gangs. "We analysed all assault and robbery cases in the district courts of Oulu, Tampere and Vantaa from 2019 to early 2024 and did not find any indication of organised crime or street gangs in a single file," specialist researcher Antti Kivijärvi said.

The authors classify underage street violence into four typical forms: drunken brawls, biiffs and domination beatings, random muggings, and staged fake-sale scams. Drunken brawls usually erupt in the evening or at night and can involve other youths or passing adults. Biiffs are drawn-out group conflicts that can culminate in domination beatings intended to mark status, and girls sometimes play central roles in these disputes. "Most of the assault cases we analysed could be classified as either drunken brawls or biiffs. The former represent traditional Finnish violence and the latter group-based youth violence," research intern Anette Karhumaa said.

Robbery cases were mostly either random muggings, opportunistic thefts targeting visible valuables like clothing, phones and e-cigarettes, or fake-sale scams, in which a buyer or seller is lured to a prearranged location and robbed. Fake-sale scams were rare but the most planned offences in the material; random muggings depended on chance encounters in urban spaces, and both types targeted brands and substances valued by young people.

The working paper challenges public narratives that link modern youth violence to new area-based gangs or imported subcultures such as so-called roadman culture. Instead, the authors argue that evening socialising, emerging substance cultures, status-driven materialism and peer-community conflicts better explain the cases examined. The research is part of the project Community Dimensions of Youth Violence, funded by the cities of Oulu, Tampere and Vantaa and the Ministry of Education and Culture, with partners including the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.

Earlier local reporting documented secret organised brawls among underage supporters in Tampere secret brawls reported in spring, and police later increased city-centre patrols targeting youth alcohol-related disorder police patrols in May.