Tutkimustieto yhteiskunnallisen päätöksenteon tukena – paikkatietoanalyysiin pohjautuva arvio vuoden 2019 käräjäoikeusuudistuksesta
Avainsanat:
käräjäoikeus, saavutettavuus, spatiaalinen optimointi, paikkatieto, oikeusturvaAbstrakti
Data as support for public policy: GIS-based analysis of the District Court reform of 2019
The District Court reform of 2019 abolishes seven District Courts and closes numerous courtrooms and court registry offices across Finland. Twenty District Courts, with 36 registry offices, remain. The topic of the analysis is how distances to the nearest District Court change in the reform and how well the reform produces a spatially optimised District Court network. Accessibility of District Courts is assessed by spatial data analysis, measuring distances from places of residence to the nearest court registry office. Currently, about 92 per cent of the population lives at a distance of less than 50 kilometres from the nearest District Court. Post-reform, this proportion falls to about 84 per cent. In the current District Court network, the average distance to the nearest District Court is 17.1 kilometres. Post-reform, that average increases by 6.2 kilometres. Also, the reform still produces a more local District Court network than what would be optimal. In areas where the distance to the nearest District Court increases by more than 20 kilometres, there are a total of 460,714 inhabitants, i.e. about 8.5 percent of the Finnish population. For a quarter of this population, the increase in the distance is more than 50 kilometres.
