Mikko Aaltonen

Mikko Aaltonen is a researcher at the University of Helsinki's Faculty of Social Sciences, serving as a Supervisor in the Doctoral Program in Social Sciences and as a visiting researcher. He maintains an active research profile with 131 research outputs documented across his career, spanning from 2007 to 2025.

His research interests focus primarily on sociology, criminology, and demographics, with particular emphasis on criminal careers, recidivism patterns, employment trajectories of formerly incarcerated individuals, and victim-offender relationships. His work often utilizes register-based data and comparative approaches, particularly within Nordic contexts.

His recent research output shows consistent productivity with publications in leading criminology journals including Criminology, British Journal of Criminology, and Crime & Delinquency. His 2025 publication in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology on industry-specific labor demand and recidivism represents his ongoing contribution to understanding the relationship between employment and reoffending.

Aaltonen has led multiple significant research projects including CRIMCAR (Sociodemographic determinants of criminal careers in Finland 1987-2015), research on traffic fines and recidivism, and studies on event sequences in intimate partner violence against women. His work demonstrates a strong focus on empirical, data-driven criminological research with policy implications.

His academic service includes extensive peer review activities for journals such as Acta Sociologica, Journal of Youth Studies, and Edilex, along with consulting work for the Ministry of Employment and the Economy on immigrant crime, particularly focusing on sexual offenses.