Helena Huhta
 Dr. Soc. Sc. Postdoctoral researcher

    • Postdoctoral Researcher
    Laws (Faculty of Law)


helena.huhta@utu.fi




https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3530-0391






criminology and sociology of law, qualitative research methods, prison ethnography, young people and ethnic minorities


I am a sociologist working on criminological and socio-legal topics. I have my PhD degree from the University of Helsinki. Before joining the University of Turku, I worked ten years in the Finnish Youth Research Society.

Currently, I study prisoners’ experiences of their rights and the new law that restricts smoking in Finnish prisons in SILE project (https://www.hiljaisettoimijat.fi/?lang=en) which is funded by the Research Council of Finland.

My research interests include the sociology of law, prisons and incarcerated people, ethnic minorities and young people. I have strong expertise in qualitative methods, including ethnography. In my PhD, I studied meanings and consequences that ethnicity and race have in the social relations in Finnish prisons. My previous work covers also themes such as the life courses of elite athletes and services provided for young people having drug and mental health problems.




In my current work, I am exploring theoretical approaches that can help broading the ways that we understand prisoners’ experiences of their rights. I am also excited about analysing the effects of legal interventions in prisonsthrough the approach of legal pluralism and pragmatist understanding of habit.




Young people, control, and criminal justice system (12 ects), Faculty of Law, University of Turku, 10/2024-12/2024

Crime and Societal Reaction (12 ects), Faculty of Law, University of Turku, 3/2025-5/2025





Last updated on 2025-28-02 at 10:43