While Finland has one of the lowest crime rates in Scandinavia, its clearance rates and high proportion of sentences mandating imprisonment led to prison overcrowding. Prison sentences also tended to be longer than in other European and Nordic countries. The country's harsh history, including a civil war and two wars with the Soviet Union, may have led to a social climate in which severe punishment for crime was supported by the population. However, the Finnish prison population has been reduced through a number of reforms leading to increased diversion, increased use of alternatives to incarceration, shorter sentences, and enhanced options for pardon and parole. 5 tables, 7 references, and 1 appendix