Dr Heli Korkka-Knuts

Dr Heli Korkka-Knuts is Associate Professor of Criminal Law (tenure track) at Åbo Akademi University and Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Policy, University of Helsinki. She was a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science during the winter and spring terms of 2025.

Her research focuses on criminal law, criminal policy, and regulatory sanctions, with particular emphasis on corporate environments. She is interested in punitive mechanisms as tools of societal governance, exploring how sanctioning frameworks can be designed to optimally incentivise ethical and sustainable corporate behaviour.

Dr Korkka-Knuts leads the research project #MeToo as a Transformative Moment in the Legal Recognition of Workplace Sexual and Gender-based Harassment(#THRIVE), funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. The project investigates the 2017 #MeToo movement as a turning point in the legal recognition of sexual and gender-based harassment in the workplace.

She also leads a work package in the project Towards a Fairer and More Coherent System of Administrative Sanctions (SYSADMIN), funded by the Academy of Finland.

Dr Korkka-Knuts is co-author of Yleinen rikosoikeus (2020, Edita Publishing), one of the most established handbooks on the doctrine of criminal liability in Finland.

Prior to her academic career, she gained extensive experience in the private sector, working as an attorney-at-law in corporate law firms.