Discretionair beslissen binnen de (rechts)handhavingAls gevolg van incidenten, klachten, buitenlandse voorbeelden, de ophef rondom 'zwarte piet' en in het bijzonder door de rapporten van Amnesty International Nederland (2013) en het Engelse Open Society Justice Initiative (2013) is in Nederland sinds eind 2013 het debat over discriminatie en selectiviteit in alle hevigheid losgebarsten. Ook recente gebeurtenissen in de Verenigde Staten, in het bijzonder in Ferguson en New York, waarbij zwarte Amerikanen door politiegeweld zijn omgekomen, hebben de Nederlandse discussies over het fenomeen wat bekend is komen te staan als etnisch profileren beïnvloed. Binnen deze discussies is de gedachte dat de politie zich in haar handelen zou laten leiden door (ongefundeerde) aannames dat vooral bepaalde groepen migranten veel criminaliteit veroorzaken en om die reden dus extra aandacht behoeven. Zij zouden als gevolg hiervan bevooroordeeld optreden en daarmee, zoals het model van procedurele rechtvaardigheid helder maakt, groepen burgers van zich vervreemden, met desastreuze gevolgen voor de gepercipieerde legitimiteit van de (rechts)hand-* De auteurs bedanken graag het Leids Universiteits Fonds en de Gratama Stichting voor hun financiële bijdrage aan het aan dit artikel ten grondslag liggende onderzoek.
As migration is increasingly seen as a matter of security, migration control and crime control seem to be merging, a process also referred to as crimmigration. To distinguish between migrants that are wanted and those who are not, new technologies are introduced regularly and existing technologies are increasingly interconnected. This could lead to what is called function creep: technology developed for a specific purpose over time being used for other purposes as well. This article aims to explore the relation between crimmigration and function creep by examining a case study of a smart camera system called Amigo-boras used by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. While originally designed to assist in enforcing migration law, recent developments allow the RNM to use Amigo-boras for crime control purposes as well. This article will uncover what the rationales behind this function creep in the use of the Amigo-Boras system are/wereboth from a street-level and policy-level perspectiveand how these relate to crimmigration. The data shows that concerns of cross-border crime are an important reason to use Amigo-boras for more than just migration control. As a result, a significant element of crime control is introduced in Dutch migration control, pushing the crimmigration process further.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Research on profiling in law enforcement focuses mostly on traffic stops and stop and searches in an Anglo‐American context. This article aims to expand this scope by studying profiling practices in migration checks in the Netherlands, aiming to see how migration officers select potential immigrants in the absence of a requirement of reasonable suspicion and how they deal with the legal complexity of the role of race and nationality in the selection process. It does so by employing an elaborate case study of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (RNLM). Findings show that officers are not looking for immigrants in general but focus on a subset of criminal immigrants based on stereotypical perceptions of specific nationalities. While these perceptions could be attributed to the discriminatory beliefs of the individual officers, the present study moves beyond that by documenting how unclear legislation and organisational factors are important to understand how these beliefs come to be and are maintained.
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