Are Immigrants and Their Descendants Discriminated against in the Danish Criminal Justice System?

Holmberg, Lars; Kyvsgaard, Britta

doi:10.1080/14043850310020027

Cited by 60 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Whether the police specifically target minorities for stop and search has been discussed by many researchers (Bowling 1998;Waddington 1999aWaddington , 2003Reiner 1989Reiner , 2000Reiner [1985; Wasserman 1996;Choong 1997;Holdaway 1996;Holmberg 1999Holmberg , 2000Holmberg and Kyvsgaard 2003;Young 1994;Hallsworth and McGuire 2004;Waddington et al 2004).…”

Section: Stop and Search Of Ethnic Minoritiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Racialisation in police stop and search practice – the Norwegian case

Sollund¹

2006

Crit Crim

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This paper explores the reasons for the conflictual relationship between the police and ethnic minority men in stop and search encounters, which leads to the often heard allegation that ''All police are racists.'' It deals with stop and search practices in Oslo as described in interviews with ethnic minority informants and police officers, and as observed through fieldwork amongst the Oslo police rank and file. The approach is qualitative, and explores the perceptions of those stopped by the police, as well as the police's perception of stops and ethnic minority groups. The paper explores a few individual cases in depth to provide an alternative reading of stop and search that is lacking in the mainstay of quantitative studies. The first case analysed has a perspective which emphasises the interaction as it unfolds between the police and the ethnic minority man stopped, and explores the reasons for the resulting escalation. Elements of the stop which are analysed include the police's refusal to explain the stop; this in turn causes disrespect on both sides which results in invectives, resistance, bystander involvement, and the police officers' call for assistance. The other cases analysed in the paper are, to a higher degree, viewed in the light of police perceptions of and their contextual experiences regarding ethnic minorities. The complexity in the analysis corresponds to the complexity determining stop situations. Regular stop situations and their outcomes involve vague descriptions and the police's lack of discernment in consideration of suspects from different ethnic minority groups. Police stereotyping accounts for what ethnic minority men perceive as unjustified stop and search, with the findings suggesting that the Oslo police practice 'car profiling' as much as ethnic profiling. To this end it is suggested in the paper that the combination of having dark skin and driving a BMW exposes ethnic minority men to stop and search.Introducing the Research and the Norwegian Context 1 ''All police are racists.'' During the course of my research in Oslo I heard this often from ethnic minority males I interviewed. I intend to explore the basis for this allegation in order to throw some light on the conflictual relationship between the police and ethnic minority men so often observed (e.g.

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Section: Stop and Search Of Ethnic Minoritiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Racialisation in police stop and search practice – the Norwegian case

Sollund¹

2006

Crit Crim

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“…This is taken as an indication that it takes less for immigrants to be arrested than it does for the majority population (Holmberg & Kyvsgård, 2003;Kardell & Bergqvist, 2009). Such discrimination might be related to racial bias in both policing as well as reporting.…”

Section: Biased Policing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigrant crime in Norway and Finland

Skarðhamar

Aaltonen²,

Lehti³

2014

jssccp

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Immigrants are known to be overrepresented in the crime statistics of Nordic countries. However, the composition of immigrant populations varies across countries both in terms of immigrants' country of origin as well as their population structure (age and sex). Cross-country comparison of crime rates is always difficult because of differences in legal systems, but it is even more challenging when using very broad categories of immigrants, lumping heterogeneous groups together. Previous studies have largely compared the entire immigrant population of a country with the majority population, which under-appreciates the heterogeneity that exists across immigrant groups. In this paper, we compare the crime rates in Norway and Finland, while adding additional nuances by reporting crime rates for 25 specific immigrant groups relative to the majority population. The data are gathered from Finnish and Norwegian administrative records, representing or comprising the resident population aged 15 -64. We analyse both violent crime and property crime, and we present the results adjusted for population structure (sex and age). The results show considerable similarity in the rank order of crime rates of immigrant groups in the two Nordic countries. Although the current study is mainly descriptive, it aims to set some limits to what it is to be explained. In fact, the diversity is so great that it is questionable whether one should treat immigrants as one single group at all. Whatever the causal mechanisms driving immigrant crime are, it seems plausible that some similar processes are operating across the Nordic region.

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“…Scholars further detail an escalating level of violence against minorities, especially in those countries where the "race card" has been played (Goldberg, 2006;Ireland, 1997;Pettigrew, 1998;Young, 2003). They further argue that these conflicted ethnic and racial relations have resulted in the disproportionate incarceration of minorities (Agozino, 2000;Holmberg and Kyvsgaard, 2003;Junger-Tas, 1997;Melossi, 2003;Smith, 1997;Tonry, 2001;Wacquant, 1999Wacquant, , 2006. However, because Western European countries have abolished capital punishment, they are not confronted by the disquieting fact that, as in the United States, minorities are disproportionately executed (Manacorda, 2003;Neapolitan, 2001;Ruddell, 2005;Ruddell and Urbina, 2004;van Koppen, Hessing, and de Poot, 2002;Zimring, 2003).…”

Section: Beyond American Exceptionalism: European Immigrants As the "mentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial–ethnic Intolerance and Support for Capital Punishment: A Cross‐national Comparison*

2010

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This article tests cross‐nationally the minority group threat thesis that public sentiments toward repressive crime‐control policies reflect conflicted racial and ethnic relations. Using multiple data sets representing France, Belgium, the Netherlands, East and West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, Great Britain, Greece, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Canada, Ireland, and Portugal, we examine whether racial and ethnic intolerance—animus, resentments, or negative sentiments toward minorities—predicts greater support for the death penalty. Our results reveal that the respondents were significantly more likely to express support for capital punishment if they were racially or ethnically intolerant while controlling for other covariates of public opinion. These findings indicate that the link between support for capital punishment and racial and ethnic animus may occur universally in countries with conflicted racial and ethnic relations.

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Are Immigrants and Their Descendants Discriminated against in the Danish Criminal Justice System?

Cited by 60 publications

References 12 publications

Racialisation in police stop and search practice – the Norwegian case

Racialisation in police stop and search practice – the Norwegian case

Immigrant crime in Norway and Finland

Racial–ethnic Intolerance and Support for Capital Punishment: A Cross‐national Comparison*

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