Immigrants’ interaction with the police in Finland: Is it distorted or inflammatory? (original) (raw)
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Citizens and immigrant minorities come into contact with the police in various circumstances, either as witnesses, victims of crime, or even as suspects. The present study is an attempt to examine issues concerning racism and discrimination in police/immigrant relations in Finland under this circumstances, which to our knowledge has not received the academic scholastic investigation it deserves. Furthermore, this is also an attempt to look at police/immigrant everyday interactions to help in understanding this relationship. The research was carried out by means of a questionnaire (the sampled respondents consisting of forty-seven graduating police cadets a day before their graduation from the Police School and six serving police officers) and a semi-structured interview with thirteen police/cadets volunteers. These sources then served as the basis of this analysis Secondly, the participants’ experiences were examined in our attempt to determine whether the relationships were cordial or not. The authors are of the opinion that the experiences of these respondents could help to understand and shed some light on how these two groups view their relations. The finding indicates some level of ignorance on the part of the police/cadets of the cultural differences between the immigrant minorities and the majority population. The causes of these cultural misunderstandings are discussed and analysed and further investigation is proposed on this issue with regard to ethnic relations in Finland.
2011
The focus of this study is to examine the role of police and immigrants’ relations, as less is known about this process in the country. The studies were approached in two different ways. Firstly, an attempt was made to examine how immigrants view their encounters with the police. Secondly, the studies explored how aware the police are of immigrants’ experiences in their various encounters and interactions on the street level. An ancillary aim of the studies is to clarify, analyse and discuss how prejudice and stereotypes can be tackled, thereby contributing to the general debate about racism and discrimination for better ethnic relations in the country. The data in which this analysis was based is on a group of adults (n=88) from the total of 120 Africans questioned for the entire study (n=45) police cadets and (n=6) serving police officers from Turku. The present thesis is a compilation of five articles. A summary of each article findings follows, as the same data was used in all f...
Tenuous relations: Ethnic-racial cultural and police disrespect in Finland
International Journal for Police Science and Management, 2021
The relationship between ethnic-racial cultural communities and the Finnish police is evolving, and relatively little research is available within the criminal justice system that highlights police practices and behaviour towards ethnic and racial cultural in Finland. There is also a lack of scientific certainty about how to assess ethnic and racial cultural' experiences of fair, unfair and impolite treatment by the police. The available research suggests that the experiences of Black and other ethnic-racial cultural groups in the criminal justice system differs from that of the ethnic majority population, and this tends to increase the tense relationship between the police and ethnic-racial cultural communities. The data on which this article is based were collected between April 2013 and July 2015 among ethnic and racial cultural groups from three different sites to explore ethnic cultural perceptions of legal authority in Finland. The experiences of 205 people with a cultural ethnic background were used to examine ethnic-racial cultural views on four types of police behaviour-respect, fairness, politeness and courtesy-in deciding whether to trust or distrust the police. We compared adverse encounters between members of ethnic and racial cultural communities and the police using a mixed-methods approach to procedural justice in a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews. The study indicates that hostile police humour contributes to a negative attitude, fear and lack of trust towards the police, whereas every respectful interaction brings about a positive attitude.
Determinants of migrant perception of the police: The attributes of race, trust and legitimacy
Extensive empirical researches have addressed how police work environment affects police behaviour in their interactions with citizens on the street level. However, most of the explanations addressing these issues have focussed on the negative culture of the police work environment in phrases such as “bad apple theory, Window dressing, and the Blue Wall of Silence” Regardless of their accuracy or not these pejorative phrases are often used to explain why police officers’ behave in certain ways. However, in Finland cross-national studies on migrants’ perception of the police: trust and legitimacy are still few in the country. The aim of the present research is to examine, those factors that determine, migrants’ perception of police civility in Turku. The data on which this analysis is based consists of sixty-five immigrants; however, our analysis is based on thirty-five interviews, out of the total participants especially among those who have resided in the country for a certain number of years with resident, permanent permits and nationality status. This includes students, refugees and naturalised citizens of African descent on the basis of how they perceive contacts, experiences and language proficiency acquisition in their interaction with the police on the street level. The findings indicated that Police and immigrants’ encounter are the main determinant of the general attitude toward the police. Furthermore, naturalised respondents had the highest trust towards the police while the refugees and students have the lowest trust in the police. This was not surprising as the social perspectives, and the history of policing as well as the socio- cultural structure of the participating immigrants was salient factors that have all contributed to the distrust of the police in the country.
Minority Perception of Police Legitimacy in Finland: The Patterns and Predictors
European Journal of Crime , Criminal Law & Criminal Justice , 2018
Across the world, minorities are often perceived as social problems in policy formulations and processes in many societies. This perspective gets support from the notion that minorities engage in deviant and criminal behaviour. However, in Finland fewer scholarly attentions have explored the extent of minority attitudes and experiences as they relate to social problems in societies. The aim of this study is to explore procedural justice and its understanding thereof by minorities and racial groups in Finland in complying with police orders. Data for this study was collected between April 2013 and July 2015 from (N = 650) respondents from three major cities (Helsinki, Tampere and Turku) using minority experiences of racial profiling, encounters and unfair policing as variables that increase minority distrust in procedural justice in Finland. The result suggests that ethnicity influences minority views of procedural justice in the country. The implication of this finding is that there is a need for more exploration of the relationship between the police and minorities in Finland. Keywords procedural justice – police legitimacy – ethnic and racial minority – ethnicity – patterns in Finland
Rethinking the concept of prejudice: immigrants-knowledge-based analysis in Turku, Finland
International Journal of The Sociology of Law, 2004
This study examines how African immigrants perceive and allege police bias in Turku, expressed towards them in the various unpleasant circumstances in which they interact. In addition, this was also an attempt to understand the rhetorical allegations that most African immigrants in Turku apply in judging the police. Secondly, we would be drawing on the respondents’ answers to our questionnaire and a semi-structured in-depth interview with 88 African immigrants who have resided in Finland for more than 8 years. The author focussed especially on those who were naturalised citizens, refugees and those with permanent residence permits. The interviews were conducted in their homes, or in cafes and restaurants, and the interviews lasted from 60 to 90 min and were tape-recorded. Thirdly, we examined the sources of African immigrants’ allegations of bias levelled against the Finnish police this was based on questions relating to race, education, culture and contact with the police in Turku. Finally, this study also discusses and analyses several major issues which confront African immigrants and offers some suggestions as to what might be needed in police training to counteract the rampant mistrust and lack of satisfaction among African immigrants concerning the police. This is in line with trying to understand or reflect on the root causes of bias. Rather than dismissing these allegations, we tried to explain, understand and identify the causes of this misconception among African immigrants in Turku. Our study findings demonstrate the importance of exploring both contacts and the working relationship between the police and African immigrants in Turku for here lie unique features that could help us understand African immigrants’ perceptions of police in this city.
The British Journal of Criminology, 2021
Some immigrants can be reluctant to cooperate with the police due to experiences of social exclusion and discrimination. Procedural justice scholars argue that people cooperate with police when they feel the police are just and fair because such treatment motivates identification with social categories that police represent. In this paper, we consider whether immigrants in Australia respond favourably to procedurally just treatment from police because it enhances their identification with both Australia and the police. Using survey data from 903 Vietnamese, Middle Eastern and British immigrants, we demonstrate an association between police procedural justice and both modes of identification. We also find that both identities mediate the relationship between procedural justice and cooperation. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Immigrants and the Criminal Justice System: An Exploratory Study
Violence and Victims, 1999
Experts have argued that there are significant barriers to recent immigrants' use of the criminal justice system. This exploratory study, using convenience samples, is among the first to look empirically at the experiences of recent immigrant victims with the criminal justice system in the United States. Contrary to expectations, we found that immigrants reported relatively few problems unique to foreign-born persons in dealing with the police and the courts, and that their satisfaction with the justice system was comparable to levels reported in studies of native-born victims. The results suggest that although recent immigrants' expectations ofthe criminal justice system may be different from those of native born, the experiences of immigrant victims and their satisfaction with the justice system are similar in many respects to those of native-born victims.