Minor harassments: Ethnic minority youth in the Nordic countries and their perceptions of the police
| Author | Elsa Saarikkomäki,Mie Birk Haller,David Wästerfors,Torsten Kolind,Geoffrey Hunt,Randi Solhjell |
| Published date | 01 February 2020 |
| Date | 01 February 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818800744 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818800744
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2020, Vol. 20(1) 3 –20
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895818800744
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Minor harassments: Ethnic
minority youth in the
Nordic countries and their
perceptions of the police
Mie Birk Haller
Aarhus University, Denmark
Randi Solhjell
Norwegian Police University College, Norway
Elsa Saarikkomäki
University of Turku, Finland; University of Helsinki, Finland
Torsten Kolind
Aarhus University, Denmark
Geoffrey Hunt
Aarhus University, Denmark
David Wästerfors
Lund University, Sweden
Abstract
As different social groups are directly and indirectly confronted with diverse forms of police
practices, different sectors of the population accumulate different experiences and respond
differently to the police. This study focuses on the everyday experiences of the police among
ethnic minority young people in the Nordic countries. The data for the article are based on
Corresponding author:
Mie Birk Haller, Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Bartholins Allé 10, Aarhus,
8000, Denmark.
Email: mbh.crf@psy.au.dk
800744CRJ0010.1177/1748895818800744Criminology & Criminal JusticeHaller et al.
research-article2018
Article
4 Criminology & Criminal Justice 20(1)
semi-structured interviews with 121 young people in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
In these interviews, many of the participants refer to experiences of “minor harassments” –
police interactions characterized by low-level reciprocal intimidations and subtle provocations,
exhibited in specific forms of body language, attitudes and a range of expressions to convey
derogatory views. We argue that “minor harassments” can be viewed as a mode of conflictual
communication which is inscribed in everyday involuntary interactions between the police
and ethnic minority youth and which, over time, can develop an almost ritualized character.
Consequently, minority youth are more likely to hold shared experiences that influence their
perceptions of procedural justice, notions of legitimacy and the extent to which they comply with
law enforcement representatives.
Keywords
Ethnic minority youth, micro-aggressions, minor harassments, Nordic policing, procedural
justice
Introduction
In most societies, certain disadvantaged population groups are discursively constructed
as social problems, criminalized and subjected to a distinct police gaze (Finstad, 2000).
Consequently, people with certain social characteristics, such as age, ethnicity, gender
and neighborhood affiliation – especially politically defined “ghettos” or other socially
characterized areas – are directly and indirectly confronted with different facets of police
work that other more privileged groups are not (Feinstein, 2015; Holmberg and
Kyvsgaard, 2003; Pettersson, 2013). Consequently, different sectors of the population
may react differently and accumulate different experiences of law enforcement. In this
article, we hope to contribute to the growing research on ethnic minorities’ experiences
of police practices in the Nordic countries.
Today, in many western countries members of immigrant and ethnic minority com-
munities are often constructed as social problems (Fassin, 2013). Researchers, particu-
larly in the USA and the UK, have highlighted the often conflictual relations between
the police and ethnic minorities (Carr et al., 2007; Delsol and Shiner, 2015; Fine et al.,
2003). Some of this literature adopts a “procedural justice” approach, which argues
that citizens’ perceptions of being treated with trust, participation, respect and fairness
in the criminal justice process promote both compliance with law enforcement repre-
sentatives and a sense of being generally respected within the society (Tyler, 1990).
According to researchers, ethnic minorities, especially those in disadvantaged neigh-
borhoods, are more likely to experience incidences of procedural injustice (Carr et al.,
2007; Fine et al., 2003; Gau and Brunson, 2015). Furthermore, researchers have high-
lighted the extent to which members of ethnic minority communities are dispropor-
tionally targeted by law enforcement (e.g. Brunson, 2007; Gau and Brunson, 2015;
White, 2015) partly because of residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods, leading to
arrests and subsequent convictions. Such disproportional policing practices toward
“problem groups” are enhanced by processes of institutional racism and structural
exclusion. For example, the absence of economic opportunities in the labor market,
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