The Politics of Policing Hate: Boundary Work, Social Inequalities, and Legitimacy
| Published date | 01 August 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/09646639231201912 |
| Author | Randi Solhjell,Henning Kaiser Klatran |
| Date | 01 August 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The Politics of Policing
Hate: Boundary Work,
Social Inequalities, and
Legitimacy
Randi Solhjell
Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law,
University of Oslo, Norway
Henning Kaiser Klatran
Norwegian Police University College, Oslo, Norway
Abstract
This article investigates how police officers and prosecutors make sense of and speak
about their work with hate crimes. Our analysis rests upon Rober t Reiner’s widely
acknowledged claim that policing is inherently political. We identified three core issues
that illustrate the political nature of policing hate crimes. First, the politically contingent
boundary work of distinguishing criminal from legal acts. Second, the impact of the
enforcement of hate crime laws on the reproduction of social inequalities. Third, the
“diversity politics”of gaining legitimacy and trust among minorities, which hate crime
legislation is meant to protect. While a strong commitment to policing hate crimes is
evident among our interviewees, we ask if the politically invested discourse they present
may contribute to an absence of critical reflections regarding the limited effect of law
enforcement, as well as a lack of engagement with pressing concerns regarding racialized
crime control and racism.
Keywords
hate crime, police, Norway, legitimacy, social inequalities, boundary work
Corresponding author:
Randi Solhjell, Enerhauggata 7, 0651 Oslo, Norway.
Email: randi.solhjell@jus.uio.no
Article
Social & Legal Studies
2024, Vol. 33(4) 620–641
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/09646639231201912
journals.sagepub.com/home/sls
Introduction
Robert Reiner’s classic contribution to policing, in which he argues that policing is intri-
cately intertwined with politics (Bowling et al., 2019), constitutes a core dimension in the
theorization of policing and its consequences for liberal democracy. Policing can be
understood as the preservation of a particular social order through the potential use of
coercive force (Bowling et al., 2019). The police “are the ‘face’of civil government
and the primary contact point between citizens and the government”(Manning, 2010:
40). As power inequality is a dominant feature of liberal democracy, the impact of legis-
lation and law enforcement is inescapably political (Bowling et al., 2019). Policing not
only serves as a fundamental means of securing citizenship; it also constitutes state vio-
lence, which denies citizenship to the marginalized and least powerful (Waddington,
1999; Barker, 2017; Bosworth, 2022).
This article aims to explore how police officers and prosecutors understand and speak
about the policing of hate crime. Hate crime becomes particularly interesting in light of
Reiner’s conceptualization of policing as a politically contingent construct that “has
inspired legal and social change designed to protect people from being persecuted
simply because of who they are, or who they are perceived to be”(Chakraborti, 2015:
13). In its simplest terms, hate crime can be defined as “criminal acts motivated by
bias or prejudice towards particular groups of people”(OSCE, 2022). Hate crime legis-
lation is designed to eradicate bias crimes, particularly against minority populations,
through law enforcement and enhanced sentencing (Jacobs and Potter, 1998; Moran
and Skeggs, 2004; Al-Hakim, 2010). It represents a field of shared interest between
civil society, scholars, policy makers, and law and can be said to merge criminal
policy, human rights, and identity politics (Jenness and Grattet, 2001). Based on inter-
views with Norwegian police officers and prosecutors, we identify three core themes,
in which the politics of policing are particularly evident. These are (1) the negotiation
of boundaries between crime and legality, and between hate crime and other forms of
criminality; (2) the impact of law enforcement on social inequality; and (3) the import-
ance of symbolic law enforcement to achieve legitimacy.
The article is structured as follows: we begin by presenting methods and materials,
before providing a brief outline of the Norwegian Police Service and the Norwegian
hate crime legislation in order to contextualize the study. We then present some core the-
oretical issues concerning the politics of policing as boundary work, policing and social
inequalities, and the engagement of the police in legitimacy work. Next, we present and
analyze our interview material in light of the theoretical framework. Finally, we offer a
concluding discussion, in which we critically reflect on our findings in light of contem-
porary debates concerning policing and diversity.
Methodology
This study is based on interviews with selected police officers and police prosecutors
involved in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes. Specifically, the data are based
on qualitative interviews conducted between November 2019 and February 2022 with
15 law enforcement representatives who had first-hand experience of hate crime policing.
Solhjell and Klatran 621
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