Exploring Police Relations with the Immigrant Minority in the Context of Racism and Discrimination: A View From Turku, Finland

Abstract

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.