Pleasures of policing: An additional analysis of xenophobia

In police research, dominant explanations of why law enforcers harbour xenophobic attitudes are most often dressed in cultural or political rationalizations. Based on an ethnographic study of Danish police detectives and their noticeable negativity towards foreign suspects, this article offers an ad...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sausdal, David (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: Theoretical criminology
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Description
Summary:In police research, dominant explanations of why law enforcers harbour xenophobic attitudes are most often dressed in cultural or political rationalizations. Based on an ethnographic study of Danish police detectives and their noticeable negativity towards foreign suspects, this article offers an additional explanation of xenophobia. It demonstrates how resentments are spurred not only by cultural prejudice or politics but also by the ways in which foreigners complicate quite ordinary yet, from a police perspective, valued work practices. Following this ethnographic observation, the article ultimately constitutes a call for a better grounding of our criminological theories in the wider context of the workday situations and sensibilities of law enforcement.
ISSN:1461-7439
DOI:10.1177/1362480617707947