Police and MInorities

• In Event: Restorative Justice and Offender Management in a Global Context

Abstract

The presentation describes the proceedings and preliminary results of comparative European Union FP 7 Research (http://corepol.eu/) on the improvement of police-minority conflict resolution and interaction with respect to minority-police relations in Germany, Austria, and Hungary. The principal objective is to establish whether better police - minority relations can be achieved through means of a Restorative Justice (RJ) approach. Specific minority populations (Turks in Germany, Roma in Hungary, Sub-Saharan Africans in Austria) are examined in regard to the country’s contemporary history, social structure and criminal justice system and the involvement of police in RJ programs for minority populations is explored by means of interviews and field studies. Using an exploratory approach, the presentation will focus on findings on conflicts between German-Turks and German police as well as conflict resolution approaches. Results show, that there are several approaches to cope with conflicts on the side of the police, however, the majority of actions is of a preventive rather than of a reactive nature.

Author

• Joachim W. Kersten, German Police University