Police Aid: Unpacking the dynamics of police exports in development aid

• In Event: Atrocity Crimes: New Challenges and New Approaches of Transitional Justice (ECACTJ)

Abstract

This article engages with criminological literature departing from the penal state (Garland, 2013), operating at the borders (Barker, 2017b; Aas & Gundhus, 2014), and traveling from one place to another, especially to the Global South (Lohne, 2020). Garland (2013, p. 22) states that penal policy is often “located within the problem environment in which it operates.” Brisson-Boivin and O’Connor (2013, p. 516) discuss ‘penal aid’, connecting flawed penality with global security and attempting to solve these problems through a particular kind of security-development penology. Sending police officers to other countries, such as through UN peace operations, gained momentum after the collapse of the Soviet Union (Blaustein, 2015). This paper explores how the export of police officers and police training in recipient countries is considered aid, and how these practices look from a Global North position in Scandinavia. This analysis is based on a large dataset of development aid from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark between 1990-2021 that directly mention or relate to crime or the criminal justice system.

Authors

• Kjersti Lohne, University of Oslo

• Randi Solhjell, University of Oslo