Countering Kidnapping in a Globalised World: a Critical Analysis of the Production, Transfer and Application of High Security Knowledge
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Countering Kidnapping in a Globalised World: a critical analysis of the production, transfer and application of high security knowledge Eleana Nikiforidou University of Essex Department of Sociology 2018 1 Για τους γονείς μου and fur Georg My first contact with criminology was by accident, back in 2010 when I was studying for my Bachelor in English Literature. Instead of going to the lecture room where introduction to literature was taking place, I opened the ‘wrong’ door, where Introduction to Crime, Law and Society was being held. Too embarrassed to leave, I decided to just sit there and wait for the lecture to end in hope of escaping with the rest of the students without being noticed. I loved how passionate the speaker was and how fascinating and thought-provoking the things discussed were. I never saw Cormac McCarthy, T. S. Eliott, or Albert Camus the same way again. During that lecture I made a mental note to myself to just finish my degree and then study Criminology. The person delivering that lecture, a few years later became my PhD supervisor, Professor Pete Fussey, and I became one of the class teachers for the criminology course I attended by accident. I would like to thank Pete for always being very positive and believing in this research more than I ever did. You are one of the most talented people I have ever met! I would like to thank all those people who talked to me and help me gather my data and write this thesis. I wish I could thank each and every one of you with your name and last name, but I am going to stick to anonymity and hope that you know who you are. Special thanks are given to the Cypriot team of negotiators who opened their training for me and without my participation this research would not have been the same. This journey wouldn’t be the same without my fellow PhD superheroes and friends: Can Zuo, Jérémie Voirol, Andreea Moldovan, Gülçimen Karakeçi, Daniela Boraschi, Shovita Adhikari, Sergio Lo Iacono, Alejandra Beatriz del Carmen Diaz de Leon Cardenas, Aiko Ikemura Amaral, Tilotama Pradhan, Tatiana Sánchez-Parra, Bill McClanahan. I will always remember our discussions, the evening and night coffees we had in 5A.309, crying and laughing, sharing experiences, giving supportive hugs before board meetings and exchanging ideas for our researches. My deep appreciation goes to my family, Ioanna Athanasiadou, Kyriakos Nikiforidis and Nikiforos Nikiforids for being un-boundlessly loving and unreasoningly supporting, I am definitely not as intelligent, talented, independent, or sassy as you think I am. Mom and Dad, thank you for all your sacrifices and for all your financial assistance throughout these 9 years of my education. The 18 year old me decided not to go to the Greek – and free– university to study Sociology because “that’s so boring, who wants to study that?” and you supported my decision to study Literature which ended up being Sociology/Criminology after all, without telling me off, so thank you for that. I am very sorry for all the times I have missed family gatherings, birthdays, funerals and weddings. I will try to make up for that in the future. Apart from dedicating this thesis to my parents, I also dedicate it to Georg Höhn who was next to me throughout the whole process of researching and writing, supporting me, reminding me that I need to get some fresh air, cheering me up, listening, discussing, drying my teary eyes more than I care to admit, and making me a better human being. I would like to thank Jon Coaffee and Anna Sergi for their useful input and the non- traumatising viva. 2 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review ..................................................................................... 15 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 15 2.2 Transnational Policing and Mobilities of Knowledge ................................ 16 2.3 Knowledge Transfer ............................................................................................. 25 2.4 Criticisms and Barriers Associated with the Knowledge Transfer ...... 30 2.5 The Governance of Security and the Private Industry ........................... 50 2.6 Summary and Conclusions ............................................................................... 54 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................... 58 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 58 3.2 Justification of Methodology ............................................................................. 59 3.3 Interviews ................................................................................................................ 65 3.4 Interviewees and Access ................................................................................... 68 3.5 Greece: Access Rejection, Before, During and After the Interviews 76 3.6 Cyprus: Access Acceptance, Before, During and After the Interviews ............................................................................................................................................. 82 3.7 United Kingdom: Before, During and After the Interviews .................. 90 3.8 Snowballing and its Issues ............................................................................... 93 3.9 Technical Considerations ................................................................................... 96 3.10 Issues of Recall ................................................................................................... 97 3.11 Interview Questions .......................................................................................... 98 3.12 Ethical Considerations ...................................................................................... 99 3.13 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 105 3.14 Photos from Ethnography in Cyprus ......................................................... 107 Chapter 4: The Dissemination, Reception and Application of the Counter- kidnap Knowledge .......................................................................................................... 117 4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 117 4.2 Mechanisms of knowledge transfer ............................................................. 120 4.3 The Barriers to Transferring Knowledge .................................................... 147 4.4 Summary ............................................................................................................... 169 Chapter 5: Police culture as a barrier of knowledge production and transfer ............................................................................................................................... 174 5.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 174 5.2 Intranational Trainings Criticism .................................................................. 175 5.3 „We are the best‟. Pride and Differentiation. ........................................... 183 5.4 Knowledge as Value ........................................................................................... 193 5.5 Knowledge as Power and the Secrecy Around it .................................... 203 5.6 Ignorance ............................................................................................................... 216 6.7 Sub-culture ........................................................................................................... 224 6.8 Summary ............................................................................................................... 226 3 Chapter 6: The limits of the state and the limits of knowledge ................. 230 6.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 230 6.2 The Persistence of Practice ............................................................................. 231 6.3 Limits of knowledge transfer: Can the States Protect their Citizens? ........................................................................................................................................... 245 6.4 Summary ............................................................................................................... 269 Chapter 7: Conclusions ............................................................................................... 272 7.1 Findings and Theoretical Advancements ................................................... 278 7.2 Methodological Advancement ........................................................................ 283 7.3 Future Research .................................................................................................. 285 Chapter 9: Bibliography ............................................................................................. 287 Interviewees/Used Interviews ................................................................................... 296 4 Abstract This thesis provides an investigation of the production, transfer and application of the knowledge associated with counter-kidnap. I examine the processes and contexts