! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 1/2018!SSKH!NOTAT!–!SSKH!REPORTS!AND!DISCUSSION!PAPERS! THE STOPPED – ETHNIC PROFILING IN FINLAND ! ! Suvi! Keskinen,! Aminkeng! Atabong! Alemanji,! Markus! Himanen,! Antti! Kivijärvi,! Uyi! Osazee,! Nirosha! Pöyhölä! and!Venla!Rousku!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Cover!photo:!Laura!Böök! ! ! ! SSKH!Notat!1/2018! The!Stopped!–!Ethnic!Profiling!in!Finland! Suvi!Keskinen,!Aminkeng!Atabong!Alemanji,!Markus!Himanen,!Antti!Kivijärvi,!Uyi!Osazee,! Nirosha!Pöyhölä!and!Venla!Rousku! Swedish!School!of!Social!Science,!University!of!Helsinki,!2018!Helsinki! ISBN!978W951W51W1713W7!(PDF)! ISSNWL!1457W1250! ISSN!1798W6966!(Online)! https://www.helsinki.fi/sv/svenskaWsocialWochW kommunalhogskolan/samarbete/publikationsserier/notat ! SSKH Notat Svenska social- och kommunalhögskolan vid Helsingfors universitet 1/2018 ! ! Summary This research examined ethnic profiling in Finland with a focus on its prevalence, forms and interpretations of (1) people who experienced profiling and (2) the police. The study also analysed the practices and logics that can lead to ethnic profiling. The research sought to produce knowledge of the ethnicised, racialised, gendered and age-based distinctions and practices related to profiling. Moreover, it examined the effects of ethnic profiling of those targeted by it and the strategies they use in and after situations they experienced as ethnic profiling. The study made use of several kinds of quantitative and qualitative methods and data: individual and focus group interviews, participatory observation, and survey questionnaires. Altogether 185 persons were interviewed. 145 belonged to ethnicised/racialised minorities and were interviewed about their experiences of ethnic profiling. Moreover, 26 police officers and 14 other experts were interviewed. The interviews were conducted in the Helsinki metropolitan area and Turku between 2015 and 2017. The survey data (N=362) included young adult respondents of 15–29 years from the Finnish majority population and four ethnic minority groups (Russian, Kurdish, Arabic and Somali speakers). This research has shown that those belonging to racialised minorities are under surveillance by several actors in many kinds of urban spaces. Stops and experiences of ethnic profiling are part of their lives through both personal incidents and in the stories they hear about other minority persons’ encounters with public and private security personnel. Sites where stops and situations of ethnic profiling took place were multiple, and among those mentioned were: streets and parks, railway and metro stations, cars, shops and shopping centres, restaurants and bars, airports and harbours. In addition to the police, the interviewees also mentioned security guards, border guards, customs officers, salespersons and bouncers as actors who stopped or followed them only or predominantly on the basis of their ethnic or racial backgrounds. Experiences of being stopped predominantly on the basis of their ethnicity or race affect many everyday life environments: they can interrupt journeys to school or work, or make ordinary shopping situations uncomfortable. They make the persons stopped aware of the fact that they are perceived of as “others”– those not belonging to the country where they live and perhaps were also born – and in some cases, as those expected to commit criminal acts because of their ethnic or racial backgrounds. This study has also shown that responses to and interpretations of stops differ. While some informants pointed out that they did not care about being stopped for identity control or that they were treated respectfully during the encounter, most of the interviewed persons told that the stops and searches were unpleasant, annoying or humiliating experiences. Their responses ranged from the normalisation of experiences, which occurred on a constant basis and were not expected to change in the near future, to resistance and claiming one’s rights as individuals or racialised minorities. Negative encounters with the police, and experiences unjust treatment by the very same authorities that should guarantee the safety of the persons stopped, are likely to reduce the willingness of racialised ! minority persons to turn to the police when help is needed and deter their interest to inform the police about crimes. Intersections of ethnicity, race, gender, age and class proved to be central elements for understanding ethnic profiling in both qualitative and quantitative data sets. The study indicated that young men belonging to racialised minorities are predominantly targeted by ethnic profiling practices, especially in spaces such as streets, other outdoor locations, traffic hubs and public transports. They are the main targets of the police, and to some extent security guards’, actions. Women and older persons are also stopped in these spaces, but for these groups, experiences of ethnic profiling occur more often in shops, shopping centres and border control points and involve security guards, shop assistants, customs officers and the police. Police stops while driving are also common, especially for the Roma minority and black men. The study found that the police practices that bear the risk of ethnic profiling are related to (1) the control of foreign nationals, also known as internal immigration control, (2) suspicion and search related to crimes, (3) public order policing and (4) traffic stops. The risks of ethnic profiling in relation to the control of foreign nationals can be attributed to several reasons. The Finnish Alien’s Act does not give a sufficient criterion for reasonable suspicion, and thus the police are not required to specify the grounds for their checks. The subsequent wide discretionary power leads police to use their intuition or “gut feeling”, discussed as tacit knowledge in the research, to identify targets of control. Rather than information that would clearly be related to a possible immigration law offence of the person who is stopped, this approach creates a problematic possibility for selections that are made on the basis of generalised criteria and racialised expectations. While the police state that they use language skills to inquire into the “foreignness” of the persons they consider stopping, this does exclude the possibility that the original reason for deciding to stop somebody was based on racialised grounds. The interviews with the police support the information provided by the interviews with stopped persons which show that the initial reason for the approach is based on ethnic or racial criteria, after which the question of language is raised. The practices of police can often include a direct, or more commonly an indirect, reference to seek for “non-Finnish looking persons”, i.e. non-white persons. This study also reflected the inadequacy of registering the grounds for stops and ID-checks, especially in cases in which the stopped person was found to be a Finnish citizen or in possession of a valid residence permit. Practices that only or predominantly register stops in which the reason for an ID-check or other police action was grounded omit information about the whole phenomenon and hinder investigation on (the risks of) ethnic profiling. The survey indicated that acts of control by various security authorities might be selective and partly based on ethnicity. The control acts of security guards in particular seem to include explicit ethnic profiling. Young respondents of Somalian backgrounds reported having been the target of security guards acts of control nearly ten times, and young persons with Middle Eastern backgrounds nearly six times, as often as the Finnish majority youth, without an apparent reason. The same does not fully apply to the police. It seems however, that police control is an influential topic amongst some racialised minorities, since relatively many of them report knowing people who have been stopped by the police. Moreover, personal ! experiences of being stopped as well as the knowledge of other people being stopped are associated with different aspects of societal trust and feelings of belonging. Targeted and unjust control acts by various security authorities may thus hamper the level of trust towards Finnish society as well as the willingness to contribute to it. Both the interviews and the survey analysis point toward a need for information regarding the rights of those stopped and the complaint mechanisms related to experiences of ethnic profiling. A majority of the respondents in the survey requested such information and were not sure of their options had they wished to submit a complaint. Despite the many experiences of ethnic profiling they described, none of the interviewed persons reported filing a complaint. In addition to research, The Stopped – Spaces, Meanings and Practices of Ethnic Profiling -project has also produced media and artistic contents. Keywords: ethnic profiling, racial profiling, police, private security sector, border control, customs, surveillance in shops, policing ! CONTENTS Acknowledgement 1! 1. Introduction 1! 1.1. Background 1! 1.2. Research Questions 3! 1.3. Theoretical Framework 3! 1.4. What is Ethnic Profiling? 5! 1.5. Structure of the Report 7! 2. Previous Research on Ethnic Profiling 8! 2.1. International Research on Ethnic and Racial Profiling 8! 2.2. Research on the Finnish Context 13! 3. Legislation and Regulations Concerning Ethnic Profiling 15! 3.1. International Legal Framework on Ethnic Profiling 15! 3.2. The Legal