Racism and experiences of discrimination in police contacts – Prevalence, manifestations, and institutional handling

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Eva Groß; Professor Dr. Tobias Singelnstein
• Subject Area: Criminology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 520581523

Current empirical research on racism and discrimination regarding the German police is scarce, even though the issue’s significance can hardly be overestimated. This is true for the pervasive-ness of racist attitudes and discriminatory practices within the police, as well as for the experi-ences of those affected by them. This research project aims to collect comprehensive quantita-tive and qualitative data on experiences of racist discrimination by the police for the first time. We focus on three primary subject matters: frequency, pattern and forms of discrimination; percep-tion of police contacts by those affected and the individual consequences of such experiences; and the institutional and administrative handling of the topic and its relevance for police work. Existent research (having been done mostly in the 1990s) has almost exclusively dealt with atti-tudes among police officers. Such research is of immense importance – however, it cannot pro-vide a conclusive answer to the question of how often and under which circumstances racist discrimination actually occurs. On the one hand, such attitudes do not necessarily translate into discriminatory acts; on the other, discriminatory acts do not require an expressively racist atti-tude. Even though conducting new studies on racism and far-right extremism within the police is currently ongoing, this research, too, focuses mainly on the police perspective. The proposed project departs from this predominant approach and instead emphasizes the ex-periences of those affected, thereby examining the pervasiveness of discriminatory practices and their consequences. Main element is a quantitative, representative mixed-mode (primarily online, alternatively postal or telephone) survey among the 16 to 49 year old population from se-lected major cities, which also includes potential victims of discrimination by the police. Partici-pants are queried for their experiences with the police – including frequency, manifestations, and consequences of discrimination by the police. This is supplemented by 30 qualitative individual interviews with specific potentially affected groups and experts working in victim support. Addi-tionally, six focus groups will examine the police perspective: how often are police confronted with relevant situations, what do they consider to be racist or discriminatory, and how does the issue affect daily police work. Our initiative addresses a substantial research gap, since until now the experiences of those subjected to racist discrimination by the police in Germany have not been studied in a compre-hensive quantitative fashion. The expected findings will contribute significantly to the scientific discourse as well as to the discourse within the police. Furthermore, the results are likely to in-fluence public debate on the topic while providing initial answers to the question of how our socie-ty can deal with the issue of discrimination in its unique police-related manifestation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants