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It has become theoretical orthodoxy to point to and problematise a rise in surveillance. This article contributes to this debate. Following a still marginal yet budding number of studies that focus on the practical, quotidian level of surveillance systems, the article ethnographically examines the daily surveillance work of a number of Danish detectives. What is demonstrated is that whilst the Dan
Policing technologies are increasingly being developed to surveil and control people from afar. This is especially true in relation to cross-border crimes and other global threats where the necessity of monitoring such illegal flows is often advocated. In the literature, this is sometimes referred to as “policing at a distance,” signifying how the growth in different policing technologies is allow
This introduction seeks to outline a contemporary anthropological approach to crime and criminalization, an “anthropological criminology 2.0.” This anthropological criminology distances the subfield from its social Darwinist connotations and instead etches itself clearly onto a social and political anthropological tradition. In doing so, the introduction moves from Malinowski’s initial functionali
A common conclusion in criminology is that fears of terrorism are being (mis)used. The media have used them to market their products, politicians to promote themselves as protectors, and the police have profited through being granted increased powers and resources. Some scholars even argue that one outcome has been a growing militarization of the police. This article revisits this debate. It does
In police research, dominant explanations of why law enforcers harbour xenophobic attitudes are most often dressed in cultural or political rationalizations. Based on an ethnographic study of Danish police detectives and their noticeable negativity towards foreign suspects, this article offers an additional explanation of xenophobia. It demonstrates how resentments are spurred not only by cultural
This article discusses a key methodological difficulty in conducting qualitative research close to home: the issue of overthinking. Whereas MALINOWSKI's concern regarding imponderabilia, i.e., the risk of not thinking about the subtle phenomena of everyday life, has long haunted ethnographers and qualitative researchers, not least those working "at home," we highlight an issue of overponderabilia,
This article takes a critical look at 'the ontological turn'. Illuminating 'the turn's' theoretical point of departure, and clarifying its anthropological implications, the article argues that two key problems arise if the theory is to be taken at face value. It points, first of all, to the difficulty in studying 'radical alterity', in the manner proposed by the new understanding of ontology withi
This article takes a critical look at "the ontological turn". It argues that two key problems arise from the ontological turn: one methodical, the other political. First of all, the article points to the difficulties of studying the "radical Other" in ontological terms. If the supporters of the ontological turn are right in their claim that anthropology should not study multiple "world-views" but
This chapter proposes a novel ethnographic approach to global crime/criminology-an approach centered on the following four main points: (1) an attentiveness to how global dynamics afford criminal flows and transnational figurations; (2) a theoretical and methodological sensibility that moves beyond methodological nationalism; (3) a research design that follows criminal flows, rather than merely in
The police say brutal things. Research has documented how officers, when amongst themselves, talk about people in derogatory ways or openly fantasize about the use of excessive violence. In the literature, such backstage talk is in general analyzed in two ways: It is understood as proof of how the police really think – as evidencing police (im)morality or misconduct. Alternatively, scholars argue
This paper will present an ongoing survey of the production and distribution of commercial paper patterns for home sewing in Sweden, focusing on three different pattern magazines. Two of the magazines initially offered paper patterns until the 1960s when they changed to offering patterns cut out in fabric. The survey is the first part of the research project, titled, Reading Patterns: Women, Cloth
This chapter neither seeks to deny nor diminish the potential of ILP, nor the Danish Police’s ILP fervor for that matter. The practical ups (and downs) of ILP and similar policing methodologies have already been dissected in many of the publications cited earlier (see also, Egbert and Leese, 2021). Rather, this chapter takes a second look at the convictions that underpins ILP work and the Danish p
This article discusses a high-profile 2020 Danish murder case where a young man was brutally killed by two brothers on the small island of Bornholm—a case that became the center of attention not only in Denmark but internationally with the New York Times reporting on it, saying “A Black Man Was Tortured and Killed in Denmark. The Police Insist It Wasn’t about Race.” Building on my long-standing et
Suspicion is endemic to police ethnography. As research has demonstrated, the police repeatedly probe into the ethnographer’s intent and purposes. Is the ethnographer observing police work to ‘simply’ carry out research? Or is the ethnographer actually there to help develop the profession or, worse, to deviously disclose police secrets? Yet, doing police ethnography not only involves the ethnograp
When pleasurable aspects of police work are stripped away, research with Danish detectives shows that they are deprived of the opportunity to relate to suspects in more than criminal terms.
