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Ethnic Minorities, Culture Conflicts and Crime

NCJ Number
163118
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Dated: (1995) Pages: 19-36
Author(s)
H-J Albrecht
Date Published
1995
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Since the mid-1960's, debate among German criminologists has centered around the impact of cultural conflict on deviance and crime, and research in the area is restricted to individual-level explanations of behavior.
Abstract
The concept of culture conflict can be traced back to the mid-1960's when migrant workers became a subject of concern in German criminology and in social sciences at large. While the focus of criminological research was initially on national characteristics of foreign migrant workers, attention shifted to ethnic and racial immigrant minorities as the ethnic composition and motivations of immigrants changed during the 1970's and 1980's. In particular, new dimensions were added to the debate on ethnicity, migration, and crime by the process of European integration and the abolition of border controls between several European countries. An increasing number of police-recorded incidents of violence against ethnic minorities occurred after German reunification. Crime, fear of crime, safety, and justice became central issues in discussions of the relationship between majority groups and ethnic minorities. The author describes the contemporary German situation and suggests that shared values and collective morals no longer constitute the nucleus of stability in modern industrial societies; rather, they have been replaced by a material culture. When large proportions of the population are denied access to the material culture, the potential for a collective reaction increases. Violent behavior is then justified by the assertion that culture or national identities are being defended. Thus, collective reactions may lead to cultural conflicts between groups and go beyond individual violent acts and other types of deviance. 79 notes

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