Kääriäinen, J. & Niemi, J. (2014). Distrust of the police in a Nordic Welfare State: Victimization, Discrimination, and Trust in the Police by Russian and Somali Minorities in Helsinki. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 12(1), 4-24

This study focuses on trust in the police among Russian and Somali minorities living in Finland. Three hypotheses are tested: First, we study whether the level of trust can be explained by experienced insecurity, fear, and victimization. Second, we analyze whether trust can be explained by immigrants’ personal experiences with police behavior. Third, we analyze the connection between trust and experienced discrimination. In this case, the reasons behind distrust are sought not from police activities alone but also from the position of the minorities in society and from individual experiences that reflect this position. The article is based on Finnish data from the European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey. According to our results, the Russians’ trust in the police can be explained primarily with the instrumental approach. In contrast, all 3 aforementioned approaches can be applied to the Somali minority