Contents Preface The Dynamics of Racist Violence and Harassment among Youth in Finland: Victims, Perpetrators, and Anti-racist Actions Timo Virtanen Racially Motivated Violence or Just a Common Disturbance? Interpreting the Underlying Meaning of Events in a Small Community in Sweden Ulla Rantakeisu, Sabina Almgren and Bengt Starrin Racist Violence and Harassment in Norway Henrik Lunde Download as MSWord document The Finnish Youth Research Society				Preface The phenomenon of violence aimed at ethnic minorities and immigrants has become increasingly evident throughout Europe during the 1990s. The northern parts of Europe seem to be no exception to this trend. Any discussion of racist violence needs to be based on a thorough understanding of the nature of the problem. The present volume raises several important questions. Who are the victims and perpetrators of racist violence? How may the media be involved? Are the crimes reported to the police properly handled? What do the intervening bodies, if anything, try to do about it? The Nordic countries under study, which were previously relatively ethnically homogenous, have in the last two decades or so become increasingly multiethnic. In particular, refugees from the Third World have changed everyday life to a colourful experience throughout the Nordic countries. Nevertheless, the proportion of residents with a foreign background among the total population varies a lot in the countries under study, from 1.6 % in Finland to 10 % in Sweden, the first figure being the lowest in Europe. On the other hand, while Sweden with a liberal immigration policy has the highest immigrant population, in Finland the number of immigrants has started to rise dramatically during the 90s. Racist violence represents violence in which the victim is chosen according to ethnic, religious or national origin considerations, when the victim believes that the perpetrator was acting on racial grounds and/or there was evidence of racism (Commission for Racial Equality 1987). Thus, racist violence may take many forms, ranging from relatively rare but serious incidents of murder and serious assaults to the more frequent incidents of racial abuse and threatening behavior (Virdee 1995). Examples of racist violence and harassment may include acts such as physical assault, damage to property, racist or other offensive graffiti, arson, and verbal abuse. The phenomenon of racist violence is affected by a variety of responses from society and its actors such as institutions, the media, the general public, racists and anti-racists, and researchers. In recent years, there has been a significant change towards a greater public awareness concerning racist violence, with policies to prevent and combat such tendencies, both nationally and European-wide. In the aftermath of European actions such as the European Year Against Racism, national agencies have been engaged in placing the question of racism on the political agenda, and in strengthening the fight against racism. Thus, local anti-racist actions may be understood as a way of sharing the concern of European institutions and organizations, consisting both of official agencies and NGOs. The articles in the present volume are based on a research project that was set up to: (a) assess the extent of the problem of racist violence among youths in Sweden, Finland, and Norway; (b) assess the possible background to the issue of racist violence with reference to the involvement of extremist groups; (c) evaluate attempts by governmental agencies, e.g., the police and the courts, community and anti-racist groups, to take measures to improve the situation. Analyses of the situation in each country are presented with a set of factors which would account for the extent of racist violence. However, the factors that are identified are not likely to be significant in one country only, and may be regarded as the kinds of factors which preventive efforts may address. First, studies of marginalised segments of society have provided growing evidence of racist violence and harassment suffered by ethnic minorities and immigrants during the 90s. Drawing upon existing studies on racist violence, the article by Timo Virtanen traces the origins and dynamics of racist violence. Accordingly, some forms of violence may be patterned rather than random, and may become entrenched in some localities. In particular, skinheads have turned out to be an arrogant source of racist violence, chasing victims and assaulting them in an organized manner. However, terrorist-type acts such as shootings, bombings and arson have been a rare occurrence in Finland as compared to racist incidents in the street. Other issues dealt with include racist violence in the history of Finland, political dimensions of racist violence, and anti-racist actions by governmental agencies and youth groups. Despite the fact that awareness of racist violence has grown markedly on the part of the members of majority groups and of official agencies of different kinds in Finland, in-depth studies on victims and perpetrators of violence are needed to find out the roots and social constructions of ethnic conflict Second, media reports may be an important source on racist incidents and developments. In many cases, media reports have lifted up the issue of racism on the public agenda, producing attempts by different agencies to improve the situation. However, as discussed by Ulla Rantakeisu, Sabina Almgren and Bengt Starrin in the present volume, media scrutiny, in particular, seems to meet pitfalls with respect to source criticism. The study by Rantakeisu and her co-workers traces the origins of racist events in a small locality in Värmland in west-Central Sweden during Easter in April 1995. According to them, a paradoxical dynamic may be found in the interpretive process of the public authorities with respect to the Easter events, since racist motives were officially rejected. The results of the study illuminate the fact that, during the last two decades, Swedish racist movements have increased their activities after having had a fairly anonymous existence after WW II. Racist groups and activists have become more visible, among other things, through the spread of white power music and other propaganda. During the 90s, violent attacks have been carried out both by members of youth gangs without any express political ideology and by more organized far-right extremist groups. Third, the database collected by the Anti-racist Center, Oslo, sheds light on the trends of racist violence in Norway. As highlighted by Henrik Lunde, the climate of attitudes towards immigrants and the far right scene have dramatically changed over the past ten years. According to his report, the far right organizations in Norway are today more organised and better financed than before. On the other hand, organised militant neo-Nazis are very small in number, consisting of a few hundred males under 30. However, racist propaganda has crept into mainstream politics and politicians may today express statements that a few years ago only avowed racists would express. According to the database, the perpetrators of racist violence have been to a great extent young men who have carried out violent acts as a gang. In only a few cases have the perpetrators been members of a racist or Nazi organisation. Up until recent years, law enforcement authorities in Norway have been reluctant to use the expression 'racist' in cases of violence aimed at immigrants and refugees. Thus, there are reasons to believe that claims of racial discrimination on the part of the police and other officials may reflect at least in part both inadequate police training and practices and dubious rules and routines, although there are signs that the state is starting to acknowledge the racist element in violent incidents. The work for this volume was financed by the European Commission (Youth for Europe). Furthermore, the authors wish to express their gratitude to the Finnish Youth Research Society for support in editing and publishing the book in the electronic version.