06/29/2024 – 5:09
The word “clan” awakens fear in many in the country. From a statistical point of view, this is a marginal phenomenon. Still, dangerous clichés persist. Large Arab, Turkish and Kurdish families have been the focus of Mahmoud Jaraba’s research since 2015. To refer to them, a controversial term has become established in both the German press and police: “clan.” . According to an analysis by the researcher at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg for the Integration Social Communication Service, it is almost always associated with three concepts: criminality, parallel society and violence.
An example of this are two spectacular criminal cases of museum thefts: of the Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden, in 2019, and of an especially valuable gold coin from the Bode Museum, in Berlin, in 2017. “These thefts required a professional criminal organization and, from criminological point of view, classified as ‘family-based crime’”, states the report. This form of crime is characterized by family members who are well connected at home and abroad.
Clan members under pressure
If the police capture one of the family members, they can be replaced by others. “They are usually persuaded to cooperate, either voluntarily or through pressure,” Jaraba writes. His insights come from conversations with those involved and from interviews with experts working in the police or social sector.
For the political scientist, however, the term “clan” is problematic, as extended families are not homogeneous groups. He argues that such family relationships, originally close, have become more differentiated over the decades: “Today, most family members do not know each other.”
Their research indicates that family-based crime is organized by some nuclear families. “There are, therefore, no ‘clan leaders’ who organize, lead and direct criminal activities and strategies.”
Police definition: “Ethnically isolated subcultures”
For the police, clans are “ethnically isolated subcultures,” a definition that Jaraba considers misleading. He admits that parts of these extended families do indeed live in a kind of subculture, with respect to certain social and cultural aspects. But in places where crime is reported, there is no such thing as isolation.
Through his interviews, the researcher found that the vast majority of members of these families reject crime and advocate effective crime control. “However, Muslims and members of large families should not be placed under general suspicion.”
Searches in hookah bars and barber shops
Jaraba’s study focused on the states of Berlin, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, where the fight against “clan crime” was consolidated as a central theme. Actions include regular searches of people and businesses, as well as raids, especially in shisha bars or barbershops. With this tactic, known as the “policy of a thousand pinpricks”, the police want to visibly increase the pressure on the environment.
Reports on the development of “clan crimes” are published every year in the three federal states. In them, the measures taken by the police are explicitly justified by the “subjective sense of security” of the population. When asked by the platform Mediendienst Integration, which commissioned the analysis on clans from Mahmoud Jaraba, the Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia explained:
“In the past, criminal members of large families of Turkish-Arab origin have increasingly succeeded in intimidating the population, claiming certain regional areas for themselves, through aggressive behaviour, disturbances and crimes, often starting from larger and closed groups.”
Statistics: Clan crimes below 1%
This subjective perception contrasts with official figures: according to crime statistics, the proportion of crimes allegedly committed by clans in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony is between 0.17% and 0.76% of all crimes. registered.
For criminologist Daniela Hunold, from the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR), the strategy adopted by German politicians and police is questionable: “Taking ethnic groups as a basis is not only problematic from a legal point of view, but also ineffective from a legal point of view. police point of view.”
Hunold worked at the Bremen State Criminal Investigation Department from 2019 to 2022, where she has already dealt with the phenomenon of clan crime. She questions the view that a specific police approach is necessary to combat this form of crime: “From a police and criminological point of view, that is something I cannot confirm.”
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