The lecture was delivered at Norwegian Police Academy.

1. Cultural Diversity and Crime
Ashfaq Sadiq
Oslo, October 26, 2007
E-mail: ashfaq.sadiq@hotmail.com

2. Scheme of the lecture
 Understanding the difference
 Defining Culture
 Cultural diversity or multi-culturalism
 Cultural diversity and framing of laws
 Understanding or misunderstanding
diversity and law enforcement
 Happening of crime
 Question of witnessing/Evidence
 Some paradoxes

3. Understanding the difference
 Crime as Culture: Criminal behavior is,
more often than not, sub-cultural behavior
or collective behavior. In this sense,
criminal acts are organized by sub-cultural
groups. (Street gangs, drug culture,
prostitution)
 Culture as crime
 Inter-action and its nature

4. What is Culture?
 Accumulated habits
 Attitudes
 Beliefs of people that define for them their general
behavior
 Way of life
 Societal sub-systems (Caste systems/Tribes etc.)
 Total set of learned activities of people
 Language
 Geographic location

5. Defining Culture
Culture is shared values, traditions,
norms, customs, arts, history,
folklore, and institutions that a group
of people, who are unified by race,
ethnicity, language, nationality, or
religion, share.

6. Understanding Diversity
 Defining diversity/multiculturalism:
‘The recognition of cultural and ethnic diversity
within the demographics of a particular social
space.’

7. An example: Family in focus
 Family
 Large vs. Small families
 Family background (village vs. Cities. Educated and non-
educated. Religious vs. Non-religous ones)
 Rich vs. Poor families
 Individual (Education, Upbringing, Relationship)
 Concept of respect in family (Eye contact)
 Traditions as identity politics
 Civilized vs. Uncivilized
 Religion
 Caste system/Tribal systems.
 Gender roles (Female vs. Male)
 Child roles in family

8. Diversity and Law-making
 Why?
 How?
 Whom?

9. Culture and happening of crime
 Cultural norms and justification of
crime. (Vietnamese values, Zij Paj
Niam customs)
 Rage and law (Rodney King and
Reginald Denny cases)
 Inter-family competition (Positive and
Negative)

10. Diversity and Enforcement of Law
 ‘Rule of Law’
 ‘Not knowing the law does not mean
law is not applicable’
 Enforcement of law and cultural
sensitivity

11. Culture and Evidence
 Individual and Evidence
1. Fabrication
2. Personal/group/religious interest
3. Fears (Social Isolation, Community interest)
4. Proud factor (Men vs. women)
 Cultural evidence is admissible

12. Does system support?
 Law enforcing agencies and their
capacity.
 Women being perceived weak.
 System being perceived as an enemy.

13. Paradoxes
 Absurd but nevertheless true.
 If all the prisoners are turned completely loose we might
not notice much increase in crime. The reason being that
vast majority of criminals are already at large.
 Most crimes are not reported, and of those reported only
a very small percentage are solved.
 The vast majority has never witnessed a violent crime,
let alone been the victim of one.
 Fear of crime increases while crime itself decreases.

14. Thank You