Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T16:59:32.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethnic profiling as negotiating: Traffic law enforcement in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Leisan Khalioullina
Leisan Khalioullina*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Political and Social Sciences, Institute of Economics, Management and Law, 42 Moskovskaia str., 420100 Kazan, Russian Federation
*
∗ Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Complex and ambiguous relations between state officials and civilians in Russia in general, and in Tatarstan in particular, are best reflected by daily communications between traffic police officers and motorists and pedestrians. These short interactions bring up issues of violence and minority discrimination, bribing, and dominant political values. In this paper based on my field research, I explore the practice of ethnic profiling employed by police officers and analyze its effects. I focus on identity construction and its “quality measurement.” Unlike a standardized system of weights or “brute facts,” law enforcement involves the creation of identities, including selective and sanctioned usage of, and manipulation by, ethnic traits. I conclude that ethnic profiling exists in Tatarstan, but stems not from nationalist inspirations of the controlling agents, but rather as an effect of rational economic decision-making. I also argue that despite its haphazard nature, ethnic minorities in Tatarstan are able to interact with controlling agencies more effectively than the majority, partially due to their alleged ability to employ collective action and partially because of the specific ethnic policy of the Republic.

Keywords

Tatarstanethnic profilingtraffic policesocial factlaw enforcement
Type
Special Section: Tatarstan: adjusting to life in Putin's Russia
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 55 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmed, Patricia, Feliciano, Cynthia, and Emigh, R. J. 2007. “Internal and External Ethnic Assessments in Eastern Europe.” Social Forces 86 (1): 231–255.Google Scholar
Barnum, Christopher, and Perfetti, R. L. 2010. “Race-Sensitive Choices by Police Officers in Traffic Stop Encounters.” Police Quarterly 13: 180–208.Google Scholar
De Certeau, Michel. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
De Schutter, Olivier, and Ringelheim, Julie. 2008. “Ethnic Profiling: A Rising Challenge for European Human Rights Law.” Modern Law Review 71 (3): 358–384.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 2007. Explaining Social Behavior: More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilliard-Matthews, Stacia, Kowalski, B. R., and Lundman, R. J. 2008. “Officer Race and Citizen-Reported Traffic Ticket Decisions by Police in 1999 and 2002.” Police Quarterly 11 (2): 202–219.Google Scholar
Gladarev, Boris, and Tsinman, Zhanna. 2010. “Militsionery i Gastarbaitery: Ulichnye Praktiki Pereraspredeleniia Resursov.” Sotsiologicheskii zhurnal 1: 37–62.Google Scholar
Haley, John. 1991. Authority Without Power: Law and the Japanese Paradox. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, G. E., Vito, G. F., and Grossi, E. L. 2011. “The Impact of Race on the Police Decision to Search During a Traffic Stop: A Focal Concerns Theory Perspective.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 28 (2): 166–183.Google Scholar
Hurwitz, Jon, and Peffley, Mark. 2010. “And Justice for Some: Race, Crime, and Punishment in the US Criminal Justice System.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 43 (2): 457–479.Google Scholar
Ioimo, Ralph, Tears, R. S., Meadows, L. A., Becton, J. B., and Charles, M. T. 2007. “The Police View of Bias-based Policing.” Police Quarterly 10 (3): 270–287.Google Scholar
Khodzhaeva, Ekaterina. 2010. “Pod Nedremliuschim Okom: Trudovye Migranty i Militsiia v Kazani.” Neprikosnovennyii zapas 3 (71). http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2010/3/ho18-pr.html Google Scholar
Kripke, Saul. 1982. Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language: An Elementary Exposition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lamberth, John. 2010. “Driving While Black: A Statistician Proves that Prejudice Still Rules the Road.” In Race, Ethnicity and Policing: New and Essential Readings, edited by Rice, S. K. and White, M. D., 32–36. New York, NY: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Lange, Bettina. 2002. “What Does Law Know? - Prescribing and Describing the Social World in the Enforcement of Legal Rules.” International Journal of the Sociology of Law 30 (2): 131–150.Google Scholar
Liederbach, John, Trulson, C. R., Fritsch, E. J., Caeti, T. J., and Taylor, R. W. 2007. “Racial Profiling and the Political Demand for Data: A Pilot Study Designed to Improve Methodologies in Texas.” Criminal Justice Review 32 (2): 101–120.Google Scholar
Lundman, R. J. 2012. “Race and Ethnicity Missingness in the Traffic Stop Data Reported by 308 Massachusetts Police Agencies.” Race and Justice 2 (1): 42–65.Google Scholar
Malena, Carmen, and Finn Heinrich, Volkhar. 2007. “Can We Measure Civil Society? A Proposed Methodology for International Comparative Research.” Development in Practice 17 (3): 338–352.Google Scholar
Miller, Kirk. 2007. “Racial Profiling and Postmodern Society: Police Responsiveness, Image Maintenance, and the Left Flank of Police Legitimacy.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 23 (3): 248–262.Google Scholar
Miller, Joel, Gounev, Philip, Pap, A. L., Wagman, Dani, Balogi, Anna, Bezlov, Tihomir, Simonovits, Boris, and Vargha, Lili. 2008. “Racism and Police Stops: Adapting US and British Debates to Continental Europe.” European Journal of Criminology 5: 161–191.Google Scholar
Novak, K. J. 2004. “Disparity and Racial Profiling in Traffic Enforcement.” Police Quarterly 7: 65–96.Google Scholar
Novak, K. J., and Chamlin, M. B. 2012. “Racial Threat, Suspicion, and Police Behavior: The Impact of Race and Place in Traffic Enforcement.” Crime & Delinquency 58 (2): 275–300.Google Scholar
Rice, S. K., Reitzel, J. D., and Piquero, A. R. 2005. “Shades of Brown: Perceptions of Racial Profiling and the Intra-ethnic Differential.” Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice 3: 47–70.Google Scholar
Rojek, Jeff, Rosenfeld, Richard, and Decker, Scott. 2004. “The Influence of Driver's Race on Traffic Stops in Missouri.” Police Quarterly 7: 126–147.Google Scholar
Schafer, J. A., Carter, D. L., Katz-Bannister, A. J., and Wells, W. M. 2006. “Decision Making in Traffic Stop Encounters: A Multivariate Analysis of Police Behavior.” Police Quarterly 9 (2): 184–209.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. 1995a. The Construction of Social Reality. New York, NY: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. 1995b. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. New York, NY: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Skolnick, Jerome. 2010. “A Sketch of the Policeman's Working Personality.” In Race, Ethnicity and Policing: New and Essential Readings, edited by Rice, S. K. and White, M. D., 15–32. New York, NY: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Tillyer, Rob, and Engel, R. S. 2013. “The Impact of Drivers’ Race, Gender, and Age During Traffic Stops Assessing Interaction Terms and the Social Conditioning Model.” Crime & Delinquency 59 (3): 369–395.Google Scholar
Tillyer, Rob, Klahm IV, C. F., and Engel, R. S. 2011. “The Discretion to Search: A Multilevel Examination of Driver Demographics and Officer Characteristics.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 28 (2): 184–205.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, John. 1978. “The Asshole.” In Policing: A View from the Street, edited by Manning, Peter K. and Van Maanen, John, 221–238. Santa Monica: Goodyear.Google Scholar
Voronkov, Viktor, Gladarev, Boris, and Sagitova, Lilia, eds. 2011. Militsiia i Etnicheskie Migrantyi: Praktiki Vzaimodeistviia. Sankt-Peterburg: Aleteiia.Google Scholar