The word “clan” awakens fear in many in the country. From a statistical point of view this is a marginal phenomenon. Yet dangerous clichés persist. Large Arab, Turkish and Kurdish families have been the focus of Mahmoud Jaraba’s research since 2015. To refer to them, both in the press and in the German police a controversial term has been used: “clan”. According to an analysis by the researcher at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg for the Social Communication Service for Integration, it is almost always associated with three concepts: crime, parallel society and violence.
Two spectacular criminal cases of museum thefts are examples of this: the theft of the Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden in 2019 and that of a particularly valuable gold coin from the Bode Museum in Berlin in 2017. “These thefts required a professional criminal organization and are criminologically classified as ‘family crime,'” the report states. This form of crime is characterized by well-connected family members at home and abroad.
Clan members under pressure
If the police capture one of the family members, he or she may be replaced by others. “In general, they are convinced to cooperate, either voluntarily or because they have been pressured,” writes Jaraba. Their insights come from conversations with stakeholders and interviews with experts working in the police or social sector.
For the political scientist, however, the term “clan” is problematic, since extended families are not homogeneous groups. He argues that such originally close family relationships have become more differentiated over the decades: “Today, most family members do not know each other.”
Their research indicates that family crime is organized by some family units. “There are, therefore, no ‘clan leaders’ who organise, guide 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, in fact, live in a sort of subculture, regarding certain social and cultural aspects. But in places where crime occurs we cannot speak of isolation.
Through his interviews, the researcher found that the vast majority of members of these families reject crime and advocate an effective fight against crime. “However, Muslims and members of large families should not be subject to widespread suspicion.”
Searches in hookah bars and hair salons
Jaraba’s study focused on the states of Berlin, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, where the fight against “clan crime” has become a central issue. The actions include regular searches of people and businesses, as well as raids, especially on shisha bars or hairdressers. With this tactic, known as the “policy of a thousand dots”, 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 adopted by the police are explicitly justified by the “subjective sense of security” of the population. Questioned by the Mediendienst Integration platform, which commissioned the clan analysis from Mahmoud Jaraba, the Interior Secretariat 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 behavior, disturbances of order and crimes, often starting from larger and more closed groups.”
Statistics: Clan crimes less than 1%
This subjective perception contrasts with official data: According to crime statistics, the percentage of alleged crimes committed by clans in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony is between 0.17% and 0.76% of all recorded crimes.
For criminologist Daniela Hunold, of 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 legal point of view”. a legal point of view.” police point of view.”
Hunold worked at the Bremen State Criminal Department from 2019 to 2022, already dealing with the phenomenon of clandestine crime. He questions the idea that a specific police approach is needed to combat this form of crime: “From a policing and criminological point of view, that’s something I can’t confirm.”
Source: Terra
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