ETHNIC POLICE HUMOR AS ETHNIC BOUNDARY-MAKING IN THE SWEDISH POLICE FORCE

Authors

Sara Uhnoo, University of Gothenburg

Abstract

"All professions display their own specific humor shaped by the occupational culture, type of work, and working conditions defining them. In this article, the role of ethnic jokes and banter in police humor, including their functions and consequences, are investigated drawing upon interviews with Swedish police employees from an ethnic minority background. A typology is developed containing six distinct types of ethnic police humor. Based on it, some of the ways in which ethnic boundary-making occurs and operates within the Swedish police force are analyzed. The consequences of ethnic humor for police work both internally within the police organization and externally, in the daily work of police officers out on the street, are examined. Particular attention is paid to the police's interactions with the public and, more in general, to the role of ethnic police humor in contributing to the production and reproduction of an ethnified social order."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Uhnoo, Sara (2019) "ETHNIC POLICE HUMOR AS ETHNIC BOUNDARY-MAKING IN THE SWEDISH POLICE FORCE," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 7: No. 3, Article 3.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol7/iss3/3