Editorial

Welcome to the first issue of Nordisk Politiforskning in 2018! The articles in this issue cover many different topics, from the instrumental to the symbolic. Thus, the issue demonstrates the diversity of Nordic Police research.

Mia Hartmann, Nadja Hestehave, Lotte Høgh, and Kira Rønn presents an argument in favour of “embedded police research”. There has been some debate in the Nordic countries regarding the role of researchers vis-à-vis the police. Some scholars find that researchers should maintain a distance in order to maintain a critical stance towards their subject – otherwise police research may be reduced to a purely instrumental endeavor concerned only with “what works”. The authors of the present article, however, argue the opposite: researchers already working in or with the police stand a better chance of doing research that will be both critical and constructive. The main reasons are, first, that researchers embedded in the police organization will have privileged access to information, and second, that it will be easier for such researchers to put their results to use in and with the police.

In his paper, Lars Mikkelsen deals with a very important issue in the education of police officers: what motivates new police recruits? Do motivations change during the education period? Based on a number of focus group interviews with newly admitted recruits as well as with recruits at the end of their training, the article shows that, among the newly admitted, concrete and action-packed work is preferred. While the interest in action can also be found among those who are in their final days of education, they also demonstrate an interest in more analytical, “abstract” work: i.e. complex investigations demanding time

Goran Basic describes how the idea of “the criminal Russian” is created and maintained among police and other border agents in the Baltic region. Basic analyses the idea of the Russian threat in the forms of criminals, spies or outright invasion as an example of a moral panic, and he shows how such images help strengthen border agents’ image of themselves as protectors of the existing normative order.

Martin Boldt describes an initial study of structured crime scene reports. In a study of burglary reporting, he compares traditional, text-based reports with the structured reports and finds that structured reporting is superior in two ways: the structured reports take less time to fill out and they contain more information than the traditional reports. Thus, the study suggests that the use of structured crime reporting will increase police efficiency.

The next issue of Nordisk Politiforskning (#2, 2018) will be dedicated to a discussion about methods in police research, while #1, 2019 will again be open to all kinds of papers concerning the police. The editors would like to thank the many authors who submit papers to us – it is a pleasure that there is such great interest in the journal.