| Title | ‘Eastern Criminals’ and Moral Panic: On Lithuanian Offenders in Danish Prison Facilities |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Ida Harboe Knudsen (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-13-12 |
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Publisher | Helsinki University Press |
| Published on | 2021-12-13 |
| Long abstract | This chapter analyses an increased number of arrests made on young Lithuanian burglars in Denmark. Following the newspaper hype and political reactions to the burglaries, a distorted picture of the ‘devils’ is produced, letting the public believe that the Lithuanian lawbreakers are particularly inhumane, ruthless and violent. Despite the police reporting that they never have had any violent incidents with Lithuanians, the public image prevails. This negative image ends up affecting their treatment and their rights in Danish detention centres, as prison guards act in accordance with the image, rather than in accordance with their own experience. This makes Lithuanians a particularly vulnerable group of inmates in Denmark. |
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Ida Harboe Knudsen is a social anthropologist, who received her PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale Germany. Her PhD focused on rural development in Lithuania after the EU-membership and was later published as a book with Anthem Press in 20212: New Lithuania in Old Hands. Following she has been involved in two postdoc projects, one financed by the Danish Research Council on informal working strategies in Lithuania and one financed by the Scandinavian Research Council for Criminology on Lithuanian inmates in Danish prison facilities.