Objectives

The main objective of the COREPOL project will be

  1. To provide a basis for coordinated research activities in the area of police-minority relations using a comparative method of data analysis; the findings will further police science research in this crucial area of peace building as part of a democratic process within European societies.
  2. To address the practical issue of effective dissemination of research findings to improve police-minority interaction making use of the realm of police tertiary education and in-service staff training but also involving other agencies including NGOs.
  3. To serve as a principal network for a practice oriented dissemination of RJ strategies and peace building in the conflict zone of police and minorities. In the area of police education, this concerns CEPOL course curricula (e.g. TOPSCOP) and course material and curricula for similar influential target groups, also civil and public sector agencies.

Research question 1:

Which of the crime prevention and conflict resolution programs that are presently run in these three countries fall under a Restorative Justice paradigm? Who carries out the programs and what is the relationship to the respective criminal justice system? What are the outcomes? Can they be transferred from a culture-specific framework to an application in similar scenarios in the EU member states?

Research question 2:

Which of the already existing programs are based on the concept of RJ and aim at an improvement of police-minority relations?

Research question 3:

Within civil and public societal sectors how can conflict resolution based on the concept of RJ support a peace building process between state agencies and ethnic minority groupings? Does the wider area of “police oversight” provide tools to prevent “ethnic profiling” and unprofessional/ unethical use of police powers?