| 1. |
- Atak, Kıvanç
(författare)
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Beyond the western crime drop : Violence, property offences, and the state in Turkey 1990–2016
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law Crime and Justice. - : Elsevier BV. - 1756-0616 .- 1876-763X. ; 60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Temporal changes in crime have long attracted scholarly attention. Much research on the recent trajectory of crime rates is dominated by the crime drop thesis in western democracies, with only little input from other societal contexts. The present work offers the first explorative inquiry into a subset violent and property crimes in Turkey over the last quarter-century. Data collected from judicial records, police reports on offences, prison and causes of death statistics are read primarily through the lens of state response to crime, with the notable exception of homicide. Results reveal partial evidence for a declining behavioral trend in the case of homicide – a finding that furthers current debates about the crime drop thesis. Rather mixed evidence is documented for robbery, theft and assault, but a common marked increase in the number of offences, suspects and convicts received into prison. Implications are discussed by reference to the emergent punitive turn in the Turkish penal regime, and enhanced police capacity to control crime.
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| 2. |
- Atak, Kıvanç, 1983-
(författare)
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Encouraging coercive control: militarisation and classical crowd theory in Turkish protest policing
- 2015
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Ingår i: Policing & society. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1043-9463 .- 1477-2728. ; 27:7, s. 693-711
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The coercive character of protest policing is a tangible problem in Turkey. Since the resurgence of contentious politics from the late 1980s, major issues in protest policing have been officially recognised, and eventually addressed by public authorities with an agenda of reform. However, the excessive use of force by the police, even in the face of predominantly peaceful protests, lingered on well into the past decade, leaving behind dozens of dead citizens and thousands injured. In this article, I consult two main concepts, militarisation and police knowledge, to understand the institutional factors that underpin the repressive policing practices in Turkey. Among the different aspects of militarisation, I am particularly interested in the proliferation and adoption of less-lethal weapons in the strategies of protest control, while by police knowledge, I largely refer to the role of crowd theory in shaping the mind-set of the police and their behaviour on the street. Drawing on the theoretical debates in the literature and a variety of empirical sources, I argue that the growing reliance on less-lethal weapons, on the one hand, and police knowledge conditioned by classical crowd theory, on the other, encourage, if not propel, coercive styles of policing at public protests in Turkey.
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| 3. |
- Atak, Kıvanç
(författare)
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'‘Inappropriate but not crime?’ Policing racial hatred in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Criminology. - : Taylor & Francis. - 2578-983X .- 2578-9821. ; 21:1, s. 32-48
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Racial bias afflicts police practices across the globe. Police discrimination against and mistreatment of racial and ethnic minorities is indeed difficult to underestimate. While much attention has been thus paid to racially biased policing, fewer studies examine the question from the reverse angle, namely how the police themselves combat racist offences. This article offers empirical insights into the policing of racial hatred in Sweden, a relevant yet relatively understudied case. Drawing on interviews with police officers and crime investigators, I discuss law enforcement perspectives, e.g. perceptions and reasoning in relation to the investigation of racist offences. Findings evince a rather narrow approach as regards the constructions of racist motive that involves a relatively restricted use of bias labelling in identifying hate incidents, especially when the boundaries of racial hostility are perceived as blurred. I argue that while such an approach may reflect a legitimate effort to demonstrate the existence of a motive behind an offence, it may also lead to an underestimation of more mundane forms of racism and their harms inflicted upon racialized individuals and communities. The results have implications for ‘recognition’ and ‘belonging’ as benchmarks of democratic policing, and ‘the promise of inclusion’ associated with combatting hate crimes.
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| 4. |
- Atak, Kivanc, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Popular uprisings in Turkey : Police culpability and constraints on dialogue-oriented policing in Gezi Park and beyond
- 2016
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Ingår i: European Journal of Criminology. - : SAGE Publications. - 1477-3708 .- 1741-2609. ; 13:5, s. 610-625
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The policing of riots and uprisings poses severe challenges to the police. Yet the police are often culpable in the disturbances touched off by a precipitating incident of police violence or a crackdown on a peaceful protest. The Gezi Park uprisings in Turkey also broke out shortly after excessive force by the Istanbul police against a handful of peaceful activists in Taksim Square. In the aftermath of the mobilizations, however, a drift towards a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach has prevailed over protest control strategies. Drawing on field notes, interviews with activists, excerpts from the news media, protest event analysis and secondary literature, we argue that the chances of dialogue-oriented policing are hampered by two major predicaments in Turkey. The first pertains to the negative biases in police perceptions about protests and protesters that serve to justify and perpetuate a conflict-driven understanding of policing. The second is rooted in the institutional and policy realm and stems from the prevalence of a law-and-order approach to crowd control and public order.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Atak, Kivanc, et al.
(författare)
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Protest Policing alla Turca : Threat, Insurgency, and the Repression of Pro-Kurdish Protests in Turkey
- 2017
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Ingår i: Social Forces. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0037-7732 .- 1534-7605. ; 95:4, s. 1667-1694
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Why do certain protests prompt more intervention from the police? And why does the intensity of intervention vary over time? Drawing on analytical approaches in the protest policing literature, and on studies investigating the relationship between civil conflict, public opinion, and state repression, this study examines whether pro-Kurdish events in Turkey are treated more severely than others, and how the policing of these protests changes over time. Based on an original dataset, we analyze more than 10,000 protest events that took place in Turkey between 2000 and 2009. Our findings suggest that compared to others, pro-Kurdish events are more likely to encounter police action, one that particularly involves repressive strategies. We further show that repressive policing in pro-Kurdish events is more pronounced when the Kurdish armed insurgency against the state intensifies. Given that this is the first systematic quantitative study on protest policing in Turkey, it not only tests previously confirmed theories of protest policing, but also makes a theoretical contribution by providing a dynamic notion of threat beyond its situational forms, which builds on the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK.
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| 7. |
- Atak, Kıvanç
(författare)
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Racist Victimization, Legal Estrangement and Resentful Reliance on the Police in Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Social and Legal Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0964-6639 .- 1461-7390. ; 31:2, s. 238-260
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scholarly literature offers much insight into aggressive policing of racial minorities. However, research is not equally extensive regarding the experiences of racial minorities with law enforcement when police response might be decisive for their sense of recognition and protection as a community. Bridging debates from critical race studies, hate crimes and legal cynicism, this paper addresses how policing of racist victimization is experienced by members of racially targeted communities in Sweden. Drawing on interviews with people having personal and/or vicarious experiences with racist victimization, I analyze resentful reliance on the police through the concept of legal estrangement. While most respondents describe police treatment in somewhat positive terms, there is a shared resentment at the police due to the lived experience that racism often remains undetected. Previous interactions with law enforcement also pave the way for accumulated skepticism toward the utility of the policing of racial hatred. Disenchantment with law enforcement notwithstanding, reliance on the police manifests a will not just to be recognized as a victim, but also to make the pervasiveness of racism more visible.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Atak, Kıvanç, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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The Police
- 2015
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Ingår i: Breaking down the state: protestors engaged. - : Amsterdam University Press. - 9789089647597
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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