At the turn of the century, multicultural communities are a growing phenomenon globally and in many cities throughout the United States. The world has witnessed increasing transnational migration of large groups of people due to a variety of factors worldwide. This movement has resulted in changes in the ethnic and cultural makeup of communities that are the destinations and sources of the migration.

These changes present challenges for criminal justice practitioners and policymakers in the affected communities. For example, some cultures will allow only women to be questioned by a female police officer. A male may refuse to cooperate with a female police officer. Men from some cultures carry a ceremonial dagger next to their skin, which they would be reluctant to remove. Communication may be a problem, as not everyone speaks the same language. Poor language skills and a lack of cultural sensitivity may lead to unintended violence. Cooperation with law enforcement officers within ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods may not be forthcoming. Recruitment and retention of an ethnically diverse police force is both a challenge and a necessity. Failure to address the challenges of policing in a multicultural society can result in misunderstandings, alienation, civil unrest, and violence.

To address these challenges, NIJ, together with the Israel National Police's Community & Civil Guard Department, co-chaired a conference on policing a multicultural society. The meeting was held in Jerusalem, Israel, in March 2001.

Presented here are papers prepared from this conference. They were published by the Israel National Police in a special edition of the journal Police and Society. NIJ has posted them to share information and the experiences of eight countries with practitioners and policymakers in the United States and other countries that face similar problems.

    CONTENTS

• Special Issue: Policing a Multicultural Society

• Introduction, by Edna Erez, James O. Finckenauer, and Peter R. Ibarra

• Policing the Cultural Kaleidoscope: Recent Canadian Experience, by Philip C. Stenning

• Police Race Relations in England and Wales: Theory, Policy, and Practice, by Simon Holdaway

• Policing the Plight of Indigenous Australians: Past Conflicts and Present Challenges, by Lorraine Mazerolle, Elena Marchetti, and Andrew Lindsay

• Policing Violence Against Minority Women in Multicultural Societies: "Community" and the Politics of Exclusion, by Madelaine Adelman, Edna Erez, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

• Contacts with the Police: Patterns and Meanings in a Multicultural Realm, by Peter R. Ibarra

• Multicultural Context, Crime, and Policing in Germany: Challenges After Unification, by Uwe Ewald and Thomas Feltes

• Policing in a Diverse and Multicultural Society: The South African Case, by Fran Buntman and Rika Snyman

• The Emerging Paradigm for Policing Multiethnic Societies: Glimpses From the American Experience, by William F. McDonald