Victims or villains? deconstructing the policing of migrant children in South African border towns
Date
2010-08-11
Authors
Obser, Katharina
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Research surrounding issues of police treatment of migrant children at South Africa’s border
areas remains incomplete and often policy-driven. Similarly, theoretical literature on policing often
fails to consider the sociological and anthropological complexities that impact upon police officers’
conceptions of criminality, vulnerability, and ultimately, their behaviour. This paper seeks to study
the policing of migrant children in a predominantly sociological framework by examining the
influences on South African Police Service (SAPS) officers’ behaviour and constructions of
criminality and vulnerability in migrant children. The research is grounded within an extensive
review of the theoretical and contemporary literature pertaining to policing, policing of vulnerable
groups, and the South African policing context, and included approximately three months of
ethnographic fieldwork of interviews and participant observation in Nkomazi Municipality at South
Africa’s border with Mozambique. Conclusions identified that personal history and experiences, an
officer’s perceptions of his or her work within a localized and even nationalized environment of
some accountability and culture, as well as external factors ought to be heavily considered and are
fluid influences on a police officer’s behaviour toward migrant children. These factors, which can
result in seemingly arbitrary policing within a nonetheless structured localized and individualized
culture, suggest a unique framework within which to consider policing from a sociological
perspective even beyond their specific impact on migrant children or the border area.