Policing and Religion in Tuvalu: Perspectives on Navigating Tensions Between Multiple Security Actors

• Author: Sara N. Amin,Danielle Watson,Tanya Trussler
• Published date: 01 August 2022
• Date: 01 August 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221096957
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221096957

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2022, Vol. 38(3) 330 –345

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096957

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Article

Policing and Religion in

Tuvalu: Perspectives on

Navigating Tensions

Between Multiple Security

Actors

Sara N. Amin1, Danielle Watson2,

and Tanya Trussler3

Abstract

Although religious institutions are an important agent of non-state policing,

especially in the Global South, there is a limited understanding of the relationship

between religion and policing. The Pacific presents an ideal context in which to

examine the relationship between religious and policing institutions in Christian

majority postcolonial societies. Moreover, state and religious institutions in the

Pacific Island States are currently being subjected to powerful processes, including

economic liberalization, globalization, and localization/indigenization, producing both

opportunities but also contestations and conflicts. Using interviews with police

officers, religious leaders, and community leaders, this article examines how police

officers negotiate the tensions between (secular) state law, indigenous structures of

authority, and religious authorities in Tuvalu.

Keywords

plural policing, religion, Tuvalu, police-community relations

1The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

2Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

3Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Sara N. Amin, Sociology, CELT 119, School of Law and Social Sciences, The University of the South

Pacific, Suva, Central, Fiji.

Email: Sara.amin@usp.ac.fj

1096957CCJXXX10.1177/10439862221096957Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeAmin et al.

research-article2022

Amin et al. 331

Introduction

Criminology and policing studies often seem to ignore religion. This is likely, at least

in part be due to fact that researchers in these disciplines understand themselves as

secular, leading them to perceive religion as irrelevant (McFadyen & Prideaux, 2011,

2014). The ignoring of religion is likely also a result of the growth of policing studies

and criminology in primarily secular societies (cf. Spalek, 2008, in relation to policing

Al Qaeda). However, religion is not irrelevant to policing; ignoring it leaves a gap in

understanding. The current research adds to the literature on policing by examining

directly the role of religion in policing, looking specifically at the perspectives of

police of the role religion plays in their duties and lives. The link between the two is

particularly important in Oceania, where throughout the colonial period and in the

post-independence years, the church has been a major actor in the settlement of dis-

putes, interpersonal violence in the community, and other issues that often fall in the

purview of policing responsibilities in the “West.” The chiefly system of dispute reso-

lution and community justice became integrated with the dominant Christian churches

in each area during the colonial period, both reinforcing each other in their role of

maintaining order and social cohesion, as well as supporting similar value and norma-

tive systems of expected behavior (Patterson, 2003). This often happened before the

formal establishment of colonial administration, and in post-independence, plural sys-

tems of justice and policing have continued (Watson & Dinnen, 2020). Arguments for

and against these forms of plural policing have often focused on Melanesian countries

in Oceania and on the place of kastom (customary/indigenous authority and practices).

This is in part because historically, religious and indigenous authorities have been

entangled and interdependent in the Pacific since missionization.

However, in the last few decades, there have been important changes in religious

diversity, the place of indigenous authority, and the authority of the state in the Pacific.

These changes have important implications for policing in Oceania. While the rela-

tionship between religion and policing has not been a focus of research in the Pacific,

Trnka (2011) has documented the use of “the Jesus strategy” and New Methodism to

reform the Fiji Police Force in the 2006 post-coup context to gain legitimacy and dis-

cipline. Rio (2011) argues that the Vanuatu police force, increasingly associated with

the born-again Christian movement, has restructured, expanded, and represented its

practices in theological terms, while large investments by the Australian and New

Zealand governments in police capacity-building have simultaneously reconstituted

the police force as more independent from state control. These examples in Fiji and

Vanuatu speak to important ways that religion and policing are interlinked. Moreover,

the dramatic growth of Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical Christianity in the

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) (Ernst, 2006, 2012; Robbins, 2001) and a trend toward

greater formalization of Christianisation of the state and its various arms are reconfig-

uring the relationship and boundaries between the three main pillars of governance in

the Pacific—state, church, and chiefly authorities.

Development aid and economic liberalization processes are also impacting on

the power balance between these institutions, often disrupting local