Synnøve Jahnsen

Synnøve Jahnsen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Research Department at The Norwegian Police University College (2015-2019). She is responsible for leading the project ‘Preventing Organized Crime: Policing Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs,’ which is part of a broader research endeavor entitled ‘New Trends in Modern Policing’ led by Prof Helene O. I. Gundhus, and funded by the Norwegian Research Council and The Norwegian Police University College. Taking the ‘Great Northern Biker War’ and ‘The War Against Biker Clubs’ as case studies she will study changes in policing and how particular ways of conceptualizing and problematizing biker groups and gang affiliation affect national legal frameworks as well as policing strategies. The project is interested in how changes within the policing of crime is related to social and political shifts that are taking place across nation states, regions and continents.

Synnøve is a member of the anchor group of the research network Young Nordic Police Research Network (YNPRN). She is also a co-editor of a forthcoming themed edition of the Nordic Journal of Policing Studies ‘Policing High-Trust Societies’ and an edited book assessing European prostitution policy in 22 different countries, which is one of the outcomes of COST Action IS1209 ‘Comparing European Prostitution Policies: Understanding Scales and Cultures of Governance’ (ProsPol), where she is a member of  the Management Committee.

Synnøve completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Bergen (2014), in which she examined Norwegian prostitution policy and anti-trafficking police strategies. Prior to this, she worked as a researcher on a joint project ‘Prostitution in the Nordic Countries’ led by Charlotta Holmström and Prof May-Len Skilbrei (2007/2008), as a consultant at Data Protection Official for Research (2008/2009) and as a Special Consultant at Pro center, a national center for knowledge on prostitution (2013). In 2014 Synnøve was responsible for the research project ‘Trafficking for forced Labour’ commissioned by National Police Directorate (Norwegian: Politidirektoratet) and conducted research as part of the project ‘Cyber Investigation and Prosecution of Cybercrimes in three Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland and Norway.’ In spring 2015 Synnøve became part of the research project ‘Crime Control in the Borderlands of Europe,’ led by Prof Katja Franco, looking into how contemporary police and criminal justice institutions deal with unwanted mobility and the influx of ‘aliens’ (i.e., non-citizens) to the Norwegian territory. Synnøve holds a BA and an MA in Sociology (University of Bergen, 2007) and has been a post graduate student at the Faculty of Law (2008), at the University of Bergen as well as an exchange student at Copenhagen University in Denmark (2003/2004) and University of California, Berkeley (2006).  She has also been a guest researcher at Columbia University in the City of New York and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (2010/2011). In 2016 Synnøve will be temporarily based as a guest researcher at The Border Crossing Observatory (BOb), Monash University, Australia.