98 . Race & Class 48(2) Viewing racist violence as an act of self-defence. A significant number of detectives provided an array of examples in which terrified Greek citizens carried out acts of extreme violence, such as beatings, shootings or even killings of migrants, in order to defend themselves from the criminal ‘other’: There are some examples of violence directed towards migrants and especially against the Albanians, who were the first to cause problems to the locals, who wanted to defend their personal integrity and belongings. In 90 per cent of the cases, if not in 100 per cent, there is the case of self-defence.24 . Thus, not only were detectives unwilling to view racist violence as an important issue but they also emphasised how serious a problem migrant criminality is in Greece. In a similar way, the British police in the 1980s not only rejected the view that racist violence was a serious social problem but also emphasised intra-racial victimisation, thus focusing again on the criminality of minority ethnic groups.25 Viewing incidents of violence by migrants against Greeks as racially motivated. One detective suggested that the difference in the quality of life between Greeks and migrants may lead to a situation in which the migrants, ‘driven by jealousy’, would become violent towards Greeks. Conclusion Racist violence is not viewed as a significant problem by the Greek police, who either are not interested in the racial background of some violent crimes or view them as acts of self-defence or regard them as negligible compared to the anti-Greek violence of supposedly jealous migrants. The perception of police officers that racist violence is a non-existent problem is based, in part, on their negative interactions with migrant communities, as well as on the racist views that they have of migrants anyway. The migrant-criminal stereotype, which is not based on empirical research, is so persistent that it blinds police officers to the racist (and criminal) victimisation of migrants. But this is only one part of the Greek racism-nexus, in which the media, politicians and, of course, the public have also engaged. In spite of the fact that there is no Greek politician with the appeal and electoral support of Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, racist discourse nevertheless permeates the whole social sphere. It is not surprising that the second report for the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia identified Greece as the nation most resistant to multiculturalism in the European Union.26 There is a lot of work to be done in Greece in tackling racism, not least in bringing the issue onto the Downloaded from http://rac.sagepub.com at Athens Univ. of Economics on June 25, 2007 © 2006 Institute of Race Relations. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.