Recent high profile police shootings in America brought to light the fact that the U.S. is an extreme outlier among other wealthy nations when it comes to gun ownership, gun violence and police shootings. For example, according to data collected by The Guardian, U.S. Citizens are 100 times more likely to be shot and killed by a police officer than a person in Britain. Journalists following these types of stories are turning to sociologists for context, and 
Guðmundur “Gummi” Oddsson, assistant professor of sociology at NMU, has been featured in the Washington Post, the UK’s Independent, The Business Insider and other publications.
Journalists have sought out Oddsson for his expertise in how class inequality relates to violence and social control in society but also because he is from Iceland, one of the least violent countries in the world. There has been one instance of a police officer killing a person in the 71 years Iceland has been an independent country, and it happened in 2013. Prior to that, Oddsson says there had been no such incidents dating back to the time the Icelandic police was formed in 1778 . Oddsson attributes Iceland’s low record of gun violence to several factors. “We are a small, tightly-knit society, very homogenous and with relatively low income inequality, and even though we rank 15th globally in the number of guns per capita, our guns are used for sport and hand guns are very rare,” Oddsson said. Plus, it is not an easy process to get a gun license, which includes a medical examination and a written test. As a result of these factors, Oddsson says people trust each other and trust their law enforcement officers to maintain law and order without using guns, except in rare cases.
Officers in Western countries like Norway, Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand also do not typically carry guns while on duty. In fact, Oddsson says 80% of police in Britain do not wish to carry a gun because they feel it would be counter-productive, that is, provoke more violence. “A country that is struggling with high rates of gun violence, like the U.S., should be able to learn something from other countries that are not plagued by the same problems,” Oddsson said. “A crucial difference is that most people in countries like Iceland and Norway trust law enforcement. In America, there is less trust, especially from the poor and minorities toward the police, and for a good reason. A lot of that distrust boils down to the fact that heavy-handed policing and police shootings take place disproportionately in poor African-American communities in hyper-segregated cities like St. Louis and Detroit. Thus, I think that the most important thing we can do is to build trust between the police and communities that have been most affected by police shootings. And, nothing is more effective for building trust than direct human interaction and treating one another with respect.”
In addition to building trust, Oddsson argues that that reducing income inequality, strengthening the welfare system, increasing legitimate opportunities, and a greater emphasis on education rather than incarceration can help reduce violent crime. He quotes Victor Hugo: “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” Moreover, he points out that the U.S. represents 4.5% of the global population, but accounts for 25% of the world’s prisoners. In fact, Oddsson says America has a higher incarceration rate than China, North Korea, and Russia. “In Iceland, we view someone who commits a crime as a person who needs help and rehabilitation rather than someone who needs to be punished and put away for a long time,” Oddsson said.
Oddsson received his doctoral degree from the University of Missouri where he studied with noted American criminologist, John F. Galliher.. Gummi’s main area of interest is class inequality and how people think about class. When he teaches his course Social Class Power and Mobility, he talks about class inequality and how the U.S. is an outlier here as well when compared to wealthy developed nations. Research has, for example, shown that poverty can lock people into criminal activity, which can lead to violent interactions with law enforcement.
Like Oddsson’s native Iceland, the U.P. is home to just over 300 thousand people, and Oddsson feels at home in Marquette and at Northern Michigan University. “I chose NMU because I was very impressed with the university, the faculty, and Marquette after doing some research and then visiting when I was brought up here for an interview,” Oddsson said. “This place seemed to offer almost everything of what I was looking for, and the family and I are very happy that we ended up here. Being a faculty member at NMU offers me balance between teaching, research, and family. People here are very friendly and have welcomed us with open arms. Marquette is also a beautiful place and is as family-friendly as one can hope for in the United States. The family and I love the outdoors, and this area is about as good as it gets.”
Gummi and his wife Habby are enjoying raising their three boys Jakob, Oddur and Árni here in the U.P., and Habby has co-founded a local non-profit organization
called JJ Packs. The group gives healthy meal packs to schoolchildren in need. Last school year, about 80 children received backpacks with healthy meals every weekend.
Gummi and his family still speak Icelandic to retain ties to their heritage. It is a proud and peaceful heritage that is gaining the attention from some of the world’s largest media institutions.
For more on Professor Oddsson, you can link to his NMU profile page at: http://www.nmu.edu/sociologyandanthropology/gudmundur-gummi-oddsson.
Articles quoting citing Professor Oddsson
http://www.businessinsider.com/american-police-kill-more-people-in-one-day-than-norway-cops-have-in-10-years-2015-7
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25201471
Selected Scholarly Articles by Professor Oddsson
“Policing Class and Race in Urban America,” Professor Oddsson and his colleagues recently published this article in the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. It examines how racial-economic inequality and poverty influence the size of police forces in large cities (250,000+) in the United States.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJSSP-09-2012-0085
“Class Awareness in Iceland”
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/01443331011054253