In Poland, it’s basically a social norm that you don’t snitch on your fellow classmates, students at college and co-workers to your higher authorities. Of course to a degree, this doesn’t include situations like murder, but when someone cheated on exam, did something at work that could get him to lose in boss’s eyes, or made fun of a professor on facebook snitching about stuff like that, will get you ostracized to oblivion, if caught. Bringing the case to the authorities is justified only as a last resort or when it’s extremely serious(this is the legacy of the previous system, where people snitched on neighbors for their political activity).
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It’s very, very common here in Sicily.
There’s a widespread mistrust of the authorities and the government, both local and national… and also a pretty widespread dislike of the police, particularly in the more ‘popular’ areas of my city.
This extends to places like school and workplaces too.
Being seen as a ‘spia’ (spy) is one of the worst insults for a Palermitano.
A Brabander probably needs to confirm this, but I’ve understood that there exists something like a “we don’t talk to the police” (we praten niet met de wouten) culture in villages in the province of North Brabant. As such, many XTC laboratories and chemical dumps are there/take place there. People probably do notice dodgy stuff, they just don’t report it to the police. Therefore I believe the police over there now tries to engage with the local population in those areas to gain more trust.
Sweden have the expression “Golare har inga polare”, snitches have no friends.
Regarding snitching on other is easy, just make a anonymous tip, and with public record on almost anything it easy to do som investigation yourself, neighbour driving a new car but he pay not nearly enough taxes to afford that car, do a check on that license plate if it’s a leased car. Company car and so on is open for public, even latest car inspection. So people do it behind people back.
You don’t snitch openly, but you do it anonymously, and often based “checking” so no one is out of control and norm.
“Snitches get stitches”
In Ireland it is heavily frowned upon to rat out on someone to the guards. The only exceptions pretty much being assault, rape and murder.
There’s a sort of unwritten understanding that everyone is on the same side, and the guards and other authorities are on the other. So ratting out is the equivalent of a betrayal of that trust
Irish people largely subscribe to the idea that “it’s not my business, and I don’t want it to be, so I’m not saying anything” I’ve noticed that some immigrants here have a different sort of view and really want to take action and get involved.
Belgians snitch a lot as long as they can do it anonymously. Pretty sure there’s a “snitch line” for suspected tax fraud or social fraud, and a lot of police vehicles also display a snitch line for suspected drug production.
In Germany, we’ve first had the GeStaPo, and after that, the Stasi. Both were institutions that relied heavily on people ratting out their friends, colleagues, neighbors.
So yeah, even though Germany is regarded as a country where people really stick to the rules, ratting out each other is frowned upon. As the saying goes:
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“Der größte Lump im ganzen Land ist und bleibt der Denunziant”
(the greatest jerk in the whole country is and will always be the snitch/rat)
When I was in kindergarten in the 90s we had something called a “Petzpfennig” which was a big coin made out of paper and every child that snitched on someone had to wear it around the neck for the rest of the day. Thinking about it now….that was really messed up and I remember being afraid of saying anything slightly bad about another kid to a teacher, because of course I didn’t want to be humiliated like that.
Did anyone else have something like that or was my kindergarten just messed up?
Not only is it very common here in Portugal but it massively contributes to the terrible work culture we have IMO. Everyone is hesitant to point fingers at who screwed up which then cascades into all different sorts problem in a work environment.
If you rat someone for being lazy or slacking off all your colleagues will call you “boss’s little dog”. While this might seem like a healthy spirit of camaraderie, it’s extremely toxic when you’re planning a project and someone is slacking off, and the reason why management is extremely ineffective in this country.
I’ve had this opinion for years and then several European business man also talked about this issue, which gives it some credibility.
It’s divided. There is one group of lets say normal people who wouldn’t snitch in most situations as it’s simply not the right thing to do (“Snitches get stitches” is also famous here), especially in poor regions where most people have had negative experiences with all kinds of authorities and don’t trust them (cops also have a bad rep here)
On the other hand you have many overly law-abiding Germans who really pride themselves on being a snitch. Some even being extremely petty about very minor stuff, ratting out their neighbors and such. Many of those would rather call the cops immediately for eg. a noise complaint or weed smoking, instead of trying to talk to the person. Often these kind of people are called ‘Alman’, which is a derogatory term for a German who fulfills all stereotypes.
This is mostly done anonymously though as Germans rarely straight up confront anybody about a problem they’re having. This whole thing really sucks
That seems protecting the criminal over the victim.
Is it a self-defence mechanism to avoid retaliation? Or bc people feels closer to the criminal than to the victim?
Sorry for the questions, it’s hard for me to get it.
I wouldn’t say there’s much of a culture either way – not an excessive snitching culture, but also not excessive shushing culture. It might lean a bit more towards snitching since most Finns lean towards law obedience & “being a good citizen”. Similarly to other countries, there are anonymous ways to give e.g. the police a tip about criminal activity
Finland in general has a very “none of my business” culture about almost everything so a lot of times people stay out of it unless it bothers them – but if it bothers them then snitching comes into question
I’m e.g. thinking about apartment buildings and how sometimes to avoid confrontation there’s a culture of calling the police to deal with noisy neighbours or a neighbour who smokes weed – people are too shy to go and knock on the door themselves so they call the police to deal with it