Gypsy and Traveller Experiences of Crime and Justice Since the 1960s: A Mixed Methods Study

Lead Research Organisation: London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Social Policy

Abstract

Historical accounts show that since the arrival in England and Scotland of Romani Gypsies in the fifteenth century, and of Irish Travellers in the nineteenth century, they have been associated with criminal offending. Since then Gypsies and Travellers (G&Ts) have become entrenched in popular, media and political imaginations as criminal predators, bringing property crime, violence, fraud, tax evasion and anti-social behaviour to settled communities. Yet despite five centuries' of such categorisation, there is surprisingly no rigorous evidence assessing the validity of such claims nor systematic assessments of G&Ts' experiences of victimisation. No existing sources of evidence from self-report offending surveys, archival accounts, oral histories, ethnographic or qualitative research can provide an estimate of G&T patterns of offending. Neither can they tell us about how frequently G&Ts are the victims of non-racially motivated crime (e.g. assault, burglary, theft) or hate crimes. This is particularly concerning given the Global Attitudes Survey found 50% of UK respondents held negative views of G&Ts, over double the proportion holding unfavourable attitudes towards Muslims, who have often been the victims of hate crimes. Estimates of offending, victimisation and hate crime are available for other minority ethnic groups.


This interdisciplinary study will produce the first comprehensive, historicized account of G&T experiences of victimisation, crime and criminal justice in two urban and two rural areas of England. Specifically, it will comprise:

(i) a crime survey involving researchers and G&T interviewers looking at G&T victimisation by personal crime (e.g. assault, hate crime) and crimes against the household/family (e.g. burglary, fraud). It will assess attitudes to, and contact with, the police (including stop and search), courts, probation, and prisons. The survey will also ask questions about G&Ts' use of alcohol/drugs and involvement in property, fraud, and violent offences as offenders. It will survey self-ascribing G&Ts who vary by gender, age and settlement (roadside living, official/private caravan sites, unauthorised encampments, and private/social housing);

(ii) community and prisoner oral histories to investigate whether offending over individual lifetimes is linked to experiences of racism and discrimination, and to explore the effects of actions by the police, courts, probation and prisons on G&T individuals and communities;

(iii) interviews with local professionals who have engaged with G&Ts in a variety of contexts, both operationally and strategically (e.g. police officers, Victim Support, housing officers, councillors, Police and Crime Commissioners). These will seek to find out the ways in which G&Ts and their lifestyles are understood and responded to in formal policies and operationally on the ground, as well as documenting where support services may need to be targeted in criminal justice and other service provision; and

(iv) archival research of governmental and other publically available historical sources, including council committee meeting minutes, county surveys of G&Ts' experience of policing and local petitions against official sites.

Taken together, these methods will provide, for the first time, numerical estimates of both victimisation and offending, whilst also illuminating the meaning attached to them by G&Ts, including the place of perceptions of racism in G&Ts' behaviour and experiences. The study will provide insight into how criminal justice and other statutory agencies have historically dealt with G&Ts compared with the contemporary picture. In this way it will build a sensitive account of G&Ts' experiences of crime as victims as well as offenders which can respond to the negative stereotyping of G&Ts drawing on rigorous evidence. This will inform policy and practice so as to reduce the harms of crime for all those affected, in both G&T and non-G&T communities.

Planned Impact

The long-term aims of the project are to improve policy-making and daily practice surrounding G&Ts who come into contact with the criminal justice system, both as victims and offenders. In addition, the project is designed to foster greater cross-community understanding and so reduce the isolation and villification of Britain's G&T populations and the negative social consequences associated with such stigmatisation. In order to effect these aims the project team will work with the following stakeholder populations:

a) G&Ts (INCLUDING PRISONERS): At present G&Ts' experiences of crime and victimisation are almost solely shared within G&T communities, and consequently any experiences of victimisation or institutionalised racism, for example, remain hidden from public view. Across its lifetime and beyond, the project's resources are designed to give context, voice and emotion to G&Ts' experiences of crime, as both victims and offenders. Taken together these will provide G&Ts with a body of information which articulates their individual and community experiences and which puts them firmly in the public domain. Here the aim at the broadest level is to build confidence across G&T populations that wider society, the state and statutory agencies understand the relationship between G&Ts' wider life experiences and their experiences of crime and criminal justice. Further, by providing the baseline evidence for the Policy Brief, participating G&Ts have the direct opportunity to voice their concerns and feed into policy development. At the local level, improved training and knowledge of those working with G&Ts on the ground - via the Learning Letters and online resources - will open the way to better working relationships and trust between them and G&T populations, reducing individual and community-level negative experiences with statutory and other agencies.

b) THE WIDER PUBLIC: Most public attitudes towards G&Ts are formed through accessing, very often biased and uninformed, media. The project's freely available, and highly engaging, resources are aimed at looking beyond the G&T communities, to reach the wider population. Here they will act to raise understanding and awareness of, and empathy with, the experiences and treatment of G&Ts, both historically and in the present. This will build knowledge and awareness and so provide a platform for improved cross-community relations.

c) POLICY-MAKERS AND POLITICIANS: At present government policy - whether expressed through the police, court, probation, or prison systems - lacks robust evidence to underpin its approach to G&Ts. The project will engage directly with policymakers through providing robust and clear baseline data from which they, and non-statutory agencies, can design more inclusive policies, develop appropriate staff training, and implement appropriate guidelines for those working with G&Ts within the criminal justice systems. This intervention will open the door to better informed policy decision-making, and in the long-term build trust with G&T populations that their needs and perspectives are taken into account. Further, the workshop at the parliamentary event opens the possibility for closer long-term partnership-working between workshop participants, including the Ministry of Justice's Race & Ethnicity Board.

d) LOCAL THIRD AND PUBLIC SECTOR: Many third sector workers have wide and deep knowledge of the G&T populations with whom they work. However, they often lack the capacity to develop resources and extend their knowledge beyond their particular organisation. The project will provide them with multi-media and text resources to enable best practice within and between agencies, and hence build capacity. Further, the non-expert crime survey offers the possibility for localities to expand their own knowledge base after the project has ended, offering the potential for the development of locally appropriate, evidence-based service and resource provision.
 
Title Born on the Edge 
Description Short film illustrating the violence from members of the general public Romanies/Gypsies and Travellers face while living a mobile lifestyle. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Romani/Gypsy and Traveller actors and producers reported feeling empowered by their involvement in producing the film. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLzExiONzLc&list=PLo48HyAqJDjO6O3GxmMWwFCwni7RI68wJ&index=2
 
Title Dark to Dark 
Description Short film contrasting the casual prejudice experienced by Gypsies/Travellers during everyday economic interactions with a moment in the life of a conscientious father and his daughter. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Romani/Gypsy and Traveller actors and producers report being empowered by their involvement in producing the film. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu46Pure3wM&list=PLo48HyAqJDjO6O3GxmMWwFCwni7RI68wJ&index=3
 
Title Let Me Go 
Description Short film based on collected oral history examining racism experienced by Gypsies and Travellers receiving health care 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Actors reported being empowered by the experience of creating and acting in the films 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cAhze71T1w&list=PLo48HyAqJDjO6O3GxmMWwFCwni7RI68wJ
 
Title Men in Suits 
Description Short film explores the reality of life on the roadside and violent eviction in the seemingly cosy setting of a busy coffee shop. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Romani/Gypsy and Traveller actors and producers reported feeling empowered by their involvement in producing the film. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmBfua_hbjs&list=PLo48HyAqJDjO6O3GxmMWwFCwni7RI68wJ&index=6
 
Title My Daily Task 
Description Short film features a poem narrated over mixed visuals of all the places and people from the other six films. It seeks to bring together the thematic strands of all the films into a single piece. It should work as a stand-alone short with its own intellectual and emotional impact. However, it should hopefully also work as a closing piece that could be played at the end of the full sequence of films as an 'impact maximiser' - for instance, if some or all of the films have been screened and discussed at a conference or workshop, film seven might be used as a narrative bookend, drawing the themes together and recapping on what they were. 'My Daily Task' explores what it feels like to be the actual person with feelings who is living in a paradigm of strange ethnic judgements. With Damian Le Bas, Jimmy Doherty, Tammy Buckland, John Connors, Heaven-Leigh Clee, Liza Mortimer, Theresa Pine, Faye Freeman. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Romani/Gypsy and Traveller actors and producers report feeling empowered by their involvement in their production of the film. The whole series of films was the subject of an article, 'Realities Checked - Changing the conversation around Travellers and crime', Travellers Times 5 Feb 2024 - https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/news/2024/02/realities-checked-changing-conversation-around-travellers-and-crime 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uLBybVd_FE&list=PLo48HyAqJDjO6O3GxmMWwFCwni7RI68wJ&index=7
 
Title No Place to Be: A Graphic HIstory of Gypsies and Travellers in Modern Britain 
Description 40page freely-accessible/downloadable graphic history drawing drawing together archival and oral history findings to illustrate Gypsies' and Travellers' experiences in the second half of the twentieth century. 
Type Of Art Artwork 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Currently unknown, 
URL https://www.realities-checked.org/what-weve-found
 
Title See That Scar 
Description Short film looks at the reality of domestic abuse against a backdrop of determination to live a healthy life for Gypsies/Travellers 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Romani/Gypsy and Traveller actors and producers report feeing empowered by their involvement in producing the film. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFtX0uL7bWE&list=PLo48HyAqJDjO6O3GxmMWwFCwni7RI68wJ&index=5
 
Title Wipe It Over 
Description Wipe It Over explores the impact of possible over-sentencing on the young life of a Gypsy/Traveller. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact Gypsy/Traveller actors and producers report being empowered by their part in creating the film 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76wf3nevtpA&list=PLo48HyAqJDjO6O3GxmMWwFCwni7RI68wJ&index=4
 
Description 1) In the first survey of its kind to examine non-hate related victimisation, among 400 Gypsies and Travellers, 46% had been a victim of crime (property offences, fraud, robbery or violence) in the last year compared with the far lower 16% of the general population. The survey modified the household-based Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) for use in four English regions, and included those living roadside, on sites, and houses.

2) Gypsies and Travellers were also more vulnerable to racially motivated victimisation - whereas the CSEW reported around 1% of Asian and Black people had suffered hate crime, this was 11% for Gypsies and Travellers. Community oral histories showed that hate crime was a common occurrence affecting men and women, all age groups, and many Gypsies and Travellers recalled hate incidents as children and then as parents and grandparents.

3) The archival analysis situated these experiences within the context of legislation and policies, that since the 1960s, have increasingly restricted the mobility of caravan-dwelling Gypsies and Travellers. Over time, the simple presence of Gypsies and Travellers has shifted from them being regarded as a low-level 'nuisance' to being commonly seen as a 'criminal threat'. Professionals working in diverse fields from education to health to criminal justice were found to often resist such narratives, although sometimes they were aligned to them or ambivalent about them. Historical records have documented police and local government support for the harsh treatment of Gypsies and Travellers, informed by deep-seated racist attitudes among settled populations. Negative interactions with the police, both in the past and in the present, explains why 39% of survey participants said that they did not trust the police at all and 39% not very much. This lack of legitimacy is far in excess of Black communities who have similarly had long histories of mistrust of the police. Where Gypsies and Travellers reported crime as victims, they often felt disbelieved by the police.

4) The survey also captured self-reported offending behaviour, for which there has been no data previously. Only a minority of Gypsies and Travellers, 22%, said they had committed a crime in the last year. Most common were property crimes such as vehicle-related theft and shoplifting. The prisoner oral histories pointed to similar reasons for Gypsies and Travellers committing crime as for other ethnic groups. Motivations included - wanting something unaffordable, peer pressure, addictions, thrill-seeking, and on occasion, racist provocation. Sometimes, offenders had suffered abuse or neglect as children. Poor mental health and family bereavements (including by suicide) were a feature of life too for some Gypsies and Travellers. Such adverse childhood experiences are typical contextual factors in offending for all ethnic groups. Feeling racially discriminated against in education and employment, and often having low literacy or qualifications, also played a part in offending. Negative feelings could also extend to court processes when ethnicity was referenced during Gypsies and Travellers' trials or when officers excluded them from opportunities - like home leave - in the prison system.
Exploitation Route The research findings provide quantitative evidence to show how rates of crime AGAINST Gypsies and Travellers are far higher than for other groups. It also shows how few Gypsies and Travellers are involved in offending. This is vital information to change the narratives circulating about Gypsies and Travellers which positions them only as offenders. The findings can be put to use by third sector and campaign organisations who advocate for the more respectful treatment of Gypsies and Travellers inside and outside of the criminal justice system. Journalists and media representatives can also commit to more nuanced coverage of these groups based on the study's findings. Such data can also be taken forward by community safety professionals to reduce victimisation levels, and by victim support-related services that seek to ameliorate the harmful impacts of crime.

One of the published papers sets out the 'state of the field' and offers pointers for those beginning historical research with this group
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Education

Healthcare

Government

Democracy and Justice

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL https://www.realities-checked.org/
 
Description Catch 22 Training
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Expert advice on GRT Inclusion for Catch 22
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Catch 22 are delivering a more informed service to their clients and their staff are working in a more inclusive workplace.
 
Title Crime Survey for Gypsies and Travellers 
Description Compilation of crime victimisation and self-report offending survey with additional questions from the Everyday Discrimination Scale 
Type Of Material Model of mechanisms or symptoms - human 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact None 
 
Title Realiteis Checked Study: Crime Survey for use by third sector organisations 
Description A user-friendly survey has been compiled for use by non-academics to collect data on victimisation 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact N/A 
 
Title Realities Checked Study: Crime Victimisation and Offending Survey 
Description 400 participants - victimisation, offending, perceptions of the criminal justice system, use of security, fear of crime 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact N/A 
 
Title Realities checked: Qualitative data 
Description 27 Prisoner oral histories 40 Community oral histories 54 Interviews with Professionals/Practitioners 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact N/A 
 
Description Working with Gypsy and Traveller Third Sector organisations: Friends Families Travellers 
Organisation Friends, Families and Travellers
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Current criminal justice issues and research possibilities for South-East site
Collaborator Contribution Discussion of access possibilities, provision of contacts
Impact Meetings in February 21, September 2020, January 2020
Start Year 2020
 
Description Working with Gypsy and Traveller Third Sector organisations: LeedsGATE (2020 - Still Active) 
Organisation Leeds Gypsy and Traveller Exchange (Leeds GATE)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Current criminal justice issues and research possibilities for Leeds area, piloting of crime survey
Collaborator Contribution Finding volunteers for crime survey pilot Discussion of access possibilities, provision of contacts
Impact Meetings in March 2020, September 2020
Start Year 2020
 
Description Working with Gypsy and Traveller Third Sector organisations: TravellerSpace 
Organisation TravellerSpace
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Current criminal justice issues and research possibilities for Devon and Cornwall
Collaborator Contribution Discussion of access possibilities, provision of contacts
Impact Phone meetings and email exchanges
Start Year 2020
 
Description Working with the charity the Historical Association 
Organisation Historical Association
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Co-I Becky Taylor has been collaborating with the HA to create a series of resources relating to the history of Britain's UK Gypsy and Traveller population, including a podcast and a set of background notes and teaching materials.
Collaborator Contribution n/a
Impact Schooling teaching resource pack and podcasts. Collaboration with Helen Snelson to include Gypsy and Traveller history into new KS3 textbook: Helen Snelson, Ruth Lingard, Claire Holliss, Susanna Boyd, 'A new focus on...British Social History, c.1920-2000 for KS3 History: Experiences of disability, sexuality, gender and ethnicity' (Hodder, 2023)
Start Year 2020
 
Description All Party Parliamentary Group on Gypsies Travellers Roma 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation of research findings on victimisation and perceptions of the police
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Briefing to Independent Sexual Violence Advocates on working with GRT communities 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Advice and guidance given on policy and briefing provided for staff at Limeculture Independent Sexual Violence Advocates, 05 April 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Embedding GRT in KS3 History 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Engagement with team putting together a new KS3 textbook Susanna Boyd et al, Social History, c.1920-2000. A New Focus on Experiences of Disability, Sexuality, Gender and Ethnicity. KS3 Education (Hodder Education, 2023). Substantive archival material, advice and historical interpretation included in text book as a result.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description GRT: History GCSE textbook changes 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Advice given to Pearson Edexcel History over GCSE content - use of correct terminology for Roma and Sinti for Weimar and Nazi Germany option; and providing advice and input on inclusion of Romani Gypsies and Irish Travellers for GCSE Migration module (Dec/Jan 2022/3).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Gypsy Roma Traveller Online Teaching Resources 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Series of online teaching resources produced in collaboration with the Historical Association, supported by a seminar with teachers and a launch at the Historical Association's annual conference (2022)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.history.org.uk/secondary/categories/606/module/8794/do-gypsy-roma-and-traveller-children...
 
Description Gypsy Traveller History in Britain 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Historical Association podcast for use with schools
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Gypsy and Traveller Experiences of Crime and Justice Since the 1960s: A neglected minority in criminology 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Article highlighting new research to criminological audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.britsoccrim.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BSCN84-Gypsy-and-Traveller-Experiences-of-Cri...
 
Description Interview - LSE Research Magazine 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Description of research study
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-for-the-world/society/crime-and-punishment
 
Description Just About . . . Gypsy, Roma and Traveller People and Criminal Justice 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Panel on race and criminal justice research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description NEW RESEARCH PROJECT EXPLORES THE REALITIES OF LIFE FOR GYPSIES AND TRAVELLERS 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Early findings from the archival work examining individual, collective and institutional prejudice targeting Gypsies and Travellers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/features/new-research-project-explores-realities-life-gypsies-and...
 
Description Presentation of The Harms of Hate for Gypsies and Travellers at Anarchist Feminist Bookfair 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation of The Harms of Hate for Gypsies and Travellers at the Anarchist Feminist Bookfair, 18 July 2020.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoJUzXaS7Cw
 
Description Race and Crime Board 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Highest level discussion of issues related to race broadly, and Gypsies and Travellers, specifically.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2021,2022
 
Description Rural Media Village Pub Conversation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Interview (Phillips, Taylor) as part of programme in response to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme 'The Truth About Traveller Crime')
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Talk for Norwich Labour Party 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact I delivered a talk for Norwich Labour Party on the history of Britain's Gypsies and Travellers, their relationship with the Left, with policy developments, and with wider society
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Talk for Peterborough Fabian Society 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I delivered a talk for Norwich Labour Party on the history of Britain's Gypsies and Travellers, their relationship with the Left, with policy developments, and with wider society
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Talk for Stamford Anti-Racism Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Talk to Stamford Anti-Racism Group
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Teaching Race Matters: Romani Gypsies 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Podcast as part of the Runnymede Trust's Teaching Race Matters series, exploring the history and pedagogical issues surrounding the presence of Romani Gypsies in early modern Britain.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://rss.com/podcasts/teachingracematters/
 
Description Watch the crime rate go up over the weekend 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Blog on controversial Channel 4 programme
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020