Joining a (Controversial) Research Project on the Crime and Justice Experiences of Gypsies and Travellers: My Perspective as a Showmen Traveller
Before this project
I had never planned to work in social policy research, and while previous to this role I had no formal research work experience, I had planned and conducted two dissertation research projects during my BSc Psychology and MSc Clinical Neuroscience degrees. After university, my work experience was in healthcare, mostly mental health and bran injury, with my last job as an Assistant Psychologist working in a Neuropsychiatric Hospital specialising in brain injuries. The majority of our all-male clients with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) had some experience of prison or the criminal justice system. Research has estimated that around 60% of male prisoners have experienced a head injury of some kind (Shiroma, Fergyson and Pickelsimer, 2010), although it is widely debated to be higher. This work experience left me wanting to further explore why some people are more likely to end up in prison than others, particularly those vulnerable to health, economic and social disadvantages.
Gypsies, Travellers, Crime and Employment
As a Showmen Traveller myself, I had been aware of the over-representation of Gypsies and Travellers being caught up in the criminal justice system. This had been highlighted in the Lammy Review (2017) into minority ethnic outcomes and treatment in the criminal justice system, but this had also recognised the lack of robust data and explanations of why Gypsies and Travellers are over-represented in the prison population. My interest in prison populations and in Gypsy and Traveller experiences had been further piqued when I came across the job advert for this project. Not only was it investigating Gypsies and Travellers’ experiences of crime and the criminal justice system and collecting data to hopefully answer some of the questions I and many others have, but it was also actively encouraging people from Gypsy and Traveller backgrounds to apply. Never have I experienced a company or business actively looking to employ a Gypsy or Traveller. Never has my Traveller heritage been considered beneficial in my career. I would usually hide my Traveller heritage from potential employers due to the trepidation of wrongful judgement and assumptions about myself and my community. Although Showmen Travellers are not recognised as an ethnic minority, meaning I am unable to tick a ‘Showmen Traveller’ box when completing an ethnic monitoring form, even if there was, I wouldn’t have ticked that box before now.
Racism Against My Community
I know first-hand what disclosing yourself as a Traveller can result in. I have had a range of responses from people when disclosing my heritage, from telling me harrowing stories they’ve heard about Gypsies and Travellers’ negative behaviour, to people outright not believing me stating, ‘You can’t be a Traveller, you live in a house’. Why would I ever want to disclose my Traveller heritage when applying to a job when these are the experiences that I and many other Gypsies and Travellers face? Yet with this role, I am able to celebrate my heritage and my experiences and personal knowledge are considered valid and valuable. I feel I am able to bring a nuanced and unique perspective to the research team.
It is well known however, that within Gypsy and Travellers culture our history is passed on through generations of oral storytelling, although often these stories are not recorded or spoken about outside the community. What does get spoken about regarding our community, is the negative stories. A negative experience with Gypsies or Travellers spreads around the settled community like wildfire; particularly surrounding the topic of crime. If you hear a story about crime involving Gypsies and Travellers, chances are most will assume the Gypsies and Travellers are the offenders and not even consider that they may be the victims of crime (despite the lack of evidence to back these assumptions). For many Gypsies and Travellers, this discourse of us as inherently bad or criminal is so common, it’s no surprise that many within the community have become desensitised to experiences of everyday racism or prejudice. I’m yet to meet a Gypsy or Traveller that hasn’t experienced some form of discrimination or hate based on their ethnicity or heritage. Whether that’s having the venue for your 18th birthday cancelled or because they found out you’re from the Traveller community, struggling to find a priest to marry you because they ‘don’t accommodate Gypsy and Traveller weddings’, having a driving instructor refuse to give you lessons because you live on a yard or site, or being followed around a shop for the way you look (all of which has happened to members of my extended family).
Project Aims and My Role So Far
These illegal actions by the white majority are not what the settled population focus on when crime and Gypsies and Travellers is being discussed. Neither are the stories that get shared within our communities where the police have not investigated when we tell them of our victimisation. Or when we tell them of the racist incidents and crime we experience. In order to capture these experiences, the research team are conducting oral histories interviews with Gypsies and Travellers. So far, I have conducted some oral history interviews with members of the Showmen Traveller community, this was a privileged opportunity for me and allowed myself and the team to learn more about Gypsies and Travellers stories and experiences throughout their lives in more depth.
In addition to this, I have conducted interviews with a range of professionals who have engaged with Gypsies and Travellers in a variety of contexts, such as those from criminal justice agencies; the local authorities; the third sector and others. These professional interviews seek to find the ways in which Gypsies and Travellers and their lifestyles are understood and responded to in formal policies and operationally on the ground, any issues or barriers professionals have experienced when working with Gypsy and Traveller populations, as well as documenting where support services may need to be targeted in criminal justice and other service provision. My next task will be conducting the survey with 100x Gypsies and Travellers across London and the Southeast, with the help of 2x community-based contract interviewers Tom and Rachel. The survey has been developed from a range of household-based crime, justice, and discrimination surveys and hopes to provide the first estimate in England of Gypsy and Traveller victimisation, and self-report offending patterns in aim to help those who support victims to know what services are needed for Gypsies and Travellers
The project and the data collected are considered very sensitive, I myself had concerns that the data and findings could potentially further harm representations of Gypsies and Travellers or reinforce public hostility towards our communities. Yet, there is a real and imperative need to record Gypsies and Travellers’ experiences of crime, discrimination, and racism, to have their stories listened to and recorded, to produce data that may inform future policy and practice concerning Gypsies and Travellers who come into contact with the criminal justice system, both as victims and offenders. Furthermore, by collecting data on Gypsies and Travellers’ self-reported offending behaviours we may shed light on whether feeling discriminated against plays a part in offending behaviour. It is essential to recognise the complex and delicate nature of this research and the need to carefully and empathetically analyse the data collected from the Survey, Interviews, and Oral Histories. My hope is to get the voices of Gypsies and Travellers heard and to build empathy and understanding with the settled population regarding the realities of our too often silenced community.
Sources:
‘Shiroma EJ, Ferguson PL, Pickelsimer EE. Prevalence of traumatic brain injury in an offender population: a meta-analysis. J Correct Health Care. 2010 Apr;16(2):147-59. doi: 10.1177/1078345809356538. PMID: 20339132.’
‘Carr, N. (2017). The Lammy Review and race and bias in the criminal justice system. Probation Journal, 64(4), 333–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/0264550517740461’
