Przyczyny „romskiej” przestępczości
Causes of „Roma” criminality

Summary/Abstract: The main question of the article is whether there exists a specific Roma criminality. In his study, which primarily answers the above mentioned question, the author examines the issue from the socio-cultural perspective, that is he considers “Roma” as bearers of a specific (i.e. Roma) culture and Roma criminality as a specific part of this culture, or more precisely, as a consequence of the contact of the bearers of this culture with the bearers of the culture of the majority (in this case Czech) society. In this sense, the paper represents a criticism of all the conceptions of Roma criminality based on a presumption that criminal behaviour is part of the Roma nature (“it is in their blood”). In this connection, the author makes an attempt to discover the causes of Roma criminality. At a general level, he identifies two types of these causes: 1) causes determined by a specific (i.e. Roma) cultural tradition and 2) causes resulting from the adaptation of the Roma (in a given sense) to the contemporary situation of the Czech society. The empirical data come from research conducted by the author and his fiancée in Roma settlements in Eastern Slovakia and in the so called “Roma ghettos” in the Czech Republic.

• Details
• Contents