Gypsies’ and Travellers’ lived experience of harm: A critical hate studies perspective
| Published date | 01 August 2020 |
| Date | 01 August 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480620911914 |
| Subject Matter | Part III: Beyond the Binary |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480620911914
Theoretical Criminology
2020, Vol. 24(3) 502 –520
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480620911914
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Gypsies’ and Travellers’ lived
experience of harm: A critical
hate studies perspective
Zoë James
University of Plymouth, UK
Abstract
This article sets out how a critical hate studies perspective can explain and illuminate
the hate harms experienced by Gypsies and Travellers in the UK. In doing so, it directly
responds to the question of how criminological theory can move beyond existing
debates in studies of race and ethnicity and engage more effectively with the wider social
sciences. The critical hate studies perspective provides a comprehensive theoretical
approach to appreciating the harms of hate in late modernity. This framework challenges
existing explanations for bias-motivated violence in society and proposes an approach
that acknowledges the overarching role of neoliberal capitalism on individual subjectivity
and subsequently the lived experience. By utilising this perspective, it is possible here
to discuss the range and depth of hate experienced by Gypsies and Travellers and thus
consider its genesis and the potential for positive praxis.
Keywords
bias-motivated violence, critical hate studies, Gypsies and Travellers, hate,
neoliberalism
Introduction
Studies of bias-motivated offending in criminology, termed as ‘hate studies’, have given
rise to a plethora of research on the parameters of such crimes (see Hall, 2013; Perry,
2001) and their symbolic capacity within criminal justice processes (Mason, 2013).
Corresponding author:
Zoë James, School of Law, Criminology and Government, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth,
PL4 8AA, UK.
Email: z.james@plymouth.ac.uk
911914TCR0010.1177/1362480620911914Theoretical CriminologyJames
research-article2020
Article
James 503
Further, hate studies have provided the opportunity for criminology to consider the
boundaries of its project (Jenness and Grattet, 2001), identifying the necessity for crimi-
nology to re-engage with issues of racism (Dixon and Ray, 2007), and the social harms
engendered by bias-motivated behaviours that are not defined as crimes (Tombs, 2018).
With the intention of furthering discussion in this area, this article identifies the harms of
hate experienced by Gypsies and Travellers that are multiple and varied, normalized and
complex. By utilizing a critical hate studies approach (James and McBride, 2018) and
drawing on empirical data gathered in a rural area of England, the article considers
explanations for the hate experienced by Gypsies and Travellers. The harms of hate dis-
cussed here constitute subjective harms that manifest as crimes, systemic harms that are
inherent within processes and structures of governance, and symbolic harms expressed
via speech and language (Žižek, 2008). The article is therefore able to present a critical
analysis of hate harms that recognizes the human need to flourish, rather than simply to
survive, in late modernity.
The article will initially set out the existing ‘problem’ presented by Gypsies and
Travellers, wherein their experiences of criminalization and victimization overlap and
must be considered within the context of the tensions between (and misunderstandings
of) sedentarism and nomadism. The article specifically deals with issues of race, crime
and victimization by virtue of discussing the diverse communities represented by the
limiting moniker of ‘Gypsies and Travellers’. Further, the article acknowledges and chal-
lenges hierarchies of difference that exist within legislation, policies and practice, and
considers how a more nuanced approach, informed by the perspectives of Gypsies and
Travellers themselves serves better to appreciate their lived experience (Phillips and
Bowling, 2008). The article then goes on to provide a framework for analysis that is
informed by ultra-realist criminology (Hall and Winlow, 2015).1 In doing so, the article
responds to a call for critical thinking within hate studies (Perry, 2006).
The harms of hate are elaborated in this article in relation to the realms of recognition
human subjects require to flourish, that are love, esteem and respect (Yar, 2012). By
approaching the harms of hate in this way, it is possible to identify and draw out the
omnipresence of neoliberal capitalism on the lived experiences of Gypsies and Travellers
as its vagaries serve to block access to true recognition of human needs (Honneth, 1996).
The article, therefore, identifies how criminological theory can move beyond existing
debates in studies of race and ethnicity and engage more effectively with the wider social
sciences, specifically psychology and sociology. In doing so, the article intends to iden-
tify a nuanced approach that acknowledges the unique nature of Gypsies’ and Travellers’
experiences as a specific minority perspective. However, the article also makes a univer-
sal point about the nature of human subjectivities based on a consideration of the funda-
mental formation of the human self.
Methodology
The theoretical approach here is based on a comprehensive reading of literature in the
areas of identity, hate studies, criminology and Romani studies. In order to illuminate the
theoretical framework the article draws on evidence gathered in 2015 on the harms of
hate experienced by Gypsies and Travellers that was part of a wider research study on the
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