- rroma.org

Dammann (2014/I) reports on a criminal “Rroman-gang” that is said to have defrauded trusting home sellers of large sums of money. The journalist goes in detail into the circumstances of the criminal fraud: the vendors were contacted and, after a valuation of the property, were invited to Rome to take a deposit for the house. There, they were tricked into accepting counterfeit money. The offence itself should not be trivialised. It is an illegal act that must be punished. However, what is surprising is how uncritically it is simply claimed that the perpetrators are Rroma. Where does this knowledge come from? By mentioning the ethnicity, Dammann suggests that crime and Rroma are directly related. This is not so. Rroma are not more criminal than any other ethnic groups. Rather, this impression arises through the continuous thematisation of the minority in connection with criminal offences as in this article: “Roma gangs rip off trusting home sellers with deceitful currency transactions. Alone in the canton of Zurich, victims lost over a million francs in so-called rip deals. Also Elisabeth Kummer* (72) and her partner Heinz (77) from the canton of Aargau can tell you a thing or two about the Roma crooks.” The stereotype of criminal, hierarchical Rroma gangs that commit crimes at the command of clan chief is widespread. This notion of hierarchical families can be traced back to the projection of the medieval caste system onto Rroma and to the equation of Rroma families with criminal organisations. This is incorrect. While it is true that the family has an important role among the Rroma, its organisation is largely egalitarian. By continuously addressing a criminal minority of the Rroma, one discredits the majority of Rroma who live an integrated life. In addition, the identification of ethnicity has to be critically looked at, as it is anything but simple to determine. Not rarely, one simply assumes that the persons in question are Rroma (compare Dammann 2014/II).