Nicolas (2014) provides information about a trial against fifteen Croatian Rroma by the French prosecutor’s office. The prosecution requested for five of the fifteen defendants the maximum sentence of ten years of imprisonment. The Rroma are accused of deliberately having instigated minors to steal and to having traded them amongst each other. The children were literally educated to steal, the prosecution states. The charge is organised crime, human trafficking and group theft. The accused are charged with the involvement in over a hundred thefts, of which the vast majority was committed in France. The gangs were allegedly built on hierarchical families, that were lead by a clan chief: “For the judiciary, those offenders, who settled on sites in  Lorraine and Alsace, belong to family structures that are completely hierarchiszed, with up to seven clans operated in the mode of groups that are directed by family chiefs from afar. The operation mode was always the same: burglaries during a few days, aimed at homes in a given sector, virtually raids to find jewellery and money” (Nicolas 2014). With this charge, Nicolas conveys a common misconception about Rroma. The accusation of criminal, hierarchically organised family-gangs, who commit crimes on the command of a clan chief, has been transformed into an unquestioned fact. However, this supposed fact is based on massive prejudices, misinformation and culturalising racism. Rroma are not more criminal than other ethnic groups. A cultural explanation for crime is necessarily racist and ignores and discredits the majority of the blameless Rroma, living integrated. The idea of hierarchical family ties traces back to the projection of the medieval caste system onto the Rroma. However, this is incorrect. While it is true that the family has an important place among the Rroma, the organization is largely egalitarian. In addition, the stereotype of arranged marriages is communicated, which is only true for a minority of the Rroma. Furthermore, the phenomenon of child trafficking, as it is presented here, has to be critically questioned. Social science studies show that social realities behind begging or petty crime are largely hidden. Similarly, the structural differences of the societies involved and any related reasons for a migration from Romania to France. The research conveys a more complex, contradictory notion of the subject and points out that crimes such as incitement to begging or trafficking of children are pervaded by a wide variety of morals in the analysis and assessment by authorities, which deny the perspective and motivations of the people concerned and force on them their own ideas of organised begging, child trafficking or criminal networks (compare Oude Breuil 2008, Pernin 2014).

• Nicolas, Eric (2014) Roms : jusqu’à 10 ans requis. In: L’Est Républicain online vom 3.7.2014. http://www.estrepublicain.fr/actualite/2014/07/03/roms-jusqu-a-10-ans-requis
• Oude Breuil, Brenda Carina (2008) Precious children in a heartless world? The complexities of child trafficking in Marseille. In: Child Soc 22(3):223–234.
• Pernin, Thierry (2014) Nancy (54) : peine maximale contre les Roms qui forçaient leurs enfants à cambrioler. In: France 3 Lorraine online vom 3.7.2014. http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/lorraine/2014/07/03/nancy-54-peine-maximale-contre-les-roms-qui-forcaient-leurs-enfants-cambrioler-510871.html

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