Roma women serving community sentences in Italy: an analysis through the lens of Critical Criminology and Critical Romani Studies

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article asserts that it can be analytically expedient to employ and combine aspects of Critical Criminology and Critical Romani Studies in research that analyses the relationship between Roma and the criminal justice system. The resulting approach focuses on criminalization and racialization processes and how they are intertwined, as well as on social construction of representations and on structural discrimination, which is analysed from an intersectional perspective. When applied to research into mothers serving community sentences in Italy, this analytical framework enabled us to highlight forms of discrimination that affect Roma women given non-custodial sentences and show how their relationship with the criminal justice system is influenced by the prevailing cultural constructs regarding gender and motherhood, as well as by racialization processes and class backgrounds.