| Popis: |
In this paper, we will elaborate on Romani girls who appear before the Youth Court in Belgium. Romani girls only concern a small proportion of the Youth Court population and they are mainly charged with theft and burglary (see e.g. Cipollini, Faccioli and Pitch, 1989). According to Siegel (2013) some of these girls are trained into a delinquent path from an early age on. Given poverty and precarious living circumstances, these girls can become involved in itinerant criminal groups that operate in Western Europe. Because of their specific characteristics, it is sometimes argued that these girls are ‘untreatable’. Based on own research about Belgian Youth Court practices, we will discuss and reflect about the alleged untreatable character of these girls. Why are they perceived as untreatable? Shouldn’t we question the ‘culture-centrism’ of European juvenile justice systems? Drawing on our own research findings, we will reflect on their ambivalent position in the system which refers to the thin line between victim and offender. We will also go into methodological problems we encountered when doing research on Romani girls. Youth Court records of Romani girls often lack important information (age, social networks, school,…) so that is sometimes difficult to gain insight in these specific cases. Above this, Romani people tend to use several aliases, and false dates of birth, which makes it difficult to obtain a full overview of their Youth Justice pathway or to track them down in official databases (e.g. to follow-up their pathway into adulthood). This, and also their international mobility, hinders doing research on this population. |
