Hate crime scholarship in the UK has burgeoned in recent years, providing a voice to victims through research and subsequent policy development that is informed ‘from the ground up’. Gypsies and Travellers have been included within this research and policy environment, particularly having been recognised as victims of hate crime by government action plans on hate crime in 2009 and 2012 (Home Office, 2009, 2012a). However, Gypsies and Travellers experience a mixed message from government as other policies that are used to ‘manage’ their lifestyles act to exclude them and vilify their traditional nomadic ways of living. As a consequence community tensions between Gypsies and Travellers and settled communities are not resolved and Gypsies and Travellers experience hate victimisation (James, 2013).

This chapter examines how Gypsies and Travellers fit within the hate crime agenda and the contradictions this presents in light of their management more generally as a ‘problem’ population by policing agencies. Initially the chapter contextualises the experiences of Gypsies and Travellers specifically by drawing on hate crime scholarship and Gypsy and Traveller studies. It then goes on to identify the hate victimisation of Gypsies and Travellers and the policing responses to this. Finally, the chapter concludes by briefly considering the underpinning sedentarist notions that inform community tensions and result in hate crimes against Gypsies and Travellers that are not effectively dealt with.

Defining hate crime and managing prejudice

As noted in numerous studies of hate crime, definition of the concept has proved difficult (Hall, 2005; Chakraborti and Garland, 2009) and a lack of consensus serves to stir debate among academics and confusion or dissolution among practitioners (Chakraborti, 2010; James and Simmonds, 2012). In essence, the aim of defining a crime or incident as a ‘hate crime’ is to differentiate offences that are committed due to a motivation of ‘hostility or prejudice’ in order to challenge discrimination and oppression of marginalised groups (Perry, 2001). The notion of hate crime then, and the legislative framework that it informs, provides a message to society that victimisation of people on the basis of their identity is unacceptable.