Data on the volume of so-called “Gypsy crime” was collected even before 1974 – except in Budapest – by specialists, known as “gypsy crime line managers”, working in the counties. The term “Gypsy criminal” was first included in official statistics in 1974 and remained there until 1989.
Labelling crime by ethnicity
The entire socialist era was characterised by the registration of so-called “Gypsy criminals,” a practice that reinforced stereotypes about an alleged inherent predisposition of Roma to criminality while ignoring structural disadvantages they faced.
Debates over “Gypsy crime” emerged as early as the 1960s, including among academics. Articles published in Belügyi Szemle (Interior Review), the journal of the Interior Ministry, often reflected and reinforced these prejudices. By the 1980s, some researchers began to challenge the validity of the term altogether, arguing that there were no crimes unique to Roma, no distinct criminal methods, and no statistical difference in the scale of offenses compared to non-Roma populations.
“In the minds and consciousness of ordinary people, and even in the criminal literature, we can find absolute misconceptions and even, not infrequently, prejudiced statements on this issue. Many people have the completely mistaken idea that belonging to the Roma ethnic group is automatically linked to some inherited criminal tendency. Almost shockingly, many people do not know; there is no inherited criminal predisposition.”
István Tauber
criminologist (1986)
Further Reading / Sources
A magyarországi cigányság története. Történelem a cigánykutatások tükrében, 1890–2008
Dupcsik, Cs. (2009). Budapest: Osiris Kiadó. 134-237
Pont annyira bűnözők a cigányok, mint amennyire arzénes gyilkosok a dél-alföldi asszonyok
Szontagh Veronika (2023). 24.hu
Roma is? Szegény is? Bűnös is? In. Borbíró Andrea et al. (szerk.) A büntető hatalom korlátainak megtartása: a büntetés mint végső eszköz. Tanulmányok Gönczöl Katalin tiszteletére.
Kerezsi Klára, Gosztonyi Márton (2014). Budapest: ELTE Eötvös Kiadó, 235-273
A hátrányos helyzet és a bűnözés összefüggései, különös tekintettel egyes kisebbségi csoportokra
Tauber István (1986). Budapest: Tankönyvkiadó