An insider looking in or an outsider wannabee? Studying vulnerable hard-to-reach populations in the field of victimology – the example of the Roma communities in Sweden

Abstract

This article reviews methodological barriers to victimological research on vulnerable hard-to-reach populations and presents a reflexive discussion of insider and outsider positions in a study researching Roma communities’ victimization in Sweden. As a Roma (Traveler/resande) academic, I found that some aspects of my identity were linked to an insider position, while other aspects of my identity were often perceived by study participants as outsider attributes. Within the framework of critical reflexivity, this article considers the impact of my insider/outsider position at each stage of the research process. The article rearticulates the importance of researcher reflexivity, mainly when both researchers and participants exhibit multiculturality, which has become more common in the globalized world.

Discrimination and victimisation of minorities in Spain: The research potential of the EU-MIDIS project

“…From that perspective, performing research on minorities and ethnicity-based hate crime-defined as "… a criminal act motivated by hatred, bias or prejudice against a person or property based upon the actual or perceived race and ethnic ity" (Muncie & McLaughlin, 2012, p. 211)-is a demanding task for criminologists, not only because the topic is sensitive and prone to ideological interpretations, but also because some groups are difficult to reach. This is the case for foreigners (Carvalho da Silva & Prado Manrique, 2020), but also for certain national minorities, like the Roma (Wallengren, 2020). Molnar For instance, the latest version of the International Crime Victim Survey or ICVS (van Dijk et al,2007) included a general question on hate crimes that could be used as a dependent variable, but did not collect the independent variables that would have allowed researchers to identify the victims' perceptions of the specific reason that had provoked the crime: Was it their nationality, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation?…”

The network expression of a Roma diaspora

“…The Roma (often referred to as Gypsy) arguably represent one such hard-to-reach population (Stewart 2013, Vacca et al 2021, Wallengren 2021. Apart from being the largest ethnic minority in Europe (10-12 million people, according to the most common estimations; Bernát & Messing 2016), previous research indicates that the Roma's cultural patterns are of great interest to understand the nature of human social behavior and organization regarding factors such as the consideration of the future and norm enforcement (Espín et al 2022, Martín et al 2019, Okely 1983, Stewart 2013).…”