Trapped Within Borders: Exploitation of Migrant Seasonal Workers in German Agriculture During COVID-19 Lockdown; Placing the Actors and Understanding Their Roles

While European borders were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Europe witnessed the exodus of Romanian seasonal workers to Germany. Although both countries’ governments agreed to allow this under the condition of the strictest adherence to the sanitary restrictions and workers’ rights, soon after, the media began to report situations of non-adherence to the coronavirus-related measures and workers’ labor rights. Following the theoretical framework of the Routine Activities Approach and its updates, this case study combines the collection of press material (N=140), Facebook posts (N=93), and interviews with seasonal workers in agriculture (N=5) and identifies the exploitative behaviors and actors involved. The results suggest that the perpetrators of these behaviors were certain intermediaries as well as farmers. The seasonal workers most at-risk were those with poor literacy who had not mastered the German language, were financially precarious, and were unwilling to seek the authorities’ help. The spaces in which the exploitation occurred were cyberspace or isolated rural farms. Seven guardians and seven super-controllers played a considerable role in protecting the workers on the farms, but not during the recruitment process. Situational prevention techniques, such as the creation of a mobile application to inform workers of their rights and allow them to report violations remotely, and collaboration with online platform services to flag fraudulent job advertisements automatically are proposed

The Law of the Jungle. The Online Hate-speech against the Roma in Romania

The Roma people are the largest minority in Europe and, since centuries, have suffered discrimination and hate crimes which persist currently. This paper analyzes 4,136 comments (2016–2020) about the Roma posted on an online open-access forum. Our findings suggest that the factors influencing Romanians’ hostility against the Roma are: (1) the general distrust in the Romanian administrations, (2) the feeling of threat, and (3) the in-group favoritism. The article discusses strategies such as the improvement of the citizens’ trust in the public administration, pragmatic interventions bottom-up which aim to increase the social pacification, the redefinition of the political correctness, and the application of situational prevention techniques to prevent hate crimes

The Imperative Need for Criminological Research on the European Roma: A Narrative Review

Except for the knowledge that the Roma people endure harsh conditions and are victims of discrimination, scarce criminological research has given detailed attention to further victimisation or offending among the Romanies. Identifying articles in the browsers Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google, we reviewed European publications (1997–2020) in English, French, Romanian or Spanish that addressed the Roma’s victimisation or offending. The 44 studies that matched our criteria suggested that (1) Roma people are victims of hate crimes with devastating consequences; (2) Roma children and women are victims of domestic violence to a greater degree than other groups, although the Roma tend to oppose violence against women; (3) forced early marriages exist among some Romanies and may cause serious problems in adulthood; (4) youth delinquency among the Roma does not differ from that of the non-Roma, although Roma adolescents face more deprivation; (5) Roma men and women are overrepresented in prison and face many difficulties in re-entering society once they are released and (6) there are organised criminal activities in some Roma groups that are supported by their community. Further rigorous post-positivist research, particularly quantitative, is needed to generalise the findings and replicate former studies. Areas of special interest are the causes of anti-Roma discrimination other than ethnicity, the victimisation of children, the Roma’s lack of institutional trust and the relation between victimisation and offending. Conducting comparisons with the general population is essential, and we propose that victims’ surveys and self-reported delinquency studies include questions on ethnicity

Sex Workers' Work-Related Victimisation and Drug Use During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland

Criminologists have monitored the coronavirus pandemic’s effects on crime and criminal justice since the pandemic’s outbreak. Nonetheless, vulnerable and difficult-to-reach populations have been understudied thus far. This study sheds light on the experiences of sex workers (SW) during the first year of the coronavirus in Switzerland, a country where prostitution is legal. Based upon 40 questionnaires with SW outdoors and indoors and 50 h of field observation, SW reported that the pandemic has had adverse financial and psychosocial effects on them. During the first year of COVID-19, seventeen SW were victims of at least one work-related offence, the most prevalent of which were theft and fraud. Nevertheless, most SW did not report the incidents to the police. Comparing the non-victims with victims, we found that victims, particularly those of multiple crimes, are younger, more often foreigners from extra-EU countries, in an illegal situation and needed to work face to face during the prostitution ban during the lockdown in Switzerland. However, despite these circumstances, most SW do not use illegal drugs, and only a few of them used more during the pandemic. Our research findings were similar to those reported in former studies, although we could infer that the violent victimisation of our sample is less and none of the SW indicated violence on the part of the police. Nevertheless, we have no point of comparison with former years and thus propose a periodic crime victim survey of SW, as well as further prevention measures in the prostitution area

PreVist project: prevention of victimisations in sex work in the canton of Vaud (Switzerland). Reflections from the criminological praxis .

PreVist is a project created and implemented by the association Fleur de Pavé, a non-governmental organisation engaged in sex work risks minimisation in the canton of Vaud (Switzerland). Based on research on the victimisation and stigmatisation of sex workers and situational crime prevention strategies, this project aims to reduce the victimisation of sex workers. We conducted workshops with indoors and outdoors sex workers and their clients. Three types of workshops were developed for the sex workers: “crime prevention and victim’s rights,” “what makes a good client” and “the need to be supportive and united”. As an additional measure, pocket alarms were distributed. To motivate prosocial behaviour, we developed a guide for clients which was distributed on the streets and in the erotic massage salons. We hope that this project could inspire other organisations to carry out prevention projects in this field. At this stage, the limitations of this project are: a) the lack of systematic and rigorous experimental evaluation of the efficacity of the project, b) the limited room for manoeuvre of an association, and c) the risk of encouraging undocumented migrants to report crimes. To overcome these limitations, we suggest collaboration between academia and NGOs for the design, implementation and evaluation of such programs

SDF pendant la pandémie de coronavirus. Étude exploratoire en Suisse Romande: Rapport des résultats principaux

La pandémie de coronavirus a affecté et continue d'affecter négativement les personnes de toutes les couches sociales, mais notamment les membres des populations les plus précaires. Dans cette étude exploratoire menée en Suisse romande, nous avons examiné les vécus pendant la pandémie des personnes sans domicile fixe (SDF), une population particulièrement vulnérable. Au total, nous avons sondé 32 personnes SDF : 14 pendant la première vague de la pandémie (mars-septembre 2020) et 18 pendant la deuxième vague (septembre-mars 2021). Les résultats corroborent le fait que la pandémie a eu des effets néfastes sur les répondants - tant sur le plan socioéconomique que psychologique. Or, malgré les adversités, la plupart des participants ne consomment pas de drogues légales ou illégales et, dans l'ensemble, ceux qui ont déclaré en consommer n'ont pas signalé d'augmentation pendant l'épidémie. De même, la victimisation et de la délinquance durant la première année de pandémie sont faibles parmi les participants. Or, la victimisation répétée des victimes semble non-négligeable, étant un thème qui mériterait davantage d’étude à l’avenir

¿Publicar o perecer? Reflexiones a partir del II Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores en Criminología

This special issue of the Criminological Bulletin contains nine of the best contributions presented during the 2nd Meeting of Spanish Early-Career Researchers in Criminology, which took place at the Law School of the University of Malaga (Spain) on the 13th and 14th of February 2020. This article presents firstly the nine contributions of the special issue. As well, it discusses the challenge of publishing while being an early-career researcher. In particular, we briefly review the literature on the “publish or perish” phenomenon to set out its assets, as well as its difficulties. Last, we outline several recommendations for publishing successfully while preserving the ethical and methodological principles of our discipline.Esta edición especial del Boletín Criminológico recoge nueve de las mejores contribuciones presentadas durante el II Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores en Criminología, que tuvo lugar en la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Málaga (España) los días 13 y 14 de febrero de 2020. Tras presentar las nueve contribuciones, este artículo discute el reto que supone publicar siendo joven investigador. En particular, revisaremos de manera breve los escritos relativos al fenómeno “publica o perece” a fin de exponer sus aspectos positivos, así como sus dificultades, y, por último, esbozaremos algunas recomendaciones para publicar de manera exitosa, preservando los principios éticos y metodológicos de nuestra ciencia