The Securitization of Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in Europe: Context, Critique, Challenges Huub van Baar Draft version Keynote lecture delivered at New Scotland Yard, London, UK. Held 3 December 2014 In the context of the international seminar Crime and Punishment: Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in the Criminal Justice System Organized by IDRICS, Bucks New University and The University of Warwick Introduction * Some persons would consider the organization of a seminar under the title “Crime and Punishment: Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in the Criminal Justice System” as problematic as such, for – as their argument would probably go – the title would too much suggest a ‘natural’ relationship between ‘crime’ and Gypsy, Traveller and Romani communities. * I would like to thank Margaret Greenfields for organizing this event and for inviting me to give this lecture. A part of this lecture is based on my article ‘The Emergence of a Reasonable Gypsyism in Europe’ which appeared in Timofey Agarin (ed) When Stereotype Meets Prejudice: Antiziganism in European Societies (Stuttgart, Ibidem Verlag, 2014, pages 27-44). Huub van Baar Assistant Professor of Political Theory Justus Liebig University of Giessen Institute of Political Science Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities 35394 Giessen Germany Senior Research Fellow University of Amsterdam Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies (ACGS) Faculty of Humanities 1012 VB Amsterdam The Netherlands http://www.huubvanbaar.nl