Deserving of Penalty and Public Outrage? The 'Gypsy' Within the Punitive City.

This article concerns the separate deaths of two unrelated Travellers. The first case is the killing of Traveller boy Fred Barras by farmer Tony Martin in England in 1999. The second is the killing of the Traveller John Ward by farmer Pádraig Nally in Ireland in 2004. Throughout, the author explores the potential for social learning as a consequence of instruction via the media, and penal signification. Theoretically the idea that the media may play an influential part in the civilising process, considered here as being more akin to a decivilising offensive is also addressed in order to reflect on, and incite further debate as to the impact of stereotyping on minority groups, in this instance Travellers and the Roma (both groups commonly referred to as ‘Gypsies’). Elsewhere the Tony Martin case has been covered in depth, as has the media’s (RTÉ’s) influence on the Nally case. This paper adds to knowledge by further deconstructing public responses towards these communities prior to (and following) both deaths. Keywords: Decivilising offensive, Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, signification, penality,Tony Martin, Pádraig Nally.

http://www.probation.ie/EN/PB/WebPages/WP16000177