I Critical Romani Studies come nuova frontiera dell’intersezionalità: madri rom e sinte in esecuzione penale esterna

The article presents some preliminary results of an ongoing research project concerning mothers serving sentences in the Veneto Region (Italy). This paper will focus on alternative measures to imprisonment, analysing the criteria that guide the courts’ decisions on which type of alternative measure to grant (entrustement to social service or house arrest) and on the acceptance or denial of the requests presented by women (such as the postponement of the enforcement of the sentence), and also the elements that guide probation staff in the drafting of reportsand in their work towards women, with a focus on Roma and Sinti women. These criteria will be analyzed by combining two theoretical approaches: one focusing on “legal culture” and developed within the sociology of law, the other drawing on Critical Romani Studies, a very recent line of research that intends to “contaminate” Romani Studies with critical social theories such as Critical Race Theory, feminist and intersectional theories, and postcolonial theories