There is an alarming extent of deterioration in the social and cultural life of the Slovak and Czech Gypsies, mainly resulting from the insensitive communist policy of forced assimilation and suppression of everything ethnic. It involves phenomena such as poor living conditions in illegal satellite village settlements, dependence on social security system (since unemployment often locally reaches 100%), widespread illiteracy and mental deficiency, frequent intermarriage, general loss of traditional customs and skills, alcoholism and drug abuse, as well as very real criminal patterns that include illegal loaning, pocket-picking, theft, robberies, prostitution, physical attacks and murders.