As a Youth-Worker back in the '80s and '90s, at a Youth Centre which served a school catchment area with a couple of 'tough'estates, in a town with an established, council-maintained Traveller Site, I found that the Traveller kids would stick with, and stand up for, their own kind if they felt under attack, physically or verbally, but otherwise they were no more difficult to deal with than the Settled kids.

Within both groups we had youngsters who were thieves and had to be watched closely, some were anti-social and anti-authority, some tended towards vandalism (which I took to be an element of their anti-social/anti-authority stance), a few could be violent, but most were decent young people who responded positively to being listened to and treated as young adults (which is exactly what they were), but I couldn't say that either group was 'better' or 'worse' than the other.

Youth Work, although a part of the education system, was (still is?) based on the 'befriending' concept rather than a teacher/student relationship, so we often found that youngsters who were regarded as 'difficult' in school formed happy, respectful relationships with adult Youth Workers - this applied equally to the Travellers as it did to the Settled community.

Just my two-penn'orth, based on my only experience of regular contact with Travellers.