HATE CRIME AND MARGINALIZED GROUPS

Abstract

Hate crime is new in our criminal law but it is not new occurrence and its roots take place back in the Roman law.History itself provides many examples of hate crimes : the suffering of the Jews ,Romanies and Slavs during the second war , the suffering of the African American people in the US in the middle of the last century.It is important to emphasize that these crimes are not empowered by the behavior of the victims instead from the features inside the criminals. Hate crime is based on prejudices and it can appear anywhere. No society is immune to the criminal actions caused from prejudices and intolerance. Hate crime is consisted of two elements , first the action must be recognized as a crime in the Criminal Code and the motive for that action must be based on a particular prejudice. To qualify the crime as a hate crime it does not necessarily mean that the offender feels hatred , it is enough the motive for the crime to be based on prejudice. Hate crimes lead to different consequences such as verbal attack to an individual or a group , property damage , physical violence and murder. The European Charter of human rights from the 2000 , articles 1,10,21 and 47 guarantee the rights to human dignity , freedom of opinion and expression , religion , non-discrimination and the right to legal remedies and fair trial.

Keywords : suffering , hatred , violence , intolerance