Exact Classification in Hate Crime
The judiciary must accurately categorize prejudice-motivated crimes ("Hate Crimes") in the future. Justice Minister Anna Sporrer (SPÖ) stated this on Friday in a decree to the Supreme Court, General Prosecutor's Office, Higher Regional Courts, and Higher Public Prosecutor's Offices - the IT system must record whether the motive of a hate crime is, for example, the victim's gender, sexual orientation, age, skin color or ethnic origin, disability, or religion.
"Hate crimes sad reality"
For a hate crime to be present, there must be both a criminal act such as bodily harm, dangerous threats, property damage, or incitement, and the motive of a derogatory prejudice against certain groups. "Hate crimes remain a sad reality in Austria. This was made very clear to us a few weeks ago by homophobic acts of violence," said Sporrer in a statement.
The government recently announced an action plan against hate crimes and particularly femicides. This requires a solid foundation, argued Sporrer - this is to be realized with improved statistical recording. "A reliable data basis enables more targeted action in future crimes and thus also contributes to prevention."
Training for judicial staff
In addition to the technical implementation, there will be training for judicial staff. In individual cases, categorization can indeed be complex according to the decree: for example, swastikas are generally not to be classified as anti-Semitism, but as an attack on Western democracy and therefore to be recorded as the prejudice motive "Ideology/Western Democracy" - this can be different for swastikas on a synagogue. Then the category "Religion-Jews" would also need to be entered.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.