The profile of the victim of hate crimes committed in Romania according to Romanian jurisprudence

• In Event: Victimization

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to outline the profile of the victim of hate crimes in Romania by analyzing the records of the decisions pronounced by the criminal and civil courts during the last 30 years. In order to prevent, manage and punish the hate and/or prejudice based incidents, the legislator adopted multiple legal instruments, some more effective than others. This fragmentary legislative approach produced a rather heterogenous jurisprudence which is rather unknown both at a national and international level.
Secondly, this paper provides a critical analysis of the elements taken under consideration by the Romanian judges in order to decide if the perpetrator acted based on hate and/or prejudice against a specific type of victim. More often than not these elements are described in detail and have to be proved beyond any reasonable doubt. Knowing why a specific victim was targeted is crucial in order to understand which elements of the identity of the victims make them more vulnerable.
Understanding what determined the courts to acknowledge the existence of a hate and/or prejudice based motive in relation to a specific profile of the victim is a necessary step towards improving the response of the public authorities to such incidents.

Author

• Cătălin Nicolae Constantinescu-Mărunțel, Faculty of Law, Bucharest University of Economic Studies