WJEC Level 3 Applied Certificate & Diploma Criminology sample

UNIT 1 CHANGING AWARENESS OF CRIME Individual crimes – hate crime Criminal offences A hate crime is any crime that is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate based on a person’s race, religious belief, sexual orientation, disability or if they are transgender. Any regular crime can be aggravated by having a hate element. For example, if you were assaulted, the offender would be charged with assault and the court would be told of the hate motivation behind the crime. The hate element would be an aggravating factor and the punishment is likely to be higher. Types of victim Victims of hate crime could be anyone who falls under the five strands, stated above, or through association with someone under the strands. For example, Adam Pearson has experienced disability hate crime as a result of neurofibromatosis, which caused benign tumours to grow on nerve endings on his face. He has raised awareness of this crime in an attempt to educate people and seek acceptance in society. Types of offender The usual type of offender is anyone holding some form of prejudicial view against someone falling under the five strands and tends to be people with traditional views differing from those of the victim. An example of a racially driven hate crime is the Charleston Church Shooting in South Carolina, USA in 2015, where, during a prayer service, nine people were killed by Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, who targeted one of the oldest black churches in the USA. Level of public awareness The level of public awareness has grown recently due to a high media focus, particularly with hate crime for race, religious belief and sexual orientation. The Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 added to previous legislation, ensuring religiously aggravated offences had an increased sentencing element. For example, assault is punishable with a maximum of six months in prison. However, this rises to two years if the assault is aggravated by a religious element. In addition, the Crown Prosecution Service ordered a crackdown on social media hate crimes in August 2017. This has added to raising the level of public awareness of these crimes. There has been an increase in the number of hate crimes. Adam Pearson Crown Prosecution Service: The principal prosecuting authority for England and Wales, which acts independently in criminal cases investigated by the police. Key term 20