Organic Law 8/2021 of 4 June and its implications in the criminal sphere: special reference to aporophobia, social exclusion and age as discriminatory factors

Abstract

As it is known, hate crimes have been linked to the fight against discrimination since their origins, aiming at the protection of socially vulnerable groups. However, this objective has been undermined by the reforms that this category of crime has undergone, since all, without exception, have followed an expansionary trend that has considerably amplified the content of these figures. This is the context of Organic Law 8/2021, of June 4, which is the subject of this study and is responsible, among other measures, for converting aporophobia, age and social exclusion into criminally relevant differentiating factors.
As far as aporophobia is concerned, its inclusion in the Penal Code has been the subject of civil and institutional demands for years. This reaction was certainly necessary, since «the poor» are the most unprotected social sector and the one that suffers the greatest social exclusion. However, a different matter is the suitability of maintaining or introducing other factors, as well as the incorporation of a final clause that allows the aggravating circumstance to be applied regardless of whether the passive subject really belongs to the group characterized by the factor that the active subject attributes to him.