In law, a status crime is an offense that criminalises a person’s status, condition or characteristics rather than specific behaviour or actions. Status crimes penalise individuals for who they are rather than what they do. Laws penalising homelessness, addiction or mental illness are often considered criminalising status because they punish individuals for conditions beyond their immediate control, rather than any specific criminal action.
Loitering and truancy are usually status crimes where there are restrictions on people of certain status congregating in particular public spaces or absenting themselves from where they are compulsorily required to be. They are criminalised based on age, gender and even visual cues to class, occupation and identity.
While some status offence laws are enacted to protect persons of certain status, adding criteria of status often raise significant ethical and legal issues about criminalising behaviour that, for persons of different status, would be entirely legal.
Presumed criminality
India, despite formal guarantees of constitutional equality, today is experiencing an atmosphere where biases within the criminal justice system and the impunity granted to those in power have resulted in an ever-increasing criminalisation of the poor and marginalised.
The situation of Muslims in India, particularly, illustrates how state laws, municipal regulations and officials’ pronouncements work together to accuse them of what can only be described as “status crimes”.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.