If I have beef with someone, I could punch them and go to jail.

But I can also bully them, humiliate them, degrade them, psychologically annihilate them even, and that’s fine, legallly. Why?

  • tourist@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    In South Africa, where I live, that kind of thing is a criminal offense known as crimen injuria.

    From Wikipedia:

    Crimen injuria is a crime under South African common law, defined as the act of “unlawfully, intentionally, and seriously impairing the dignity of another.” Although difficult to precisely define, the crime is used in the prosecution of certain instances of road rage, stalking, racially offensive language, emotional or psychological abuse, and sexual offences against children.

    There are also a good number of other laws that deal with child abuse, so offenders won’t just get slapped with a crimen injuria charge on their criminal record and say it was just road rage when questioned.