A Hate Crime essentially has two important ingredients – an underlying offence which has been committed coupled with a bias. A hate crime is supposed to have taken place when the perpetrator intentionally targets an individual or a property owing to his/her bias against a certain characteristic of that individual or his/her hatred towards that characteristic.
While these characteristics could be many, for example, race, colour, regional identity, sexual orientation etc, for the purpose of the Hinduphobia Tracker we would focus on the religious identity of the victim (specifically Hindu religious identity). Interestingly, in this category of hate crime, the religious identity of the Hindu spouse coupled with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman he is associated with also plays a role in the perpetuation of the hate crime against the Hindu man.
The crimes included in this category would therefore have the following three components:
- A criminal offence should have been committed.
- The criminal offence should have been committed against a man.
- The criminal offence should entail bias and/or hatred against the victim’s religious identity as a Hindu and the crime should be motivated by religious considerations or have markers that could prove that religion played a role in the crime being committed against the victim/s.
- The criminal offence could also be committed against the victim Hindu owing to his association specifically with a non-Hindu woman, motivated by hate and/or bias against the religious identity of the victim Hindu man.
These crimes would include a man belonging to the Hindu faith being denied his right to practice his religion in any manner either by force or coercion after he in is in a relationship with a woman who does not belong to his religion. The force or coercion in such cases could be asserted by the partner herself or her family, friends and/or religious leaders who may be directly or tangentially involved in denying the Hindu man his right to practice his faith either by directly desecrating his faith or by forcing the victim to change his religion. In such cases, violence, in some cases leading to murder, is not uncommon. In several cases, the aggression against the Hindu man leads to his murder or assault. In some of the cases documented, there have been instances of the man committing suicide owing to the pressure to convert his religion to that of the perpetrator.
There is another unique strand in this category of hate crimes against Hindu men. In several cases, the Hindu man is attacked, assaulted or even murdered for his association specifically with a non-Hindu woman. In several cases, the Hindu victim and the non-Hindu woman are not in a relationship but are merely seen with each other owing to plutonic circumstances. In several cases documented, the Hindu victim is attacked/assaulted/murdered/lynched owing to the non-Hindu perpetrator/mob’s hate/bias towards the religious identity of the victim man and also, the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman, who is a co-religionist.
Such religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu men have been divided into the following sub-categories:
- Torture of family to force man to convert
- Threatened to convert by family of partner
- Assaulted for refusal to convert
- Forced to convert after marriage
- Forced circumcision
- Forced to follow non-Hindu practices
- Blackmailed to convert
- Forced to convert before marriage
- Forced circumcision
- Forced to follow non-Hindu practices
- Murder upon refusal to convert
- Suicide upon refusal to convert
- Attacked by non-Hindu partner or/and her family
- Killed by non-Hindu partner’s family
- Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman
- Brainwashed and/or Groomed
- Family/friends of deceased victim says he was brainwashed/groomed
- Victim admits being brainwashed/groomed
- Family claims grooming
In all of these crimes, a specific religious angle is imperative to be recorded as a religiously motivated hate crime against a Hindu man for being associated with a non-Hindu woman either in a relationship or not.
Why and how it is a hate crime
As explained, a hate crime is said to have taken place when it meets two specific components – a) A crime or criminal offence has occurred b) there exists a bias, prejudice or hatred against one or more characteristics of the victim.
In this category, the denial of religious freedom, coercion and force applied to either adopt customs of an alien religion and/or disregard Hindu customs constitutes the offence in itself. In cases where the forceful conversion is coupled with assault or murder or the denial of the Hindu man to convert leads to assault or murder also constitutes an offence under the law.
Once established that an offence has been committed, it becomes important to establish the bias which led to the crime to ensure we can establish the crime as a religiously motivated hate crime.
In the cases that would form a part of this category, it would be imperative that the motivation to commit that crime was driven by bias or hate against the religious identity of the victim.
In these crimes, specific hatred against the victim’s religious identity is observed when the perpetrators deny the victim the right to practice their own religion and force them to convert (desecrating Hindu religious symbols, forcing her to wear alien religious symbols leaving their own, forcing her to read religious texts, forcing the victim to go to other religious places leaving their own, misrepresenting religious identity to mislead Hindu men into a relationship, forceful circumcision of the victim man) or commit violence in order to ensure that the victim converts his religion to a religion alien to him (force-feeding beef, murder and assault to convert or upon refusal to convert, blackmailing with intimate videos to convert, threatening family).
However, the two elements working in tantum do not necessarily have a cause-effect relationship. Essentially, it is not always that bias/hate which leads to the crime. In several cases, the hate/prejudice/bias is displayed after the crime has been committed where the cause of the crime is completely different.
Let us consider a hypothetical scenario to explain this aspect better. Let us suppose a Hindu man is in a relationship with a Muslim woman and the Muslim woman or her family murders her Hindu partner after a fight over an issue which is not related to religion at all. However, after the murder, she or her family (as the case may be) expresses or displays religious prejudice/hate/bias in words or actions. After the murder, which was evidently committed for a non-religious, unrelated reason, if the Muslim perpetrator claims that the Hindu partner deserved his fate because of his religious identity – it would prove religious prejudice and the crime would be considered a hate crime, despite the driving factor of the crime not being a religious one.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes a cogent case for such crimes to be considered hate crimes.
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution”.
Men and women, regardless of their religion, have the right to marry and establish a family. The condition, however, is that they should be of sound mind and full age. An extension of this argument would also mean that there should be no coercion of force involved as far as such relationships are concerned. The declaration says that every individual regardless of their religion has this right, it would ideally also extend to the fact that owing to marriage, nobody can or should be coerced or forced into changing their religion.
Drawing from that argument, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”.
While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifically says that every individual has the right and freedom to change his religious beliefs, it also says that every individual has the right to freedom of thought and religion. The moment these two assertions are made, it also extends to the fact that force, and coercion applied to change an individual’s religion is tantamount to the denial of his right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Crimes in this section, therefore, are recorded as a hate crime when a man is targeted in a relationship by either the spouse or her family specifically because of his religious identity.
Another element of hate crimes under this category is when a man is attacked not just owing to his religious identity but also owing to the woman’s religious identity whether or not they are in a relationship. In several documented cases, it has been found that Hindu men have been attacked by a non-Hindu mob, mostly belonging to the Muslim community, simply for being seen in public with a Muslim woman. There have been cases documented where the Hindu victim has been assaulted merely for giving a Muslim girl, who studied in his college, a lift from one place to another.
In such cases, it is thus evident that the religious identity of the Hindu man is a driving factor for the assault by the non-Muslim mob. What is also a driving factor is the religion of the woman he is with. The Hindu man is identified on the basis of his religious identity and then attacked for being with a woman who belongs to the Muslim community.
Sub-categories and why it’s a hate crime
Forced conversion after marriage
In such cases, a non-Hindu woman marries a Hindu man and the force/pressure against the Hindu man to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the non-Hindu woman hiding her religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu woman starts to pressure the Hindu man to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the man’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the man is forced/pressured to convert include forcing/pressurising the man to involuntarily consume beef, pressurizing/forcing to read the Kalma, forcing circumcision, forced to go to the mosque, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the man voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database.
Forced conversion before marriage
In such cases, a non-Hindu woman is in a relationship with a Hindu man when the pressure against the Hindu man to convert his religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu man in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu woman starts to force/pressure the victim to convert his religion and give up his Hindu identity. In such cases, the methods used to force/pressure the victim to convert his religion often revolve around forcing/pressurizing the man to involuntarily consume beef, forced circumcision, forcing/pressurising to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Niqah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where the Hindu man consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing.
Assault for refusal to convert
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the Hindu man faces assault after he refuses to convert and change his religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu woman or her family. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts pressurizing the Hindu man to convert to Islam and upon his refusal, assaults the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu man converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the man was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam.
Threatened to convert by family of partner
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man faces threats to convert and change his religious identity by the non-Hindu woman or her family. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts pressuring the Hindu man to convert to Islam and also assaults the victim to force him to convert. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu man converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the man was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam.
Blackmailed to convert
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is blackmailed to convert his religion. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu woman starts blackmailing a Hindu man to convert his religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu man is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to his family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Murder upon refusal to convert
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts pressuring the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first pressured to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman. The pressure could involve threats and/or violence. The trigger to murdering the man is in these cases is her refusal to comply and change her religion under threat and/or force. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Suicide upon refusal to convert
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the Hindu man faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change his religious identity by the non-Hindu spouse or her family, or religious leaders. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu spouse known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu spouse starts pressuring the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, unable to bear the pressure/threat/violence being mounted by the non-Hindu partner or her family to convert, the Hindu man commits suicide. In such cases, often, threats are also given to the family members of the Hindu man. Since such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim, leading to the Hindu spouse committing suicide, these cases are categorized as hate crimes.
Torture of family to force man to convert
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the Hindu spouse is forced to convert his religion. Several methods are used for such forced conversion. The non-Hindu woman and/or her family, and religious leaders are often documented to issue threats and even employ violence. One of the ways used by such perpetrators is threatening and/or torturing the family members of the Hindu man to pressure him to convert. The perpetrators in such cases issue threats to harm or torture the family of the man. In some cases, there is also violence directed towards the family in order to force the Hindu man to convert. The aim of such crimes is to blackmail the victim into changing his religion by inducing fear of harm to his family. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Attacked by non-Hindu partner and/or her family
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the family of the non-Hindu partner attacks the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first pressured to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman’s family. The pressure could involve threats. The trigger to directing violence against the Hindu man is in these cases is his refusal to comply and change his religion under threat and/or force.
In other cases that have been documented, it is also seen that the Hindu partner is assaulted by the family of the non-Hindu woman simply for his relationship with the non-Hindu woman and by virtue of him following the Hindu faith and not the religion of the non-Hindu woman. In such cases, the relationship is consensual in most cases and the religion of both partners is known to the other. Often, in such cases, there is no direct pressure to convert either, however, the attack is a result of the Hindu man being in a relationship with the non-Hindu partner and not following her religion (Hinduism) specifically.
Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Killed by non-Hindu partner’s family
When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the family of the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman and her family start pressuring the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim woman could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first pressured to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman’s family. The pressure could involve threats. The trigger to murdering the Hindu man is in these cases is his refusal to comply and change his religion under threat and/or force.
In other cases that have been documented, it is also seen that the Hindu partner is murdered by the family of the non-Hindu woman simply for his relationship with the non-Hindu woman and by virtue of him following the Hindu faith and not the religion of the non-Hindu woman. In such cases, the relationship is consensual in most cases and the religion of both partners is known to the other. Often, in such cases, there is no direct pressure to convert either, however, the murder is a result of the Hindu man being in a relationship with the non-Hindu partner and not following her religion (Hinduism) specifically.
Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman
There have been several cases documented of Hindu men/boys being attacked specifically by Muslim groups/mobs for merely being associated or being seen with a Muslim woman in public. In most of such cases, the Hindu man is not in a relationship with the Muslim woman, however, the mob proceeds to threaten and/or assault the Hindu man for merely being associated with the Muslim woman in any capacity.
The rise of such crimes stems from a particularly sinister campaign run by several Muslim ideologues and activists. The campaign claims that Hindu men are attempting to ‘lure’ Muslim women into relationships to ensure that Muslim women leave their faith and follow Hinduism. The propaganda has been spearheaded with the help of WhatsApp groups and the extensive use of social media, sans evidence of the same. In many cases, pamphlets were fabricated to lend credence to this campaign. The root of this campaign lies in the fact that several cases of sectarian crimes against Hindu women in relationships with Muslim men have been documented. In such cases, Hindu women have often been forced to convert to Islam, assaulted, threatened and even murdered owing specifically to their religious identity and their refusal to give up that religious identity to adopt Islam. In order to delegitimize the suffering of Hindu women when such sectarian crimes are committed against them, the theory of ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ was floated by sections of the Muslim community. As this theory gained traction, Muslim mobs started targeting Hindu men who were seen with Muslim women. In several such cases, the Hindu man was assaulted merely for offering to drop a Muslim woman in his vehicle or being friends.
The differentiating factor between such cases and legitimate cases of Hindu women being targeted while in a relationship with Muslim men is that there is no sectarian violence, and pressure to convert. The nature of sectarian violence against Hindu women is not about two adults in a consensual relationship, working together, studying together, or even marrying each other where religious considerations are declared.
In this category of crimes, it is pertinent to remember that in none of the cases, there is an element of the Hindu man masking his identity or forced religious conversion.
Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Brainwashed and/or groomed
In our database, we have not added incidents where men have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a man for his Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incident of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database.
If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim himself says that he was brainwashed/groomed to convert his religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if his family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert his religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to his Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered hate crimes.
Parameters applied
- The victim must be a man.
- The victim man must belong to the Hindu faith.
- The perpetrators must be non-Hindu.
- The declaration of bias/prejudice/hate by the perpetrator can be made before, during or after the crime.
- Even if there is no declaration of bias/prejudice/hate, if the action itself is prejudicial, biased or driven by religious hate, it would qualify as a hate crime.
- Even if the crime itself is committed for a non-religious reason, if there is an expression of religious hate in action or words after the crime has been committed or sometime in the past to prove that the perpetrator harboured religious hate, it would be considered a hate crime.
- In case of forceful conversion, the victim and the perpetrator must be in a relationship or married for the crime to feature in this category.
- If they are not in a relationship, religiously prejudicial or hate-induced crime against a Hindu man when a woman is pursuing the man to get into a relationship with her will also be included in this category of hate crime.
- Those in a consensual relationship leading to the man, who is an adult as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, changing his faith, would not form a part of this category.
- If the Hindu man is in a consensual relationship with a non-Hindu woman, is an adult as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, changes his religion per his own free will and then, a crime is committed against him which is not of a religious nature, such cases will not be included in this category.
- Even if the Hindu man is in a consensual relationship with a non-Hindu woman and a religiously motivated hate crime is committed against the Hindu man, it would be included in this category of hate crime.
- That the crime was religiously motivated and should be considered a hate crime can be established either by the statement of the victim, his family and/or friends, a written complaint, an FIR, the statement of eyewitnesses, investigative reports by media, police statement and/or court documents.
- To decide if a crime is a hate crime to be added in this category, a wholistic approach will be taken where the nature of the crime, what is known about the victim and the perpetrator, all statements by those mentioned in Pt 11 and circumstances of the case will be considered.
- If the victim is a minor, that a crime has been constituted is true ab initio (under the POCSO Act). The only element to be established is whether there was a religious motivation for the crime. In such cases, if there is any conversion due to brainwashing/grooming, attempted conversion, abduction, misrepresentation of religious identity etc it would automatically be considered a hate crime.
- Even if the religiously motivated hate crime is not committed by the partner in the relationship but by her family, friends, community religious leaders or any individual with a fiduciary relationship with the female partner against the Hindu man, a hate crime under this category would have said to be occurred.
- In cases where a Hindu man is assaulted for simply being associated/seen with a Muslim woman, there must be an explicit identification of his or her faith by the non-Hindu mob.
- In cases where a Hindu man is assaulted for simply being associated/seen with a Muslim woman, it is not essential there the man and the woman were in a relationship. The only essential ingredient is that Hindu man being assaulted/threatened by the non-Hindu mob owing to his association with the non-Hindu woman.
- If a Hindu man is assaulted/threatened for his association with a non-Hindu woman for reasons other than religion, even though there is a suspicion of the crime being religiously motivated, it will not form a part of this hate crime tracker unless the victim, an eye witness, or someone associated with the case comes on record to reveal how the crime was religiously motivated.
Example of a hate crime under this category
In May 2023, the police arrested four youths identified as Altamas, Mohammad Anas, Fardeen, and Bittu alias Aamir for abusing and attacking a Hindu youth (named Vinod), who was on his way to drop his Muslim friend’s sisters at their home. The assault took place in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. The accused youths were acting as a group to deter Hindu men from roaming with Muslim girls. Following that, they would notify the Muslim girl’s family.
Daund in Pune, the state police registered an FIR against two individuals named Kumel Kureshi and Asif Sheikh for harassing a Hindu person and his family and forcefully performing ‘khatna’ (circumcision) on him. The police have also booked an unidentified Muslim doctor who helped the primary accused in performing the khatna on the victim.
Laws in India about forced religious conversion
Articles 25-30 guarantee citizens freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion which not only means that a citizen of the country is free to profess and practice his/her religion, it would also mean that no individual should be forced to leave his religion and convert to an alien religion.
The fact that forced religious conversion was a societal issue of concern is evidenced by the fact that while the British ignored enacting laws to protect the indigenous people of Bharat, several princely states did. Examples: Raigarh State Conversion Act, 1936, Patna Freedom of Religion Act, 1942, Sarguja State Apostasy Act, 1945, Udaipur State Anti-Conversion Act, 1946. Specific laws against conversion to Christianity were enacted in Bikaner, Jodhpur, Kalahandi and Kota.
In 1954, Parliament took up for consideration the Indian Conversion (Regulation and Registration) Bill. Six years later, another law, the Backward Communities (Religious Protection) Bill, 1960, was proposed to stop conversion. Both were dropped for want of support. However, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh passed anti-conversion laws in 1967, 1968 and 1978 respectively. Later, similar laws were passed by the state assemblies of Chhattisgarh (2000), Tamil Nadu (2002), Gujarat (2003), Himachal Pradesh (2006), and Rajasthan (2008). The laws were intended to stop conversions by force or inducement, or fraudulently. Some of the laws made it mandatory to seek prior permission from local authorities before conversion.
These laws made forced conversion a cognisable offence under sections 295 A and 298 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertain to malicious and deliberate intention to hurt the religious sentiments of others. They attract a prison term of up to three years and a fine. The punishment, in some cases, is harsher if the offence is committed against a minor, a woman or
