Switzerland

How hate crime data is collected

Hate crimes are prosecuted under art. 261bis of the Swiss Criminal Code, which protects against racial discrimination in public. As a result, offences are registered that do not fulfil the definition of hate crimes, and should, ideally, be removed from the hate crime statistics. On the other hand, many offences that comply with all of the prerequisites of a hate crime are not recorded (e.g. grievous bodily harm with racist motives and racial insults not carried out in public), as they do not fall under Art. 261bis of the Swiss Criminal Code.

Hate crimes are not recorded as a distinct category by the police. The Federal Office for Statistics has completely updated the Police Crime Statistics (PCS) system and since this process took place it is possible to record offences, that do not fall under Art. 261bis StGB (e.g. a racially motivated offence not committed in public), as having a racial motive. As this feature is only optional, and the validity of the record depends on the relevant training and instruction of the police, the data is currently not used for the hate crime report.

Neither prosecutors nor the judiciary is recording hate crimes. The only information related to hate crimes are the statistics of convictions regarding Art. 261bis and 261 of the penal code, which are published by the Federal Office for Statistics. The Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) collects and analyses the judgements and decisions relating to art. 261bis of the Swiss Criminal Code. The Federal Commission against Racism maintains a database of those judgements and decisions relating to art. 261bis, which are pronounced by cantonal law enforcement agencies and courts as well as by the Federal Supreme Court. The database provides statistics that classify data according to bias motivation, target groups and the type of offence or incident.