This page provides information on the national frameworks to address hate crime in Norway. The information provided here should be viewed alongside data presented on Norway's hate crime report page.

Hate crime recording and data collection

In Norway, hate crimes are defined as criminal offences motivated by hatred or negative attitudes directed towards a person or group due to their ethnicity, religion, belief, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, or disability. Any type of criminal offence motivated by these grounds can be considered a hate crime. The term encompasses hateful and discriminatory speech, but also violence and threats, criminal damage, incitement to a criminal offence, and reckless behaviour, such as stalking a person or violating their peace.

The police in Norway record all hate crimes reported to them. Recording happens through manual coding. The police record criminal cases based on the victim's perception. If the victim does not recognize the possible bias motivation but the investigator does, a flagging option is used in the system to record a hate crime. According to guidelines in place since 2018, correctly recorded hate crime cases are prioritized by the police and prosecution.

Hate crime cases are flagged in the police system when first registered. Since recording is done manually by police officers, some cases might not be flagged initially. It is also possible for the investigator or prosecutor to flag a case later. The police co-operate with other agencies if necessary.

There is no hate crime policy or guidance document for prosecutors and the judiciary. However, the Attorney General publishes an annual circular letter in which they announce the criminal justice priorities for the following year. The Public Prosecutor's Office has made hate crimes a priority – regardless of severity – in guidelines and prioritization circulars published since the early 2000s. Police districts are required to give precedence to priority cases, including hate crime, in case of limited resources.

The National Hate Crime Unit publishes an annual report containing statistics on all registered hate crime cases in Norway from the previous year, along with some analysis of the numbers. Hate crime statistics for different police districts in Norway is also published each year. The Police report on hate crimes recorded in Norway in 2025 is available here. Each year, the National Police Directorate in Norway conducts a "Police Citizen Survey", which includes questions on hate crime. The survey results for 2025 are available here.

Hate crime victim support

Norway offers both general and specialized support to victims of hate crime.

Services are provided both by state-run institutions and civil society organizations. There is a dedicated hate crime unit in the police, the National Hate Crime Expertise Unit (formerly the Oslo Police District Hate Crime Unit). Every police district in the country has a focal point within this unit, and police actively reach out to vulnerable communities.

Victim support centres are available in all police districts. The centres can be contacted by victims even if a criminal case has not been registered. The police can also refer victims to the centres in connection with recorded criminal cases. The staff in these centres are social workers and provide assistance with counselling and with filling out compensation claims. In addition, Oslo Police District has its own "safety programme" to follow up on victims of crimes that occur in public spaces.

The police inform the victim about the investigation and its developments, and set up direct contact between the victim and a dedicated police officer. There is no established individual needs assessment process. Instead, the police use a technique of investigative interviewing (known as the "Kreativ" model) that promotes communication, legal protection, ethics, empathy, active listening, and trust through openness. Specialized service providers for victims of hate crimes are not systematically integrated into the general victim support scheme. However, there is ongoing co-operation between the police and civil society. If necessary, the police may decide to refer a victim to a specialized civil society support provider.

As part of the "Safety programme", the police offer special protection measures to vulnerable victims, including maintaining telephone contact, meeting with the victim, and accompanying the victim in public and at the crime scene. All crime victims can use the counselling services offered by the police.

As a party to a criminal case, hate crime victims can apply for access to the case documents. A lawyer will assess whether any case documents should be classified during the criminal proceedings.

The prosecutor also highlights the hate motive and how this affects the victim in court.

Restorative justice is used in some cases in which the offender wishes to apologise and the victim wishes to meet the offender.

For more information on the different support services available to hate crime victims in Norway, please read page 14 of the 2025 Police report on hate crime. 

Hate crime capacity building

In 2021, the Norwegian Police established the National Hate Crime Expertise Unit. The group is part of the Oslo Police District and is a reinforcement of the Oslo Police District's hate crime unit. 

The mandate of the National Hate Crime Expertise Unit is to build the capacities of the police districts in the field through training and guidance and, if necessary, to provide assistance in specific cases.

In 2022, the capacity-building work of the Unit was endorsed by the Chief of Police in all police districts and all police districts established a hate crime focal point. 

The National Hate Crime Expertise Unit has prepared a train-the-trainer course to instruct dedicated police officers on delivering hate crime trainings in their own police districts. The training focuses on correctly recognizing and recording hate crimes to ensure they are prioritized in line with the Attorney General's annual circular letter. The training also focuses on the impact of hate crimes on individuals, communities and society. The training content emphasizes the importance of follow-up with the victim and draws on an ODIHR's video on "Placing Victims at the Heart of Hate Crime Response", among other materials.

The National Hate Crime Expertise Unit hold regular digital meetings to follow up on work conducted in 2022 in 2023.

The Oslo Police District's Hate Crime Unit  has developed mandatory training videos for all investigators. These videos cover both the investigation of hate crime cases and a broader understanding of the phenomenon.

Between 2023 and 2024, the Unit also provided training on hate crime investigation to the Hellenic police as part of a project implemented in the European Economic Area.