The number of police-recorded cases excludes 3,875 offences recorded under the Prohibition Act (§§ 3a-3h VerbotsG) and 205 offences classified as insults or honour crimes, all of which fall outside of the OSCE's definition of hate crime.
In 2022, the following training sessions were offered to criminal justice professionals: Hate Crime Online and Offline (delivered by the civil society organizations Weisser Ring, ZARA, and PSV Wien); Cybercrime and Social Media (OLG Innsbruck); a workshop on investigating and prosecuting online hate speech; and tools on cyberforensics, online hate and anti-Semitism, and hate crimes.
As of 17 January 2023, a total of 26,548 police officers had completed the training sessions. In addition, 205 police officers from the Federal Provinces were trained to deliver training events to front-line officers and to serve as contact points for CSOs and victim support organizations.
There were several notable hate crime cases in 2022. In Styria, a person with a neurological impairment was threatened due to their disability. The police recorded this incident as a hate crime and a dangerous threat. The regional court imposed a preliminary injunction on the perpetrator. Also in Styria, two children were physically assaulted while being subjected to racist insults. The police recorded the insult and the physical injury and sent the case to the prosecution. In Vienna, a person was attacked after refusing to lower a rainbow flag. The police recorded the physical injury and sent the case to the prosecution.
This category includes hate crimes registered under the categories of bias against "ethnic/national origin" and/or "skin colour". Anti-Roma hate crime are also included under this category.
This category does not include offences recorded under the category gender identity.
This category includes hate crimes based on bias against sexual orientation (325) and hate crimes based on bias against gender identity (48), although the two categories were reported on separately.
ODIHR recognizes Austria's long-term efforts to improve its hate crime recording and data collection mechanism as well as its hate crime victim support system. However, based on the available information, it observes that Austria's hate crime recording and statistics do not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that Austria would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of criminal justice officials, including prosecutors and judges, to address hate crimes.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States agreed to a common definition of hate crime and committed to collecting reliable data and statistics on such crimes. To that end, hate crimes need to be distinguished throughout the recording and data collection processes, from incitement to hatred and other hate speech crimes. Participating States have also committed to introducing or further developing professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support Austria in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance, including further resources and tailored capacity-building assistance for prosecution and judiciary.
🛈 Please note that the total number of incidents may be lower than the sum of incidents presented in the breakdown chart above, as some incidents involve multiple bias motivations.
🛈 ODIHR no longer presents descriptions of property attacks in the incident tables below. Data on property attacks are presented in the breakdown charts above. One property attack may target multiple properties or involve multiple types of attack.