Prosecution and sentencing figures are based on the same recording methodology as police-recorded figures. Prosecution figures exclude 1,748 cases prosecuted under the Prohibition Act (§§ 3a-3h VerbotsG) and 259 cases of honour crimes (§§ 111, 113, 115, and 116 StGB). Sentencing figures exclude 123 cases sentenced under the Prohibition Act (§§ 3a-3h VerbotsG) and 23 cases of honour crimes (§§ 111, 113, 115, and 116 StGB). All the excluded cases fall outside the OSCE definition of hate crime.
It is only possible to disaggregate prosecuted hate crime cases by type of crime. Austria's Ministry of Justice is developing categories for recording bias motivations in line with the categorization system used by the Ministry of the Interior. The IT system is expected to be finalized by the end of 2024 and operational in 2025.
The number of police-recorded cases provided in the charts below refer to the number of bias motives and not the number of offences. This is why the numbers below do not match the total number of police-recorded cases in the table above. A total of 4,109 bias motives recorded under the Prohibition Act and those classified as insults were excluded from ODIHR's report, as they fall outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
In January 2023, ODIHR delivered a Diagnostic Workshop to examine national structures and services to support victims of bias-motivated crime in Austria. Participants included representatives of the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMJ), the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office, the crime prevention departments of various local police departments and associations such as WEISSER RING, Neustart, ZARA, the anti-discrimination offices of Vienna and Styria and the Jewish Community of Vienna.
This "diagnostic workshop" served to deepen the understanding of national authorities regarding the interaction between law enforcement agencies and victims' organizations in order to ultimately achieve improvements for victims of hate crime at all levels. The two main areas of focus for the working meeting were respectful and sensitive treatment of victims, and the needs assessment and referral of victims of bias-motivated crime. These topics were determined in advance via a detailed analysis of online questionnaires completed by representatives of national authorities.
In March 2023, experts from the Austrian and German Ministries of Interior (MoIs) and the German task force against hate and hate speech participated in a two-day event to discuss hate crime and online hatred, with a focus on investigation, prosecution, prevention, data collection, training initiatives for the police and judiciary, and co-operation between the state and civil society.
In June 2023, the MoI and FMJ organized a roundtable against hate crimes targeting LGBTIQ+ people in co-operation with representatives of the community in Austria. Following an initial data analysis, the roundtable contributed to developing measures to address hate crimes targeting LGBTIQ+ people. During the roundtable, the MoI presented the results of an exchange with Austria's Office for Crime Prevention and Victim Support of the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Head of the Diversity Unit of the Vienna Police Department. The roundtable led to the inclusion of "trans" as a subcategory of "gender" in the list of available bias motivations in the police flagging programme.
The MoI also organized a two-day workshop in November 2023 (co-funded by the European Commission) on planning and delivering public campaigns on hate crime and hate speech. The workshop was attended by 24 representatives from 15 EU Member States, Norway, the UK, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the Council of Europe, the EU Commission and key stakeholders from the research and NGO sectors.
Between October 2023 and October 2025, the MoI is conducting a quantitative and qualitative study of police work with the Austrian Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), as well as on the analysis of possible preventive measures against hate crime and hate speech, funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
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.
A further 2,420 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
A further 393 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
A further 251 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
A further 154 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
This category includes motives registered as "Other" within the "religion" category in the Austrian Ministry of Interior's data recording system. A further 62 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
This category does not include motives recorded under the category “gender identity.”
A further 195 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
This category includes hate crimes based on bias against sexual orientation (498) and hate crimes based on bias against gender identity, although the two categories were reported on separately.
A further 541 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
A further 155 recorded bias motives were excluded from this category as the legal basis for their recording falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
This category includes 136 hate crimes committed with a bias based on social status and 176 hate crimes with a bias based on age. This category might include motives for which the legal basis falls outside the OSCE hate crime definition.
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. 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. 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.
In addition to incidents submitted with detailed descriptions, this chart includes 18 anti-Semitic incidents reported as statistics by the Jewish Community of Vienna.
🛈 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.