Austria - 2012
In the context of hate crime, is racist motivation treated as an aggravating circumstance?
- Code:
- RED29
- Key Area:
- Anti-racist Crime Legislation & Implementation
- Strand(s):
- Racism
| Short Answer |
Racist and xenophobic motivation is an aggravating factor of an ordinary crime. |
| Qualitative Info |
In Austria, hate crimes do not form separate criminal offences; however, bias motive is an aggravating factor of an ordinary crime (to be taken into account when it comes to the question of the scope of the penalty): Sec. 33 Criminal Code (Besondere Erschwerungsgründe [particular aggravating grounds]) item 5 contains the aggravating circumstances of racist, xenophobic or other particularly condemnable motivations. ECRI criticised that Sec. 33 item 5 Criminal Code was ‘very rarely applied’, and that ‘no court decision implementing this provision has been noted’. The application of this provision is not recorded in any official statistics. The weak application of this provision is regarded by some NGOs the result of the police (recording complaints), the public prosecutor and the trial courts not taking racist and xenophobic motives seriously enough. Sources: |
| Groups affected/interested | Migrants, Refugees, Roma & Travelers, Muslims, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Linguistic minorities, Asylum seekers |
| Type (R/D) | Extremism - organised Racist Violence, Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Islamophobia, Afrophobia, Arabophobia, Anti-roma/zinghanophobia, Religious intolerance, Inter-ethnic, Intra-ethnic |
| Key socio-economic / Institutional Areas | Policing - law enforcement |
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