Indicator history

The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung (BVT) [Federal Agency for State Protection and Counter Terrorism] within the Federal Ministry of the Interior (MoI) together with the nine Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung [Provincial Agencies for State Protection and Counter Terrorism] are responsible for collecting data relating to hate and racist crimes. However, since the main task of the Federal Agency for State Protection and Counter Terrorism is to identify preventive measures against extremist offences, a focus is on data relating to extremism.
Data relating to hate and racist crimes are published in
• the annual Verfassungsschutzbericht [State Protection Report] (issued by the Federal Agency for State Protection and Counter-Terrorism), the latest report being the Report 2011 (covering the year 2010). It gives an overview of incidents recorded by the police and relating complaints (alleged offences) filed; however, it does not contain any data on indictments or demands for prosecution by the prosecution and the outcomes of court proceedings. The State Protection Report used to categorise incidents in right wing extremist, racist/xenophobic, anti-Semitic, and since 2007 anti-Muslim and ‘other’ incidents. However, since the 2010 State Protection Report these categories are excluded.
• the Sicherheitsbericht [Security Report], issued by the Austrian government, provides data stemming from the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice; the latest being the Security Report 2010. The Security Reports contains statistical material of firstly the Kriminalitätsbericht [Criminal Report] (includes complaints filed, cases in which a suspect was identified and the suspects; legal assessment by security authorities at the time of the complaint filed); secondly the Gerichtliche Kriminalstatistik [Judicial Criminal Statistics] (data on convicted persons (final sentence) but no data on offences); and thirdly the Betriebliches Informationssystem (BIS-Justiz) [Judicial Information System] (activities of prosecution and handling of cases at court).

However, there is a lack of data concerning racist-related crime, as the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance noted:

"ECRI notes that the official statistics still cover only offences under the Prohibition Statute or Section 283 of the Criminal Code; racist insults as such (Sections 115 and 117(3) of the Criminal Code combined) and cases involving the application of Section 33(5) of the Criminal Code are not listed separately. Also, unless there is a link with the activities of extremist groups, the statistics do not provide any information on who committed these offences, and give only a partial picture of who the victims are (the offences covered are divided into five categories: racist, antisemitic, xenophobic and, since 2007 'anti-Muslim and "others"). The result is that, at the time of writing, the authorities still had no official statistical system that would make it possible to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the Austrian criminal justice system in combating racism."

Source: http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/BMI_Verfassungsschutz/BVT_VSB_2011_online.pdf; http://hudoc.ecri.coe.int/XMLEcri/ENGLISH/Cycle_04/04_CbC_eng/AUT-CbC-IV-2010-002-ENG.pdf; http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/BR/III-BR/III-BR_00445/index.shtml