The most common hate motives are skin colour, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Of these, it is hate crime aimed at queers that has had the largest percentage increase, with 44 per cent more reports in 2023 than the year before.
This is evident from the police’s recent report on “Hate crime in Norway 2023”, which was presented on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the report, which has been prepared by the Norwegian Police Directorate and the Oslo Police District, a total of 1,090 complaints coded as hate crimes were registered in Norway during the course of last year. This is an increase of 18 per cent from 2022.
It is hate speech that makes up the largest share of reported hate crimes, with 421 reports in 2023. This is followed by bodily harm and reckless behaviour.
In the report, it is assessed that “the development is believed to be related to increased awareness of hate crime in the population, in addition to increased competence of the police”.
“Nor can a real increase in hate crime be ruled out”, it is emphasized.
Biggest increase among queers
By far the most common hate motive is skin color or ethnic origin, which makes up a total of 46 percent of all last year’s reviews in this field.
Furthermore, 23 per cent of the reports concern hate crime on the basis of sexual orientation, while 11 per cent relate to gender identity and gender expression.
It is also the latter hate motives that have had the largest percentage increase in 2023.
For sexual orientation, the increase is 44 per cent from the previous year.
– We see that the increase that started last year in reported hate crimes against queers continues, says police chief Ida Melbo Øystese in a press release from the Oslo police district.
– There has also been an increase in reported anti-Semitism after the conflict in the Middle East broke out on 7 October last year. We do not know whether the increases mean that more people are reporting and that there have been fewer cases of fraud, or whether it reflects an increase in the number of incidents. The latter is worrying if it is the cause of the increase and is something we take seriously, says Øystese.
Probably dark numbers
According to Øystese, hate crime has a high priority for the police.
– We investigate all reported cases, she emphasizes.
At the same time, there is reason to believe that the dark figures exist. This is also pointed out in the report.
In July 2023, the figures came from a survey among queers that the Oslo police district conducted in the wake of the terrorist attack on 25 June 2022.
Here, 40 per cent of the respondents stated that they had been exposed to hate crime in the last two years. Of these, only eight percent had reported the relationship to the police.
