Steep rise in ‘hate crimes’ with a racist motive reported in Oslo

Police at workPolice at work.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

Oslo police received 175 reports of hate crimes last year. That is more than three times as many as the number three years ago.

The figures appear in the Oslo Police District’s latest report on hate crimes, according to TV 2. 175 incidents were indexed as hate crimes in 2016. The previous year, the figure was 143. In 2014, there were 68 such reported crimes, and in 2013, 55 hate crimes were reported.

Around half of the incidents in 2016 ended with successful criminal prosecutions.

Hate crimes are categorized as criminal offenses that are related to ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and disability.

‘We are pleased that the number of reports of this type of crime has tripled over the last three years, from 55 in 2013, to 175 last year.

Since this is a field with a ‘big unknown’, reporting of such crimes is a development we want, so that we can shed light on the scope of the problem’, said the head of the hate crime department of the Oslo Police, Monica Lillebakken.

‘And these crimes are not only on social media, which people may like to believe, but also in public places, such as in the city centers and in the local neighbourhoods of smaller towns’, said Lillebakken to NRK news.

Cases involving hate speech, and actual racist, physical violence committed against black people, or who are darker skinned, were most common in the past year, according to Lillebakken.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today