Promising Practice

Obligation to prove bias motives and document the result in cases of violent crime

Prüf- und Dokumentationspflicht von vorurteilsbasierten Tatmotiven bei Gewalttaten
In cases of violent crime, German police officers are duty-bound to investigate whether or not there is evidence of a bias motive having prompted an offence.
Country
Germany
Type
Improve recording and data collection
Category
Flagging potential hate crimes
Provision of guidance, training and capacity building
Use of bias-indicators

Organisation

All police authorities (Alle Polizeibehörden).

Start and end date

Start date:

15 August 2015.

End date:

Ongoing (as of May 2021).

Scope

National.

Target group(s)

Police officers.

Funding

National.

Objectives

  • Ensure that bias motives are always considered during police investigations and that they are regarded as an aggravating circumstance during prosecution and sentencing.
  • Identification of a hate crime motivation also entails the obligation to report the offence to the Federal Police Office by way of the criminal police reporting service in cases of politically motivated crime. This renders the offence statistically visible (in the public eye).

Outputs

No information on outputs is available. However, being obliged to consider the possibility of a bias motive raises awareness of hate crimes among police officers in general.

Description

In cases of violent crime, German police officers are, based on binding guidelines, now duty-bound to investigate and document whether or not there is evidence that a bias motive has prompted an offence.

Critical success factors

  • The police have to carry out their daily tasks according to the guidelines.

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

  • A recommendation was made and an agreement reached by the Regulations Commission (the sub-Working Group of the Minister of the Interior’s Conference).
  • A resolution not to pass a parliamentary law was then made by the bodies in charge of the Interior Minister’s Conference.
  • The Federal Parliamentary Investigation Commission set up to investigate the murders carried out by a German neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Underground, recommended that there be an obligation in all investigations to prove/disprove bias motives and to document the result.
  • Each federal state is in charge of training its own police force accordingly to ensure that the practice is carried out satisfactorily.

Monitoring and evaluation

No information on evaluation and monitoring is available. However, being obliged to consider the possibility of a bias motive raises awareness of hate crimes among police officers in general.

Publicly available contact details

Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat).

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