Below you will find a list of relevant offenses in a simplified description that you can report to the police.

• Insults are disrespectful or disrespectful statements about you in words, pictures, writing and gestures. You are degraded as a person or portrayed as inferior, i.e. your personal honor is attacked.

• Defamation is the assertion or dissemination of facts to third parties that are not demonstrably true and are likely to disparage or degrade you. Slander is an intensification of defamation in which demonstrably untrue facts about you are deliberately claimed or spread. In the case of defamation and slander, your personal honor is attacked against third parties in a similar way to insults.

• A threat is an endangering offense in which you or someone close to you is threatened with an offence against sexual self-determination, physical integrity, personal freedom or against an object of significant value. Threats can be communicated directly in person, by letter, telephone or on the internet or via social media.

• Extortion occurs when someone uses force or threatens you with a serious evil to force you to do, tolerate or refrain from doing something, thereby causing a disadvantage to your assets or those of another person in order to unjustly enrich themselves or a third party. Attempted extortion is also punishable.

• In the case of bodily harm, you are physically abused or your health is damaged. Attempted bodily harm is also punishable.

• Offenses against sexual self-determination include a number of punishable forms of conduct, such as sexual assault, sexual coercion or rape. This means that sexual acts are performed on you against your will or you are forced to perform sexual acts. A particular form of abuse is stealthing, in which a sexual partner removes or damages the condom without your consent before sexual intercourse.

• Damage to property means that one of your objects is damaged, destroyed or its appearance is changed in a way that is not only insignificant and not only temporary. Attempting to cause damage to property is also punishable.

• Stalking means that someone is stalking you without authorization in a way that is likely to significantly impair your life, for example by repeatedly following, calling, harassing or threatening you.

Any criminal offense can become a bias-motivated or politically motivated crime if it is clearly based on a group-related misanthropic attitude and relates, for example, to your membership of the LGBTIQ* group. The crimes listed can be carried out by unknown or known perpetrators.

Violence also occurs in partnerships – this is referred to as domestic violence. Domestic violence includes all cases of physical and psychological violence within marital or non-marital cohabitation. This includes, in particular, crimes of coercion, threats and bodily harm, even if they occur after a separation and are still directly related to the previous cohabitation. Domestic violence therefore does not directly include all cases of violence in the family, but only (ex-)partner violence. The Protection against Violence Act protects victims of domestic violence primarily through the possibility of being able to use the shared home without having to share it with the violent person. It can be extremely difficult to report (ex-)partners. We recommend contacting a suitable counseling center for support.

You can find out how to secure evidence in cases of domestic violence here.

In principle, anyone can file a criminal complaint free of charge. If you have been the victim of a crime or have witnessed a crime, you can report this to a police authority, a public prosecutor’s office or a local court. A criminal complaint against a person unknown is also permissible. By filing a criminal complaint, you trigger a police investigation. It is therefore advisable to file a criminal complaint directly with the police to speed up the investigation. A criminal complaint cannot be withdrawn. As soon as the police learn of a criminal offense, they must investigate.

You can file a criminal complaint verbally with the police, in writing by post or via the online police station. The verbal criminal complaint will be recorded. You can file a criminal complaint yourself or be represented by a lawyer.

It is generally possible to file a criminal complaint anonymously. This is because the police must also investigate matters that have been reported anonymously and are relevant under criminal law. It should be noted that crimes reported anonymously are much less likely to be solved. However, witnesses must provide their personal details to the police investigating the matter. In justified cases, however, measures to protect witnesses are conceivable, such as protecting their own home address.

You should file a criminal complaint as soon as possible. This gives the police the best chance of securing evidence and solving the crime. You can also file a criminal complaint days, weeks or even months after the crime. For some criminal offenses, such as insults, you must file a criminal complaint in writing in addition to the criminal complaint, for which a deadline of three months after the person suspected of the crime becomes known applies. As a rule, the police will inform you that a criminal complaint must be filed in addition to the criminal complaint.

If you file a criminal complaint, it is important to inform the prosecuting authority, such as the police, clearly and without being asked, whether the crime may have been committed due to LGBTIQ* hostility and therefore hate crime. When questioning witnesses as part of the report, you should make sure that this is done verbatim, otherwise you can request a correction. You can always take a trusted person with you or contact an advice center or legal counsel in advance. There is also an officer* at every police station who can help you with this. If you have written a memorial protocol after the crime, you can use it when filing a criminal complaint. You can also present evidence that you have secured yourself. When filing the criminal complaint, ask for the file number in case you need to make further inquiries.

Important: The police will record any criminally relevant facts that come to their attention. You will not simply be sent away. If you are uncomfortable with other people being in the room, you can ask to report in a protected room.

If you file a criminal complaint, the police may ask for various information about the facts of the case and the course of events.You can prepare for the criminal complaint by answering the following questions in advance:

• What has happened?
  Indicate which of the offense(s) listed above it is or could be. Give details of any damage, injuries or material damage caused.
• When did it happen?
  State the time or period of the event as precisely as possible.
• Where did it happen?
  Give details of the place where the incident took place. If you do not know the address, try to describe the crime scene as accurately as possible.
• Who did it happen to?
  Are there other people affected by the crime or were other people involved in the incident? Who witnessed the crime or could have witnessed it? If possible, give the names and contact details of witnesses.
• Why did it happen?
  Describe the causes that led to the incident and what previous events may have been significant. Did LGBTIQ* hostility lead to the attack by the perpetrators? If you know the perpetrator, give their personal details. If the perpetrator is unknown to you, be prepared to give as accurate a description of the person as possible.
• How did it happen?
  Describe the sequence of events as accurately as possible, keeping to the chronological order as best you can. Describe how the people involved behaved before and after the incident. In the case of physical violence, state whether weapons or other objects were used. The reproduction of dialog between the parties involved, especially discriminatory statements, is also important for clarifying the motive of the perpetrators.

Once a report has been made, the police investigate. After the police have presented the results of their investigation to the public prosecutor’s office, the latter decides whether further criminal investigations should be carried out, whether charges should be brought against the accused person or whether the proceedings should be discontinued. If the proceedings are discontinued, you will receive a written notification.

In addition to reporting to the police, you can also report LGBTIQ*-hostile crimes to reporting platforms. This helps to shed light on the dark field of group-related misanthropy and make needs visible.

You can also report cases of digital violence to HateAid. Here you will also receive free advice and, if necessary, financial support.

You can have digital content deleted from social media, for example, via the HSH media authority. We explain how this works here.

Wie das funktioniert erklären wir dir hier.

People react differently when they are affected by crime. Some become active straight away, while others react by withdrawing and trying to sort themselves out and process what they have experienced. Sometimes you only realize what has happened at a later point in time, but you can still take action.

In the case of domestic and sexualized violence in particular, there is a high inhibition threshold for those affected to press charges.

Counseling services in the community and beyond can help you to classify crimes, find a good way to deal with them and develop a further course of action.