Hate crime has emerged as a new ‘crime problem’ in Denmark, which has led to legislative adjustments and requirements of the police to improve identification, registration and handling of hate crime. International research shows that the investigation of hate crime is a complex issue not least because hate crime is legally not a crime category but an aggravating circumstance in principle to any crime. There exist no studies of hate crime policing in Denmark, and this study aims to fill a knowledge gap by a qualitative exploration of the processing of hate crime in the criminal justice system in a Danish context and from the perspective of the police, which is a relatively overlooked perspective. Specifically, the study explores why many hate crimes are filtered out through the criminal justice system, and through a thematic analysis the study identifies a number of challenges on a legal, organizational and practise level, that all contributes to a filtering out of hate crime throughout the Danish criminal justice system. Goldstein’s theory of problem-oriented policing is used as framework to discuss the implications of law in hate crime policing. The Danish police is expected to deal more effectively with the hate crime problem, and more knowledge on what works in hate crime policing is needed.

Keywords: Hate crime, investigation, criminal justice processing, problem-oriented policing, thematic analysis.