NCJ Number
201586
Date Published
2003
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This is the preface to the report on data pertinent to hate crimes in California for 2002, with attention to type of crime, motivation, trends, and prosecution.
Abstract
As defined in California Penal Code section 13023, hate crimes are "any criminal acts or attempted criminal acts to cause physical injury, emotional suffering, or property damage where there is a reasonable cause to believe that the crime was motivated, in whole or in part, by the victim's race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or physical or mental disability." The 1,659 hate crime events reported in 2002 involved a 26.6-percent decrease from 2001. The number of victims of reported hate crimes decreased 28.6 percent from 2001 (2,007 compared with 2,812). The number of known suspects of reported hate crimes decreased 20.8 percent from those reported for 2001 (1,963 compared with 2,479). Data on bias motivation focuses on the following: race/ethnicity/national origin (1,036, a decrease of 32.1 percent from 2001); anti-other ethnicity/national origin (199, a decrease of 535 percent); anti-Hispanic (156, a 24.3-percent decrease); anti-gay (male homosexual) (267, a 22.4-percent decrease); anti-Black (482, a 19.1-percent decrease); and anti-Islamic (14, a decrease from 73 in 2001). Data on type of crime distinguish between violent and property crime. Violent hate crimes decreased 26.6 percent, and property crime decreased 26.7 percent. A total of 351 complaints were filed as hate crimes by district attorneys and elected city attorneys; 253 convictions were obtained; 164 were for hate crimes, and 89 were for non-bias motivated crimes. This report is in the form of narrative highlights and does not contain data tables. Data-collection methodology is described.