NCJ Number
210700
Date Published
2005
Length
54 pages
Annotation
This report provides detailed information on hate crime in California for 2004, specifically bias motivation, type of victim, and location for both violent crimes and property crimes, and information on prosecutorial actions.
Abstract
The California Attorney General’s Hate Crime Reporting Program was implemented in September 1994 with agencies requested to identify and submit all reports of hate crimes that had occurred. 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 of in part, by the victim’s race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or physical or mental disability.” In this annual report, detailed information, provided by all police agencies and district attorney offices in California is presented for the 2004 reporting period on, but not limited to, bias motivation, type of crime, location of crime, number of victims, and the number of known suspects. In addition, prosecutorial information is provided on total cases referred, hate crime case filings, criminal case filings, hate crime convictions, and other convictions. Highlighted findings are presented in the following categories: crime data, bias motivation, type of crime, prosecutorial data, and trend data. Highlighted findings for 2004 include: (1) hate crime events decreased 5.5 percent from 1,491 in 2003 to 1,409 in 2004; (2) sexual orientation hate crime events decreased 22 percent; (3) violent crime offenses decreased 9.4 percent; and (4) a total of 407 hate crime cases were referred for prosecution. In addition to the above highlighted findings, race/ethnicity/national origin hate crime offenses have consistently been the largest bias motivation category of hate crimes since 1995, accounting for at least 60 percent of all hate crime offenses. Tables and figures