Hate Crimes Fell in California Last Year, but Religion-based Incidents Increased Sharply

Should the chancellor of UCLA and other UC schools be charged with hate crimes?  They did allow the Hamas/Nazis take over their campuses, stopped classes, chants of “kil the Jews” reverberated on the campuses.  LA Mayor Bass allowed pro-Hamas, Nazi, rallies in her city.  Is she to be charged with Hate Crimes?  Why not?

“While hate crimes against most racial and ethnic groups have declined, religion-related crimes have increased. In particular, reported anti-Jewish and anti-Arab/Muslim hate crimes more than doubled between 2020 and 2023. Anti-Jewish crimes increased from 190 in 2022 to 297 in 2023, an increase of 56%. Hate crimes motivated by anti-Arab or anti-Muslim sentiment rose from 48 to 65, or 35%.

An offender’s motivation may be particularly hard to discern in the case of anti-Jewish or anti-Arab/Muslim crimes. We know that a person’s race/ethnicity does not necessarily coincide with adherence to a particular religion—including Islam or Judaism. And, of course, we cannot observe whether an offender is motivated by bias against a religion, an ethnicity, or the perceived political implications of either characteristic. For these reasons, our analysis of anti-Jewish and anti-Arab/Muslim incidents includes crimes motivated by either religious or racial/ethnic bias.

All this crime.  Can you remember hate crime prosecutions?  Organizations closed; events stopped?  Or did the government protection the haters?  Hate crimes?  Government has allowed it.

Hate Crimes Fell in California Last Year, but Religion-based Incidents Increased Sharply

PPIC, 10/15/24  https://www.ppic.org/blog/hate-crimes-fell-in-california-last-year-but-religion-based-incidents-increased-sharply/

Reported hate crimes in California declined in 2023, after three straight years of troubling increases. While anti-Black crimes are notably down, they continue to represent a disproportionate share of hate crimes, and crimes against Jewish and Arab/Muslim Californians have continued to increase.

Hate crime data from 2001 to 2023 are now available from the California State Department of Justice (DOJ). Local law enforcement agencies categorize criminal offenses as hate crimes after determining that there is reasonable evidence that they were motivated by bias against a victim’s race/ethnicity, gender, religion, or other personal traits. Experts and advocates caution that hate crimes are often underreported because many victims fear retaliation, and that identification and reporting of these data vary across the state’s local law enforcement jurisdictions.

Following an alarming period in which reported hate-motivated crimes more than doubled—from 1,015 in 2019 to 2,120 in 2022—California saw a slight downturn in 2023, with 1,970 hate crimes recorded. This decrease was driven mostly by a decline in reported crimes against persons, from 1,467 in 2022 to 1,288 in 2023. Other bias-motivated incidents—largely property crimes, but also “society crimes,” which include drug, pornography, and weapons law violations—rose from 653 to 682.

This decrease in reported incidents is evident across many racial and ethnic groups: anti-Asian crimes declined slightly, from 143 to 125, and anti-Latino crimes went from 210 to 200. Anti-Black crimes fell from 661 to 526 in 2023, but still make up the largest proportion (27%) of reported hate crimes.

While hate crimes against most racial and ethnic groups have declined, religion-related crimes have increased. In particular, reported anti-Jewish and anti-Arab/Muslim hate crimes more than doubled between 2020 and 2023. Anti-Jewish crimes increased from 190 in 2022 to 297 in 2023, an increase of 56%. Hate crimes motivated by anti-Arab or anti-Muslim sentiment rose from 48 to 65, or 35%.

An offender’s motivation may be particularly hard to discern in the case of anti-Jewish or anti-Arab/Muslim crimes. We know that a person’s race/ethnicity does not necessarily coincide with adherence to a particular religion—including Islam or Judaism. And, of course, we cannot observe whether an offender is motivated by bias against a religion, an ethnicity, or the perceived political implications of either characteristic. For these reasons, our analysis of anti-Jewish and anti-Arab/Muslim incidents includes crimes motivated by either religious or racial/ethnic bias.

In 2023, 15% of reported hate crimes targeted Jewish people, and 3% targeted Arabs or Muslims. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 2% of adult Californians identify as Jewish and approximately 1% identify as Muslim. According to the American Community Survey, about 1% identify as having Arab ancestry.

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of hate crimes motivated by anti-Jewish sentiment in 2023 were property crimes. In fact, property crimes have constituted roughly that proportion of anti-Jewish crimes since 2003. In contrast, anti-Arab/Muslim hate crimes are much more likely to be committed against persons: 50 of the 65 reported incidents (77%) in 2023; were against persons, 81% were against persons in 2022, and the majority of anti-Arab/Muslim hate crimes have targeted people in every year for which we have data.

Over the last two and a half months of 2023—the early days of the conflict in Gaza—there were alarming rises in hate-motivated acts against both Jewish and Arab/Muslim populations nationwide. The statewide numbers provided here include incidents reported to California law enforcement agencies at any point during the year.

Having recognized that publicizing hate crimes is a key prevention strategy, California is taking steps to facilitate the reporting process. Governor Newsom’s CA vs Hate campaign is a multilingual outreach effort to encourage Californians to report hate-motivated acts of any kind; it offers ways to report online or by telephone at 833-8-NO-HATE. The California Legislature has passed bills directing law enforcement’s response to such incidents. PPIC will continue to monitor trends in this crucial area of criminal justice.