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Hate Crimes Down Overall But Up Against Lesbians And Transgender People
Overall, hate crimes in L.A. are down 17 percent (Photo by lazyllama via Shutterstock)
And now for some good news: hate crimes decreased by 17 percent in Los Angeles in 2013. This number comes from the L.A. County Commission of Human Relations (LACCHR), which analyzes reported hate crimes in L.A. every year. There were 384 reported hate crimes in 2013, down from 462 the year prior, according to a release. Those numbers are also the lowest they've been in 24 years.
The best fact from the report is that there were no murders or attempted murders classified as hate crimes, something that hasn't been true in the past decade. Additionally, serious physical assaults or assaults with deadly weapons dropped 38 percent.
Another good thing is that there are less young people committing these crimes. While juveniles once made up the largest group of perpetrators of hate crimes (40 percent in 2006), they're now the smallest group at 14 percent.
Of all the hate crimes, 82 percent involved victims from four groups: African-Americans, gay men and lesbians, Latinos and Jews. While this has generally been true over the years, there is some good news: hate crimes targeting gay men have dropped 41 percent, and crimes targeting Jews have dropped 48 percent. But, it's not all good news and not every group has seen a decline in aggression. Attacks on lesbians, transgender people, Asians, Middle Easterners and Protestants have all increased. There were 25 attacks against lesbians, up from 11 the previous year, while there were 19 reported attacks against transgender people, up from 13. There has also been no change in the number of anti-immigrant slurs used in the commission of crimes—there were 15 reported both in 2013 and 2012.
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Antelope Valley had the most hate crimes once the numbers were adjusted for population, followed by metro Los Angeles.
And of course, this doesn't account for unreported hate crimes or crimes that haven't been classified as hate crimes. And in no way does this report diminish the horrific hate crimes that have occurred—384 total is still at least one hate crime a day.
We wrote about some alleged hate crimes from 2013 that include the home of an African-American family nearly destroyed and covered in swastikas, a transwoman beaten on her way home from work and gang members driving a black family out of Compton. Past reports from previous years are available here.
Related:
Hate Crimes Rose 15 Percent In County, The Valley Appears Particularly Hateful (2012)
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