NUMBER OF HATE CRIMES IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY IS CONSISTENT WITH NATIONAL RATE, BUT MORE ARE RACIALLY MOTIVATED

By Miriam Raftery

June 22, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – The massacre of nine people at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina by an avowed white supremacist has drawn national attention to the issue of hate crimes.  So East County Magazine took a look at hate crimes statistics in San Diego County to compare our region to the nation overall. 

In 2013, San Diego had 73 hate crimes, or about 1/100 of the total hate crimes in the U.S. – consistent with our county’s percentage of the total U.S. population. But well over half -- 57% -- of local hate crimes reported were racially motivated, which is higher than the average nationwide.

National hate crimes data

Nationwide, 5,928 hate crimes were reported in 2013, the most recent year for which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has compiled data. 

Of those hate crimes nationwide, here are some facts:

• Nearly half (48.5%) were racially motivated—and two thirds of those targeted African-Americans, followed by whites (21.4%), Asians (4.6%), Indian or Alaska native (4.3%) and 3.2 percent multi-racial.  (Note: the data provided by the FBI did not break down the local data by specific race, religoin, or ethnicity.)

• Other hate crimes were based on sexual-orientation (20.3%), religion (16.8%), ethnicity (11.5%), disabilities (1.3%), gender identity (0.5%), and gender (0.4%).

• Over half of all religious hate crimes (59.2%) targeted Jews. Another 14.2% targeted Muslims,  6.4% were against Catholics, 4.4% multiple religions, 3.6% anti-Protestant, 0.6% anti-Atheist or Agnostic, and 11.6% were other religious or unspecified religions.

• Ethnic hate crimes targeted primarily Hispanic or Latino individuals (52.6%).

• Most (63%) of these crimes targeted persons, while 35% were property crimes.  A quarter of the hate crimes involved property damage or vandalism. Another 28% involved intimidation.  A quarter were simple assault and nearly 11% were aggravated assault.  Violent hate crimes included 21 rapes and 6 murders.

How our state and county compares

California had 833 hate crimes reported in 2013. Approximately one in every seven hate crimes in the U.S. occurred in California.  That’s roughly consistent with the national rate, since California has about one-eighth of the entire U.S. population.  These stats include only crimes reported as hate incidents by law enforcement agencies, so if there is bias within any law enforcement agencies in any areas of the U.S., reporting in those places could potentially be low.

In San Diego County, 73 hate crimes were reported—and just five of those were in East County cites.  Of those 73 countywide, most (42) were due to racial bias, followed by sexual orientation (12), religion (10), and ethnicity (9).

  Most of those (43) were in the city of San Diego, with another  13 in the unincorporated areas of the County.  Other local jurisdictions that reported hate crimes in 2013 were  Carlsbad (3), Chula Vista (4), Coronado (1), El Cajon (2) Escondido (7),Lemon Grove (2), National City (3), Oceanside (7), Santee (3),  San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego (2). 

La Mesa and Del Mar reported no hate crimes during 2013.

In the city of San Diego, 18 of those 43 reported hate crimes were racially motivated, with 12 each motivated by religious or sexual orientation bias and one by ethnicity. 

In the unincorporated areas of the county which includes portions of East County, nearly half (6) of the 13 hate crimes were racially motivated, with religion accounting for 2 hate crimes,3 crimes motivated by sexual orientation bias, and ethnicity acccounting for 2 hate crimes.

Among East County communities, El Cajon had one hate crime motivated by race and another  by ethnicity.  Lemon Grove’s two hate crimes were spurred by racial and sexual orientation bias, while Santee had one crime each motivated by race, sexual orientation, and ethnicity.