Six charts to understand the spike in L.A. County hate crimes

This month, the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations released its annual report on hate crimes. The tallies are for the year 2023, and the takeaway is unsettling: There were a record 1,350 hate crimes tabulated by county authorities, a 45% increase over the previous year.

That tells only part of the story. While hate crimes can be propelled by factors such as regional intolerance, national politics and the Middle East war, the increasing figure also likely stems from more people speaking up. Historically hate crimes have been under-reported, with victims fearful of further repercussions. Law enforcement and other leaders have worked to build trust with marginalized groups, and convince them that their accounts will be taken seriously.

“The record setting levels of reported hate crimes in 2023 are due in large part to improved reporting of these human rights violations,” the new report states. “More people are reporting hate, and more organizations and groups are submitting reports.” 

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This does not mean every hate crime is reported, but there was an increase of over 400 reports last year from 2022. The new count is more than triple the number in 2014.

The rate of growth exceeds initial figures for the year in the city of Los Angeles. In March, Crosstown, using publicly available Los Angeles Police Department data, reported that hate crimes in the city increased 17% in 2023.

Driven by bias

A hate crime, as the phrase implies, involves actual lawbreaking, with a criminal act driven by bias due to the victim’s perceived ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation or something else. This is different from a hate incident, in which hateful speech, such as ethnic slurs, are protected by the First Amendment. To qualify as a crime, the report notes, a threat from written or spoken language “must be immediate, unconditional and unequivocal. And it must cause the victim sustained fear.”

In 2023, the greatest number of hate crimes in L.A. County were driven by race, ethnicity or national origin. There were 646 such reports, representing 45% of the total. 

Another 290 crimes were propelled by the victim’s religion.

Disproportionate impact on Black Angelenos

Black people have long been the most frequent target in hate crimes in the region. That was the case again in 2023, when there were 320 Black victims, up from 297 the previous year.

An LAHCR fact sheet notes that 49% of racially driven hate crimes in 2023 targeted people who are Black, even though the county is only about 9% Black. The second most victimized group when it comes to race or ethnicity was Latinos—they comprised 19% of victims, while accounting for about 48.6% of the population.

While Black people are victimized most frequently, other groups in 2023 saw a steeper percentage increase in the number of hate crimes directed against them. The 256 hate crimes targeting the LGBT community was 48% more than the prior year. 

The year-over-year increases were even steeper for Jewish and transgender people.

Impact of war

Intolerance rose across the United States in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, and as the Israeli army responded by waging war in Gaza.

According to the report, Jews were the target in 83% of hate crimes motivated by religion, going from 127 reports in 2022 to 243 last year. Muslims were the victims of 17 hate crimes in 2023, up from nine the previous year.

Violence against the transgender community

Also spiking are hate crimes propelled by gender. Reports in Los Angeles County more than doubled, from 50 in 2022 to 121 last year. 

Most of that was directed at the transgender community; they were the victims of hate crimes 99 times in 2023, up from 44 the previous year. This occurred as numerous states passed laws restricting the rights of transgender individuals. 

According to the county report, anti-transgender crimes were violent more often than those directed against any other group. An estimated 97% of these crimes were considered violent, with 48% reported as simple assault, and 22% classified as aggravated assault. 

Three cases were classified as attempted murder.

How we did it: We examined data from the 2023 Hate Crime Report prepared by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. 

Have questions about our data or want to know more? Write to us at askus@xtown.la.