Report: Anti-Asian hate crimes rise 76% in LA

City News Service via iHeart.com, Oct. 21, 2021; CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

LOS ANGELES, California - Anti-Asian hate crimes in Los Angeles County increased by 76% in 2020 compared to 2019 -- from 25 to 44, the largest number of such crimes reported since 2001, according to a county report released today.

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations (LACCHR) special report collected data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, more than 40 city police departments, dozens of police agencies at schools, colleges and universities, and trained community-based organizations.

Since 1980, the LACCHR has collected hate-crime data and issued an annual Hate Crime Report, encompassing all reported hate crimes in the county.

This year's is scheduled to be released next month -- with Wednesday's special report on anti-Asian hate crimes one element of that wider survey. Among the significant findings: -- Specific Asian nationalities and ethnicities were the targets of hate.

Most slurs were anti-Chinese, but anti-Japanese and anti-Asian Indian hate crimes also occurred.

Among the victims were people of Korean, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, and Guatemalan ethnicity. 

• In 10 of the anti-Asian hate crimes (23%), the suspects explicitly blamed the victims for COVID-19.
• The median age of victims increased from 30 to 41 from year to year. Half of the victims were over 40, including two seniors.
• In 2019, there were no victims of hate crimes over 40.
• The rate of hate crimes that were violent was 76% in 2019 and 77% in 2020 -- significantly higher compared to prior years. It was 58% in 2018.
• There was a tripling in the number of female victims of anti-Asian hate crime compared to the previous year, rising to nearly half of all victims.
• In cases in which the race of the suspect was known, whites comprised 42% of anti-Asian hate crime suspects, followed by Latino/a (36%) suspects and African American (19%) suspects.

“This last finding is particularly important,'' said Robin Toma, the LACCHR's executive director. “Contrary to impressions which might be drawn from videos in social media posts and news coverage, which are of only a fraction of the actual hate crimes, our report indicates that the racial makeup of suspects committing anti-Asian hate crimes is much more racially diverse.'' More