Hate Crimes and Incidents How to Report Hate Crimes and Incidents and Get Help California Department of Justice Victims’ Services Unit California Attorney General Rob Bonta offers the following information on how to identify and report hate crimes and incidents, and the services available to victims.
Hate crime or hate incident? There is a difference between a hate crime and a hate incident as explained below: A hate crime is a misdemeanor or felony criminal act committed against a person, group, or property that is motivated by hatred or intentional bias against the victim’s real or perceived protected identity characteristic. A perceived protected identity characteristic includes being regarded as, perceived as, or treated as having the protected characteristic, regardless of whether the perception is accurate. You may be a victim of a hate crime if you have been targeted because of your actual or perceived: • Physical or mental disability, • Gender, which means sex, and includes gender identity and gender expression, • Nationality, • Race or ethnicity, • Religion, • Sexual orientation, or • Association with a person or group with one or more of these “actual” or “perceived” characteristics. • Under civil law, there are additional protected identity characteristics not included here. A victim includes, but is not limited to, a person, family, group, community center, educational facility, entity, office, meeting hall, place of worship, private institution, public agency, library, or other victim or intended victim of the offense. A hate incident is an action or behavior motivated by hate or intentional bias toward a protected group that does not rise to the level of a crime. Freedom of speech under the U.S. and California Constitutions allows hateful rhetoric as long as it does not interfere with the civil rights of others. You should report hate incidents to your local law enforcement agency. If a hate incident escalates to threats or criminal activity against a person or property, then it could be classified as a hate crime. You may also be entitled to civil relief if you are exposed to a hate incident. Examples of hate incidents include: •
Name-calling, insults, slurs, derogatory comments, and epithets lodged at a protected group that do not threaten violence.
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Displaying hateful materials on one’s own real property that do not threaten violence.
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Wearing clothing with a hateful message that does not threaten violence.
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Distribution of materials with hateful messages in public places that do not threaten violence.