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However, an expert on hate crime hoaxes cautioned against reading too much into the study

Around 2.6 million Californians were victims of “hate incidents” in one year, according to a survey by the University of California Los Angeles and the state.

The California Health Interview Survey asked 20,000 people about “hate acts” in its annual study, conducted by UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research and the state Civil Rights Department. An overwhelming majority of the incidents, 83 percent, were “verbal abuse.”

“An estimated 2.6 million Californians directly experienced at least one act of hate over the course of a year between 2022 and 2023,” a UCLA news release stated.

Yet, the state’s Department of Justice is required to file an annual hate crime report. This most recent report found that reported hate crimes were down 7.1 percent from the previous year.

The Civil Rights Department’s director said the survey justifies the state’s spending on anti-hate initiatives.

“From direct investments to cutting edge programs, we’re using every tool available,” Director Kevin Kish stated in the news release. “Through our work with CHIS, we’re also helping show the impact of hate.”

“These estimates make it clear that people across our state continue to experience hate and discrimination well beyond what is reported to law enforcement,” he said.

The California Civil Rights Department says the survey is part of a larger initiative to develop a “comprehensive accounting of hate activity” across the state.

“The department sponsored the survey largely to help further the work of the Commission on the State of Hate,” a spokesperson for California’s Civil Rights Department told The College Fix via email.

The commission “is tasked by the California Legislature with developing a comprehensive accounting of hate activity statewide and providing recommendations to policymakers and the public on how to reduce and respond to hate,” the Civil Rights Department said.

The survey defined a hate incident as targeting “because of prejudice toward people with certain characteristics or religious beliefs,” according to documents provided to The Fix by the department.

The questions included a preface explaining that a hate act “is different from someone targeting you for other reasons, such as being angry or wanting to get something from you.”

“Hate incidents can include physical abuse, verbal abuse, cyberbullying, property damage, or something else,” according to the survey.

The study found that, for youth, 80 percent of incidents occurred at school.

When asked how hate was differentiated from typical unpleasant interactions at school, Todd Hughes, the director of the California Health Interview Survey at UCLA, referenced the definition’s emphasis on characteristics and religious beliefs.

“It emphasizes the linkage to ‘prejudice toward people with certain characteristics or religious beliefs,’ not just being targeted because someone was ‘angry or wanted to get something from you,” Hughes told The Fix via email.

“Some schoolyard bullying, therefore, would meet our definition for hate incidents, if the bullying is based on someone’s characteristics or religious beliefs, but others would not,” Hughes said.

However, a hate crime hoax expert questioned the design and purpose of the study.

Professor Wilfred Reilly said these surveys are used to make people believe there is a “great deal of a problem” that requires “government resolution.” He is an accomplished social scientist and wrote a book called “Hate Crime Hoax.”

“I think the goal of this kind of research is very often to create the impression that there’s a great deal of a problem out there and we might need some kind of government resolution,” Reilly, a Kentucky State University professor, told The Fix on a phone interview.

“When you see a big, scary number, you should always unpack that,” Reilly said. “The more you go down through that, very often you realize you’re not looking at much of anything.”

Reilly emphasized the importance of remembering that the survey used a sample to represent the whole population.

“It’s what was reported by a sample of 20,000 people, not what was gleaned from the whole state,” Reilly told The Fix.

The survey is just one of California’s many initiatives aimed at combating hate.

The California state legislature established the Commission on the State of Hate in 2021 with the goal of promoting “mutual respect among California’s diverse population.”

The board includes transgender Latino activist Bamby Salcedo and environmental activist Andrea Beth Damsky.

The commission is required to host community forums, conduct research on hate acts and publish an annual report detailing hate activity in California.

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A woman is harassed by two men; Keira Burton/Pexels

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