Executive Summary
In California, state law generally defines a hate crime as a criminal offense motivated by bias against a person’s protected characteristics, including gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or disability. The state’s penal code includes several statutes that define hate crimes, prohibit civil rights violations based on protected characteristics, and provide sentence enhancements when bias is determined to be a motivating factor for the underlying crime. This report is part of a series on hate crimes and victimization targeting transgender and gender nonconforming people in California. It examines data reported to the California Department of Justice by law enforcement and prosecutors on hate crime incidents motivated by gender identity—specifically those involving anti-transgender or anti-gender nonconforming bias—from 2001 to 2024. Because substantial changes to the definitions and reporting practices for gender-identity hate crimes were implemented in the early 2010s, the report provides a more detailed analysis of the period from 2013 to 2024, when the data are more consistent and comparable.
Key Findings
Prevalence and Frequency
- Hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity have accounted for nearly a quarter (23%) of all reported hate crimes in California since 2001.
- These were the second most common type of hate crime reported in the state after those based on race, ethnicity, or ancestry (59%).
- Hate crimes motivated by bias against a person’s perceived gender are increasingly reported to the California Department of Justice (DOJ).
- Since 2001, law enforcement agencies in California have recorded 678 incidents involving an alleged hate crime motivated by anti-gender identity bias, averaging 28 incidents per year.
- In 2013, the California DOJ added “anti-gender nonconforming” as a bias category distinct from “anti-transgender” for law enforcement agencies to use when recording hate crimes. Since then, 522 gender identity hate crime events involving anti-transgender and anti-gender nonconforming bias were recorded by law enforcement.
- Reported hate crimes more than tripled from 25 in 2013 to 84 in 2024.
- There were at least 582 identified victims among the 522 gender identity hate crime events reported since 2013.
Geography and Location
- Since 2013, 124 law enforcement agencies across California have reported gender identity hate crimes.
- The five agencies that recorded the largest number of hate crimes were responsible for reporting over three in five (62%) of all events since 2013.
- More populous counties accounted for a larger share of gender identity hate crimes.
- Four counties accounted for nearly two-thirds (63%) of all reported gender identity hate crimes between 2013 and 2024: Los Angeles (47%), San Francisco (5%), Santa Clara (5%), and San Diego (5%). Together, 331 of the 522 total incidents occurred in these counties during this period.
- Los Angeles County averaged about half (49%) of reported gender identity hate crimes statewide each year from 2013 to 2024.
- Almost half (47%) of all gender identity hate crimes happened in a public roadway or parking lot, and another 18% occurred in private residences or homes. The remainder were in a variety of locations such as schools, colleges, and universities, parks, public transportation, and bars or nightclubs.
Experiences of Violence and Victimization
- The vast majority (93%) of gender identity hate crime events since 2013 alleged personal violence—such as assault—against the victim as the underlying crime; only a small fraction (7%) alleged a property crime.
- Gender identity hate crimes involving personal violence have risen noticeably since 2020. By 2024, the number had tripled, from 23 incidents in 2013 to 79 in 2024.
- Over two-thirds (70%) of violent gender identity hate crimes alleged either aggravated assault (35%) or simple assault (35%).
- Over three-fourths (78%) of reported violent gender identity hate crime events involved the use of a weapon, with bodily weapons like hands, feet, or teeth accounting for 44% of gender identity hate crimes alleging violence.
- In more than half (53%) of all gender identity hate crimes, bias was indicated through the use of verbal slurs.
- Gender identity hate crimes involving property are less likely to involve destruction of property and more likely to involve larceny (theft) compared to hate crimes motivated by other biases.
- Gender identity hate crimes are more likely to involve victims under the age of 18 (11% of events) than hate crimes motivated by other biases when the victim’s age is available.
Persons Accused of Hate Crimes
- Gender identity hate crimes reported by law enforcement since 2013 were more likely to identify a suspect compared to hate crimes motivated by other types of bias (e.g., 89% compared to 76% of race/ethnicity hate crimes and 45% of religiously based hate crimes).
- Hate crimes motivated by gender identity bias were more likely to involve multiple people accused of a hate crime than other types of hate crimes (e.g., 26% compared to 16% for race or ethnicity hate crimes and 12% for those related to religious bias).
- People accused of gender identity hate crimes were more likely than other bias types to be under the age of 18 (e.g., 11% compared to 7% of hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity and 7% of those motivated by religious bias).