BY ROY TONGILAVA
Master of Public Affairs, UC Berkeley
AAPI Data Capstone Fellow

Hate crimes and targeted violence have increased across California over the past decade and have surged at more alarming rates over the past five years. From 2020 to 2021, there was a 177% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. From 2020 to 2022, there was a 45% increase in anti-Black hate crimes and a 78% increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes (Figure 1). And from 2022 to 2023, anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by 52.9% and anti-Islamic hate crimes increased by 60%.

These trends have exposed deep racial, cultural and ideological divisions and have tested the state’s capacity to protect its most vulnerable communities. In response to this crisis, California has enacted a package of policy reforms, programs, and initiatives aimed at addressing hate, including public education campaigns, school-based interventions, law enforcement reforms, community-based grants, nonprofit security grants, and the creation of a statewide hate crime reporting hotline–together these components have made up the state’s anti-hate infrastructure and have provided critical services to communities most in need.

Figure 1. Trends in Hate Crime Reports by Population Group

My MPA Capstone project, Responding to Crisis: A Strategic Framework to Strengthen California’s Anti-Hate Infrastructure for Vulnerable Communities (PDF) offers a comprehensive policy analysis of California’s recent policy interventions to combat the systemic issue of hate. To date, the state has now invested over half a billion dollars on anti-hate prevention and intervention measures. This report provides an evaluation of these efforts and a closer look into the state’s Stop the Hate (STH) initiative–a state investment of over $150M which launched a statewide program to fund community-based responses to hate incidents and hate crimes and to support prevention and healing. While these investments have built critical infrastructure so far and represent a significant and innovative shift in how California addresses hate, this analysis reveals structural limitations in resource allocation, anti-hate infrastructure, and long-term sustainability of these efforts.

Through a mixed methods approach this report:

  • Reviews California’s anti-hate interventions over the past five years to identify bright spots, gaps, and missed opportunities 
  • Analyzes equity in the resource allocation of STH and compares resource allocation to reported hate crime data and hate incident data 
  • And offers a set of policy recommendations to strengthen the state’s anti-hate infrastructure and long-term response to hate

Key findings

  • Hate crimes in California have increased at alarming rates between 2019 and 2023, especially against Black, transgender, lesbian/gay, Asian American, Jewish, Muslim, and Latino communities (Figure 1.).
  • Hate incidents–including discrimination, harassment, or threats–were more common for transgender, Pacific Islander, American Indian, Black, and lesbian/gay communities in 2023 (Figure 2).
  • California responded by scaling up anti-hate efforts over the past five years, with STH emerging as one of the most innovative interventions to addressing hate and ensuring that state resources were responsive to high-need community needs. 
  • STH built critical infrastructure across communities to respond and prevent hate including serving over 10 million residents.
  • Despite these efforts, California’s statewide anti-hate infrastructure remains fragmented, often driven by short-term reactive conditions rather than a long-term strategy. 
  • State agencies and local community-based organizations lacked capacity and infrastructure early on to rapidly respond to hate incidents and reach the most impacted communities. 
  • Analysis of hate act data alongside STH funding shows that while some high-need areas received support, there were some high-need regions and regions most affected by hate that did not receive adequate STH funding.
  • The state currently lacks real-time, integrated data to track hate incidents, monitor community interventions, and share data across agencies.
  • Without continued investments into the state’s anti-hate infrastructure including STH, California risks losing the rapid-response systems it’s built and weakening its frontline capacity to address hate and support healing. 
  • State interventions like CA vs Hate, Anti-bias education training, law enforcement training, and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program have expanded the state’s anti-hate infrastructure, but further analysis is needed to fully understand their impact. 

Policy Recommendations

To address the gaps identified in California’s anti-hate infrastructure and to build a more coordinated, sustainable, and equity-driven response, this report offers a set of policy recommendations aimed at strengthening the state’s long-term capacity to prevent, response to, and reduce hate:

  1. Establish a coordinated statewide anti-hate prevention and response strategy including an office of anti-hate initiatives
  2. Develop a statewide vulnerability index to guide resource allocation and capacity building of anti-hate efforts, as shown in Figure 3. 
  3. Establish ongoing funding for STH and other anti-hate initiatives 
  4. Mandate cross-agency data sharing on hate incidents, hate crimes, and community-based interventions 
  5. Create a public-facing data dashboard to provide insights of integrated hate incident data and community interventions 
  6. Expand statewide outreach and webinars of anti-hate efforts 
  7. Establish a statewide community advisory board to guide policy development and implementation of anti-hate efforts 

This report offers more than just a policy blueprint to address rising hate and targeted violence and puts forward a curb-cut vision that uplifts the most overlooked and builds a state that works for everyone. It is a call to action for policymakers, state implementers, community leaders, advocates, and young people to demand urgent and sustained change now. In a time of national uncertainty, where threats to public education, healthcare, immigration, and economic protections are at risk, California must lead with bold, equity-driven solutions. Now more than ever, the state must invest in a comprehensive strategy to protect residents from hate, discrimination, and bias, and foster community healing, safety, and a sense of belonging.

Roy Tongilava obtained his Master of Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy in 2024. His related policy brief on the AANHPI Student Achievement Program can be found here.