Crime Comparisons of Two Metropolitan Area's

New York and Los Angeles California are two of the United States largest metropolitan cities. In 2008, New York had an estimated population of 8,363,710 in 83 of its towns and cities. Los Angeles California, on the other hand, had a population that was approximately 9,862,049. Both New York and Los Angeles have an immense population filled with cultural diversity that exists within its borders. In addition, there are numerous types of religious-cultural beliefs that exist, and sections that flourish with wealth while other areas are so poverty stricken, crimes of all types occur on a regular basis (City Population, 2009).

With this being said the crime rate in geographical areas is extremely high. Throughout, a comparison will be provided between the two cities in regard to hate crimes. A hate crime is a form of bias, prejudice, and discrimination that occurs as a result of one's religious-cultural beliefs, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, age, race, and disability. Furthermore, I will display the number of occurrences that take place within each city, what geographical location displayed the highest incident report, the rates of crime, a change if any in the crime rates, and any factors that may lead to an explanation with the difference in rates (Google Population, 2009).

For the year 2007, 727 law enforcement agencies throughout the state of California participated with hate crime analysis and reporting. The reports were initially based on a population size of 36,553,215 California residences. Unfortunately, only 276 agencies submitted the reported data back to the FBI's UCR program that left the initial hate crime statistics misconstrued (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007). Each hate crime report categorizes and breaks-down the offense into subgroups of bias motivation. Additionally, there were 674 individuals victimized due to their race, 204 as a result of one's religious-cultural beliefs, 263 on the basis of sexual orientation, 253 involved one's ethnicity, and three attacks on individuals who were disabled (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007).

In 2007, New York had 273 law enforcement agencies that agreed to participate with the analysis and reporting of hate crimes to the FBI's UCR program. The data was based on a population size of 15,335,616 but due to only 29 of the 273 departments submitting their hate crime data statistics could only display a total of 493 hate crime incidents (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007). The New York hate crime report also categorizes the offense of hate crime into a bias motivation. The report displayed 126 individual were attacked as a result of their race, 271 as a result of religious-cultural beliefs, 73 on the grounds of one's sexual orientation, 22 for ethnicity, and 1 for disability (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007).

Hate crimes in California were much higher than that of New York. But this can be due to numerous reasons-explanations. First, California had 247 more law enforcement agencies that participated and submitted data for review than New York. Moreover, the population size in which the data was gathered from in California was a great deal higher than that gathered from in New York. Realistically when there are more participating agencies involved in comparison to an area that has less participating agencies, statistical comparisons are hard to display accurately.

In 2002 the number of hate crime reports in California began to slowly decrease. In 2004 there were approximately 1,409 reports of hate crime offenses and in 2005 the number of reports decreased to 1,397, or by .09%. Though these numbers are extremely miniscule, studies prove hate crimes have neither increased nor decreased. In 2007 the total incident reported crimes was 1,400 (Lockyer, 2005).

New York State on the other hand, has showed an increase with hate crime reports. In 2008, the UCR program presented a total of 596 total incidents with 397, or 66.6% relating to crimes against individuals, and 199 or 33.4% for property crimes. Crimes against people consist of two for Murder & Non-Negligent Manslaughter, 11 for robbery, 23 for aggravated assault, 166 on simple arrest, and 195 for intimidation. Property crimes consist of 1 for arson, nine for burglary, ten larceny-thefts, and 179 for destruction/damage/vandalism of one's property (Fetzer, & Fernandez-Lanier, 2009).

After carefully conducting research on both California and New York State in regard to the accuracy of the annual reports, the differences-comparisons between the two States, what determines a hate crime, which state displayed the highest incident report, the rates of hate crime, a decrease or increase if any in crime rates, and any factors that may lead to an explanation for what may cause these difference are more so inaccurate; therefore, cannot be considered a sufficient means for providing society and researches with crime statistics.

References

City Population. (2009). USA: New York. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-NewYork.html

Google Population. (2009). Los Angeles County, CA. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://www.google.com/publicdata?
ds=uspopulation&met=population&idim=county:06037&q=los+angeles+population

Fetzer, M., & Fernandez-Lanier, A. (2009). Division of Criminal Justice Services: Hate Crime in New York State 2008 Annual Report. Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/pio/annualreport/hatecrimereport2008.pdf

Lockyer, B. (2005). Hate Crime in California: Hate Crimes. Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://www.ag.ca.gov/cjsc/publications/hatecrimes/hc05/preface05.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice. (2007). Hate Crime Statistics: Table 12.Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2007/table_12.htm

U.S. Department of Justice. (2007). New York: Hate Crime Incidents. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2007/table_13ny.htm

U.S. Department of Justice. (2007). California: Hate Crime Incidents. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2007/table_13ca.htm