BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1234
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Date of Hearing: June 30, 2004
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
SB 1234 (Kuehl) - As Amended: May 24, 2004
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 4-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill recasts, reorganizes, and expands hate crime statutes,
expands related Commission on Peace Officer Standards (POST)
training course requirements, and makes a lengthy series of
related and conforming changes, including:
1)Defining hate crime, for the purposes of state law as a
criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because the
victim is perceived to have one or more of the following
actual or perceived characteristics: disability, gender,
nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation,
or association with a person or group with one or more of
these actual or perceived characteristics.
2)Defining terms for the hate crime provisions created and
amended by this bill:
a) "Association with a person or group with these actual or
perceived characteristics" includes advocacy for,
identification with, or being on the grounds owned or
rented by, or adjacent to, a community center, educational
facility, family, individual, office, meeting hall, place
of worship, private institution, public agency, library, or
other entity, group, or person that has, or is identified
with people who have, one or more of those characteristics
listed under the definition of hate crime established in
this bill.
b) "Gender" means sex, and includes a person's gender
identity and gender-related appearance and behavior whether
or not stereotypically associated with the person's
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assigned sex at birth.
c) "In whole or in part because of" means that the bias
motivation must be a cause in fact of the offense, whether
or not other causes also exist. Provides that when multiple
concurrent motives exist, the prohibited bias must be a
substantial factor in bringing about the particular result.
3)Lowering the felony threshold amount of damage in the
commission of a bias-motivated crime against the property of
another person from $500 to $400.
4)Directing the Judicial Council to develop a rule of court
guiding hate crime sentencing.
5)Expanding the list of offenses where a court may require the
convicted person, as a condition of probation, to complete
civil rights-related training, make payments to entities that
provide services to victims of hate crimes, or reimburse the
victim for counseling costs to include the offenses of
disturbing religious meetings, violations of the Freedom of
Access to Clinics and Church Entrances Act, threats
obstructing the exercise of religion, and acts to terrorize,
as defined, as well as the revised hate crime offenses.
6)Providing that when a victim of, or witness to, a hate crime,
or who otherwise can give evidence in a hate crime
investigation, is not charged with or convicted of committing
any crime under state law, the person may not be detained for
an immigration violation or report.
7)Requiring POST to:
a) Revise its training course relating to law enforcement
interaction with developmentally disabled and mentally
disabled persons to incorporate the term mentally disabled
and include instruction on disability bias-related crimes.
b) Revise training on racial and cultural differences to
incorporate the definitions of disability, gender,
nationality, religion, and sexual orientation provided for
in this bill.
c) Revise training on hate crimes to include instruction on
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"multi-mission criminal extremism," as defined, the special
problems inherent in some categories of hate crimes, as
specified, and techniques and methods to handle these
special problems, and preparation for, and response to,
possible increases in anti-Arab/Middle Eastern and
anti-Islamic hate crimes as well as any other future hate
crimes that the Attorney General determines are likely.
d) Develop a training course on crimes against homeless
persons.
e) Develop a framework and possible content of a general
order or other formal policy on hate crimes that state law
enforcement agencies must adopt and that the commission
shall encourage all local law enforcement agencies to
adopt.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Potentially moderate increase in GF costs - likely in the
range of several hundred thousand dollars, based on current
hate crime enhancements and commitments - for state
incarceration as the definitional changes included in this
bill would substantially expand the circumstances that could
constitute a hate crime, leading to an increase in offenses
charged, and/or enhancements applied, under hate crime
statutes.
2)Potentially moderate increase in non-reimbursable local
incarceration costs, likely in the range of several hundred
thousand dollars, based on current hate crime enhancements and
commitments.
3)Unknown, potential moderate annual GF increase in state prison
commitments as a result of lowering the felony threshold
amount of damage in the commission of a bias-motivated crime
against the property of another person from $500 to $400. In
2002-03, 16 persons were committed to state prison under this
section. If the proposed decrease in the property amount
threshold for the offense results in an additional five
commitments, the annual cost would be about $155,000. The
actual cost increase may not be this high, however, as in many
cases a property offense that exceeds a $400 threshold could
be charged as felony vandalism or grand theft under current
law.
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4)Costs of about $500,000 to POST (primarily one-time) for the
various training updates and expansions, spread over a
three-year period. Though no funding source is identified for
these increased costs, POST indicates it may be able to absorb
the costs over a multi-year period.
5)Annual GF costs of about $150,000 to the Department of Justice
for reporting and analysis responsibilities.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author's office, this bill
reflects the recommendations of a pending Senate Office of
Research Report on Hate Crimes requested by the author. This
bill establishes a uniform definition of hate crime and
applies this revised definition to all existing relevant
offenses. This bill also applies the revised definition to
existing reporting, training, and certain other
anti-discrimination laws.
Under current law, there is no uniform definition of hate
crime. The relevant statutes generally specify that the
offense was a hate crime if it was motivated because of the
victim's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin,
disability, gender, or sexual orientation, though this list
may vary from statute to statute. Some statutes also specify
that it is a hate crime if it is motivated by the offender's
perception that the victim had one or more of those
characteristics. This bill defines a hate crime as a criminal
act committed, in whole or in part, because of one or more of
the following actual or perceived characteristics of the
victim: disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity,
religion, sexual orientation, association with a person or
group with one or more of these actual or perceived
characteristics. This bill then defines each one of these
terms. The definitions used are generally consistent with the
current category of characteristics covered by existing law.
According to the author, "While California's hate crime
statutes are among the strongest in the nation, there are a
number of inconsistencies and ambiguities in California law
that create difficulties with enforcement. One of the problems
stems from the fact that the various hate crime statutes in
California are inconsistent in their basic definition of a
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hate crime, this inconsistency leads to confusion on the part
of state and local agencies. The law is also unclear about
whether hate crime protections extend to victims who are
targeted because of their association with a particular
group."
2)Related Legislation . AB 2288 (Pacheco), pending in Senate
Appropriations, would also lower the threshold amount of
damage in the commission of a "hate-motivated" crime against
the property of another person from $500 to $400.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081