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November 27, 1998/ 8 Kislev 5759, Vol. 51, No. 10
DPS report shows local hate crimes are on the decline
ANNE BRADY
Associate Editor
For the first time since the Arizona Department of Public Safety started keeping track quarterly of local hate crimes reported, the city of Phoenix and Pima County have enjoyed a three-month period with no hate crimes reported by religious organizations.
In the third quarter of 1998, which ended Sept. 30, no religious organizations in Phoenix or Tucson reported any hate-motivated crimes, and there were only four crimes reported to be motivated by anti-Jewish sentiments, down from 10 in the second quarter, according to a quarterly report released by DPS this week.
DPS Analyst Philana Duprey said those four crimes were committed against individuals, not against Jewish synagogues or institutions.
The Arizona DPS Northern Operations Bureau Region Two Intelligence District 22 third-quarter report on hate crimes also found that reported hate crimes overall declined about 29 percent in the third quarter, compared to the same period in 1997, and about 17 percent in the first nine months of 1998, compared to the first three quarters of 1997.
Duprey said officials estimate that only about 10 percent of hate crimes are reported. She theorized that the 17 percent decline could simply reflect a higher percentage of reporting in 1997, prompted by the 1996 establishment of the Phoenix Police Department's bias-crimes unit, and a drop back to less reporting in 1998, as the excitement about the bias-crimes unit wore off.
But Joel Breshin, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Phoenix, said he believes hate crimes are indeed declining locally, along with crime in general - in Arizona and across the country.
He said he anticipates that when the ADL issues its national hate crimes report in January, it will note another drop in hate crimes, as did last January's report from the ADL.
"I'm pleased to see that there's a decline over last year," said Breshin. "Crime is decreasing across the country."
Religious organizations in Phoenix and Pima County reported six hate crimes in the first quarter of 1998 and seven in the second quarter.
Other statistics of note in the DPS report included:
For the month of September, there was a 50 percent drop in reported hate crimes, from 22 in 1997 to 11 in 1998.
By far, the greatest number of reported hate crimes continue to be those motivated by anti-black sentiments - 21 of the total of 53 in the third quarter. Anti-black crimes were followed by anti-male homosexual crimes (7 reported) and anti-Hispanic (5).
The greatest number of suspected perpetrators of hate crimes were white (30), followed by unknown (21) and multi-racial (5).
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