As defined in California Penal Code section 13023, a hate crime is any criminal act or attempted criminal act motivated by hatred based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. These crimes must be reported to the State Department of Justice by law enforcement agencies. Information about bias motivation, type of crime, location of crime, number of victims, and number of known suspects is included in each crime report. In 1998 the Department of Justice received reports from 239 law enforcement agencies that detailed 1,750 hate crime events. Included in these events were 1,801 offenses, 2,136 victims, and 1,985 known suspects. Of these events, 64.8 percent were motivated by the race/ethnicity of the victim. Violent crime accounted for 68.8 percent of known offenses. Most of the hate crimes occurred on a highway, road, alley, street, or sidewalk (25.3 percent) or at the home or residence of the victim (31.8 percent). There were a total of 244 hate crime complaints filed by the district attorneys and elected city attorneys; and there were 131 convictions; the conviction rate was 53.7 percent. 13 tables and appended California Penal Code Section 13023 and a criminal justice glossary