Asian residents in the U.S. state of California were much more worried about becoming victims of gun violence and hate crimes compared to other racial and ethnic groups, a report by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and AAPI Data said.
Two-thirds of Asians, and a similar percentage of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, said they were “very worried” or “somewhat worried” about being a victim of gun violence, significantly higher than the 43 percent average of Californians of all races, according to the report released on Tuesday.
By comparison, 49 percent of Hispanic respondents, 45 percent of Black respondents, and 30 percent of white respondents said they were “very worried” or “somewhat worried” about becoming victims of gun violence, the report found.
The report cited results from the 2021 California Health Interview Survey, an annual UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) survey that interviewed more than 20,000 California households.
Among Asians, people of Korean origin reported the highest level of fear of gun violence, with 70 percent saying they were very worried or somewhat worried about it. This was followed by 66 percent of people of Filipino and Chinese origin, and 62 percent of people of Vietnamese origin, according to the report.
Several factors likely contributed to Asians’ higher level of fear of gun violence victimization, including reports of hate crimes and hate incidents against Asian residents during the pandemic, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPI Data and a professor of public policy at UC Riverside.
One in four Asian Americans in California has ever experienced a hate crime or hate incident, with Southeast Asians reporting the highest levels of hate experiences at a rate of 44 percent, according to the report.
Attitudes toward reporting hate crimes to law enforcement agencies varied among Asian groups. Only one third of Asian Americans expressed being “very comfortable” reporting hate crimes to law…
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