Hate crimes reported in Los Angeles County dropped six percent in 2006 ac­cording to the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations’ latest Hate Crime Report announced at a press conference Thursday.

The 514 cases (594 victims) reported last year was the second lowest total figure since 1991.

“This information provided in the report reminds us about what is going on in L.A. County, both good and bad,” said Robin Toma, executive director of the LACCHR. “We hope to build support across the lines that divide us.”

A vast majority of the reported hate crimes victimized minority groups. Crimes that targeted blacks dropped three percent, but once again dominated the report—59 percent of all hate-mo­tivated offenses last year were against African Americans. Anti-Latino crimes dropped 22 percent, following a 98 per­cent rise reported in 2005. In most of the cases involving blacks and Latinos, the perpetrator was of the opposite race—69 percent of anti-black crime had Latino suspects and 81 percent of anti-Latino crime had black suspects.

Contrary to the overall drop in hate crimes, some trends were shown to have increased last year. Anti-Asian crime rose 50 percent last year, which along with the large number of anti-Latino crime reported, reinforced the rise in anti-immigrant crime. Homophobic crimes grew seven percent and consti­tuted 17 percent of all crimes reported.

The most common criminal offenses reported were vandalism (189) and assault and battery (176). Attempted murder cases more than doubled and the number of murders reported as hate-driven rose from zero in 2005 to two last year. 51 percent of crimes were violent in nature.

Regionally, the crimes were spread throughout the Southland. The areas reporting the largest number per 100,000 residents were Central Los Angeles (12.0), East Los Angeles (8.6), North County (8.3), Harbor Cities (7.9), and the San Fernando Valley (7.8).

Information for the report was provided by 47 law enforcement agencies through­out L.A. County, as well as by various school districts and support centers. While the LACCHR feels their report accurately reflects trends in hate crime, those reported most likely represent only a fraction of crimes actually committed.

A recent National Crime Victim Survey performed by the U.S. Justice Department found that hate crimes occurred 24 to 28 times more than the number reported by police to the FBI. This is due to both underreporting by victims and a failure by law enforcement to classify crimes as hate-driven.

After detailing the report’s findings, speakers at the conference suggested ways to keep the figures decreasing. Some encouraged support for prevention and intervention programs for youth, as well as more emphasis on changing children’s perspectives on race, gender, and sexual orientation through television and other media directed at kids.

Though it was a somber subject, the guest speakers seemed to be encouraged by the overall decrease with hopes the figures continue to lower.

“We’re going in the right direction,” said Toma. “But we still have our work cut out for us.”