According to a news report, people are more likely to be the target of hate crimes in California than any other state. The report based this claim on annual hate crime statistics released by the FBI, which show that California had the highest frequency of reported hate crimes for the year: 1,142. You note that California is the most populous state in the country.

a. Do you think that raw frequencies of hate crimes are a useful way to compare the threat of hate crimes among states?

b. Propose an alternative statistic to assess the threat of hate crimes across states, and explain why it is better than frequencies.