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The real story of Canada’s latest crime stats

July 22, 2011 By Rob

There’s plenty of intriguing and heartening news in the latest national crime report. This week, Statistics Canada released its annual compendium of data, based on information provided to hundreds of police departments across the country. Many media reports seized on the simple, big-picture stats: the overall crime rate reached its lowest level since the early 1970s. It would be wrong to key on this as the most important finding. It may be the least useful statistic and likely tells us absolutely nothing about whether the true level of crime has declined in the past 40 years and whether communities are any safer now than they were in the 70s.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Crimes, Murder, Statistics Tagged With: Crime Rates, crime statistics, Murder

For the record: A catalogue of every crime in Canada

August 17, 2010 By Rob

StatsCanCanada’s official crime statistics, the numbers released annually by Statistics Canada, have undergone a historic, but virtually overlooked, transformation. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the stats reflect raw data provided by virtually every police department, meaning StatsCan is able to release a more complete inventory of crimes. In the past, some offences were rolled into broad categories, meaning, for example, that you couldn’t see how many criminal harassment cases came to the attention of investigators – more than 20,000 last year (see the entire list after the jump).

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Documents, Statistics Tagged With: Crime Rates, Statistics Canada

Unreported crime justifies billions for new prisons: Minister

August 3, 2010 By Rob

Stockwell DayStockwell Day, the Conservative cabinet minister who is being skewered for his answers today to questions about the government’s plans to spend billions more on new prisons, when police-reported crime rates are declining, got something dead right. Day was bang on when he said lots of crime goes unreported. That’s wholly, completely, totally accurate. The problem is, unreported crime has absolutely nothing – nadda, zippo, zilch – to do with plans to build more prisons and lock up more people for longer sentences. And that’s Day’s big problem, because he drew a big, fat intersecting line from one to the other, as if they were shadow and shape in a kid’s activity book matching game.

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Filed Under: Crime Policy, Crime Rates, Politics, Statistics Tagged With: Crime Rates, prison construction, Stockwell Day

Quesnel, B.C. – cesspool of violent crime or statistical victim?

July 21, 2010 By Rob

Cop with gunSo what does it mean that Quesnel, a tiny city of about 10,000 people in the Cariboo District of central British Columbia, has the most severe violent crime in Canada? That dubious distinction is documented in this new ranking of 208 Canadian municipalities with populations of 10,000 or more, released this week by Statistics Canada. It is based on police-reported crime for 2009. The unwelcome honour bothers Quesnel Mayor Mary Sjostrom (her interview after the jump), but she doesn’t believe it means her community is unsafe.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Statistics Tagged With: audio, B.C., Crime Rates, crime severity index, Mary Sjostrom, Quesnel

Winnipeg snatches title of Canada’s violent crime capital

July 20, 2010 By Rob

Crime scene tapeWinnipeg, Manitoba has snatched from Regina, Saskatchewan the title of Canada’s (big city) violent crime capital. New figures released today by Statistics Canada show Winnipeg’s violent crime severity index is 187, double the national figure of 93.7. The violent crime severity index measures the severity of crimes reported to police. Among roughly 210 Canadian communities with populations of 10,000 or more, the centre with the most severe violent crime index isn’t a big city.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Statistics Tagged With: Crime Rates, crime severity index

Cops confess crime stats are meaningless

July 7, 2010 By Rob

It’s not often that police will confide they have no idea how much crime is going on in their communities. But that’s exactly what the cops who patrol tiny Napanee, Ontario (population about 15,000) did today, when they put out a news release (reproduced in full after the jump). Of course, police didn’t issue the info to make a political statement about the relative meaninglessness of official crime stats, but that’s the byproduct conclusion of what they revealed.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Policing, Statistics

A goofy crime stat claim from a top cop

January 25, 2010 By Rob

Pity the poor superintendent – he knows not what he does. At least, that’s how it looks to me. A senior officer in the Ontario Provincial Police, Supt. Gary Couture, an officer of sufficient rank that you’d expect him to know better than to wade into dangerous territory with a wonky claim, has stepped in a pile full.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Statistics Tagged With: crime statistics, OPP, property crime

Murder in Toronto hits 7-year low

January 3, 2010 By Rob

The number of murders in Toronto hit a 7-year low in 2009. The final tally was 62 killings, 11% lower than the 70 murders recorded in 2008 and a whopping 26% lower than the 84 homicides recorded in 2007, the most murderous year in the decade. The last time there were this few murders in Toronto was 2002. The head of the Toronto Police homicide unit credits tough domestic violence policies (full story from the Post after the jump).

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Statistics Tagged With: homicide, Murder, Toronto

Where have all Toronto's killers gone?

November 2, 2009 By Rob

The numbers above tell a story: Something remarkable appears to be happening in Toronto. Canada’s largest city is on pace for the fewest number of murders in a decade.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Crimes, Statistics Tagged With: Murder, stats, Toronto

Sad anniversaries: 3,400 unsolved murders in Canada

October 31, 2009 By Rob

Four decades of agonizing uncertainty.

Forty years of wondering why.

It’s hard to fathom the torment endured in that span by the family of Jacqueline English. The 15-year-old London, Ontario, girl was abducted, raped and murdered 40 years ago. Her murderer, perhaps a serial killer who preyed on young girls in the region during that time, has not been caught.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Crimes, Murder, Statistics, Unsolved Tagged With: Jacqueline English, Murder, serial killers, unsolved murder