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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

Canal killings expose crime stat frailties

August 22, 2009 By Rob

Kingston has become one of the most dangerous places in Canada, if you believe – wrongly – that crime statistics tell you whether a city is safe (see click here for all of Cancrime’s coverage of the murder case). The charges mean Kingston’s homicide rate for 2009 (regardless of whether the accused are convicted), will soar to one of the highest levels among all cities in the country.

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Filed Under: Children, Crimes, Domestic, Mass, Murder Tagged With: Canal killings, Crime Rates, Kingston Mills, Murder, Rideau Canal, safety fallacy

229 Canadian cities, ranked by violent crime

April 22, 2009 By Rob

We love lists. They appear to bring order to a disordered world. They promise to simplify complexity. They seem to help us understand the convoluted. Now Statistics Canada has given us a whopper of a list: A tote board that unspools from 1 to 229, where Number 1 is the Canadian community where violent crime is most severe.

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

The crime severity index: 1 murder = 300 assaults

April 21, 2009 By Rob

There’s a big problem with the new scheme to count crimes in Canada. The country’s official number crunching agency, Statistics Canada, unveiled the crime severity index today. It’s the first serious revision to the country’s sanctioned, national crime tracking system in roughly half a century.

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

Dangerous conclusion: Saskatoon a dangerous city

March 8, 2009 By Rob

What makes a city dangerous? Lots of random, violent crime? That’s what you might expect. But that’s not what you’ll find if you sift the statistics used to rank 100 Canadian police jurisdictions. Macleans magazine annually produces a controversial guide that it calls The 100 Most Dangerous Cities (a misnomer itself, since the data is based on crime reported by the 100 largest police services – in some cases what Macleans lists as a city is actually a region comprising several cities and towns – see previous post).

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Statistics Tagged With: Crime Rates, crime statistics, Macleans, Saskatoon

Crime ranking of 100 biggest cities that isn't

March 7, 2009 By Rob

Macleans magazine has published its annual ranking of Canada’s most dangerous cities, that isn’t a ranking of the country’s most dangerous cities.

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Filed Under: Crime Rates, Statistics Tagged With: bad crime writing, Crime Rates, crime statistics, Police