With all of the recent shootings in the Toronto area within the past month, the average Canadian wouldn't know that the crime rate is at its lowest since 1972. According to a new report, the crime rate has fallen right across the country.
Statistics Canada published new statistics from police-reported crime last year. It suggested that the crime rate, which measures the overall amount of misdeeds in the country, found the year 2011 continued the long-term downward trend that has persisted since 1991.
In 2011, the crime rate dropped six percent from 2010. The Crime Severity Index (CVS), a technique of weighting offences, also fell by six percent – it’s been down 26 percent since a decade ago. Police services in the nation reported two million Criminal Code incidents last year, a number that declined by 110,000 in 2010.
The drop in crime wasn’t seen in specific regions of the country, but rather entirely throughout Canada. Most of the decrease in crimes was in the areas of robberies, sexual assaults, major assaults, motor vehicle thefts and break-ins.
Meanwhile, police services reported 424,000 incidents of violent crimes, which is 14,800 less than a year prior. The offences that signified an increase last year were homicides (seven percent), child pornography, criminal harassment, drug offences (seven percent), crimes against children and impaired driving (two percent).
Police reported a three percent jump in sexual offences against children. Upon analysis of specifics, the act of luring a child through the means of a computer rose 10 percent and the statistic of inviting a child for sexual touching also went up eight percent. The rate of child pornography soared 40 percent as police reported 3,100 cases.
Calgary, Toronto, St. John, Quebec, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Saskatoon and Kelowna all saw a drop or relatively low crime rates. Winnipeg had the highest homicide rate in the nation, followed by Halifax and Edmonton.
Due to the tragic shootings that took place in Toronto last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is meeting with Mayor Rob Ford Tuesday at 43 Division of Toronto Police Service. This is one day after the mayor met with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.