Statistics Canada data reveals an increase in violent crimes throughout Canada

BY PAUL JUNOR

Without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic has left long-lasting economic, social, political, psychological, and emotional effects.

Statistics Canada released a report titled, “A comprehensive portrait of police-reported crime in Canada, 2021,” on August 2^nd, 2022, which revealed some interesting information. The full report can be seen on the Statistics Canada’s website: https://www150statcan.gc./n1/da. It notes that there have been significant changes on many levels of society. It states that it is, “Changing how people interact, socialize, learn, work and consume.”

According to the information measured by Crime Severity Index (CSI), there has been almost no change two years after the pandemic. CSI is important because it measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime in Canada, and has a base index of 100 in 2006.

On the other hand, there have been noticeable changes in the nature of reported crimes. When the year-over-year changes in violent and non-violent CSIs are evaluated, it shows that there was a reversal in the trend, which marks the first time since 2006 that this has occurred. In fact, there was a 5% increase in the rate of violent CSIs in 2021 which is far greater than it was before the start of the pandemic.

Statistics Canada attributes this increase to the rise in the rates of level 1 sexual assault, harassing and threatening behaviour, and homicide. With respect to incidents of hate crimes that were reported to police, there has been a jump of 27%, which translates to 3,360 incidents. The increased numbers were due to a large number of cases involving: hate crimes targeting religion, sexual orientation and race or ethnicity.

On the other hand, when non-violent CSI cases such as property offenses and drug offenses are analysed, it shows that there was a decrease of 3% in 2021, which followed a 9% reduction in 2020. These consecutive drops come after five years of increase.

The report notes, “Much of the decline in 2021 was because of lower rates of breaking and entering (-10 %) and theft of $5 000, or under (-4 %).”  When the overall CSI data is analysed, it shows that there was a decrease from 73.9% in 2020 to 73.7% in 2021. This comes after a previous 7% reduction in 2020. According to numbers released by police departments, there were 5,375 incidents of violent crime per 100,000 population in 2021 which was a 1% rise compared to 2020.

These incidents involve reports that the police obtain from the public or due to proactive policing. There are doubts about the accuracy of these numbers as the 2019 General Social Survey (GSS) on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization) indicates that less than one-third (29%) of violent and non-violent crimes, and a mere one-fifth (22 %) of cases are brought to police’s attention.

Additional details can be seen in the article, “Police-reported crime statistics in Canada 2021,” and the infographic, “Police-reported crime in Canada, 2021,” in a recently released Jurisdat article released on August 2^nd, 2022.