Crime Rates Down
Statistics Canada’s Daily contains a report on crime stats for 2005, and the good news is crime is down pretty much everywhere. Justice Minister Vic Toews may have to get a new speech to replace his “get tough on crime” party line:
The homicide rate increased 4% to the highest level in almost a decade. However, the overall violent crime rate was unchanged, while the property crime rate fell 6%. The rate of drug offences declined in 2005 as did overall youth crime.
The national crime rate has been relatively stable since 1999, with last year’s 5% decrease offsetting a 6% hike in 2003. The crime rate declined during the 1990s, after rising throughout most of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Ontario has the lowest overall rate of crime, and although Toronto’s 10 more homicides in 2005 than in 2004 increased the city’s murder rate by 9%, “Toronto’s rate of 2.0 homicides per 100,000 population ranked in the middle of Canada’s nine largest CMAs.” By comparison, the murder rates (2003) for New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are 7, 13 and 20 per 100,000 respectively.
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