For the eleventh year in a row, crime rates in Canada have dropped, according to new data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.
Here are four key takeaways from the release:
Overall crime rate still dropping
Canada’s overall crime severity index (which measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime) decreased three per cent last year –the lowest it has been since the data was first collected in 1998.
Traditional police-reported crime rate (the volume of crime relative to population size) also decreased by three per cent last year.
The reason: a large decrease in break and enter and robbery offences, according to the release.
While most offences dropped in 2014, a few notable ones increased:
- violations of child pornography: 41%
- identity fraud: 8%
- sexual violation against children: 6%
- abduction: 4%
- fraud: 2%
- motor vehicle theft: 1%
The youth crime indexes also continued to drop last year, with one notable exception: the rate of youth accused of attempted murder, which had a 37 per cent increase.
2014 shows increase in police-reported sexual violations against children
Police-reported sexual violations against children increased six per cent in 2014 – totaling 4,500, an additional 300 case from 2013.
The cause: an increase in incidents of luring a child through a computer.
The release also notes that the rise in overall sexual violations again children could be due to more police forces with specialized units investigating those particular crimes.
Crime dropped in most provinces, except British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon
Most provinces and territories had a decrease in both police-reported crime severity index and crime rates – except for British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon.
The decline is largely due to fewer break and enter cases, according to the news release.
The decrease in Saskatchewan, however, was mostly due to a decrease in trafficking, production or distribution of cocaine offences.
Statistics Canada points to several reasons for the escalation in other provinces:
- Yukon had the highest increase in its crime severity index - 11 per cent- which the release says is due mostly to more homicides in the territory last year, but its crime rate was stable.
- The three per cent rise in British Columbia’s crime severity index is mostly due to an more thefts of $5,000 or under, child pornography, breaking and entering and theft of a motor vehicle.
- Alberta’s crime severity index rose by one per cent, and had a steady crime rate.
One third of Canada’s metro areas had an increase in crime severity
Last year was the first time Saskatoon had the highest crime severity index, which was mainly due to a uptick in break and enter crimes.
Barrie, Ontario had the lowest crime severity index in 2014 in spite of an overall two per cent increase from last year.
"Region","csi","csi_change","cr","cr_change" "Canada","66.7","-3","5046","-3" "St. John's","73.9","-5","5777","-10" "Halifax","65.7","-4","5280","-1" "Moncton*","65.4","","5649","" "Saint John*","55.7","","4773","" "Saguenay","54.9","-7","3228","-9" "Québec","45.2","-2","2977","-8" "Sherbrooke","52.4","-8","3333","-9" "Trois-Rivières","58.7","-3","3472","-10" "Montréal","60.2","-9","3728","-9" "Gatineau","56.3","-1","3682","-6" "Ottawa","45.3","-7","3424","-4" "Kingston","55.2","2","4987","3" "Peterborough","53.4","-2","4473","0" "Toronto","44.9","-4","2844","-3" "Hamilton","50.7","-8","3531","-7" "St. Catharines–Niagara","57.3","0","4117","3" "Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo","55.2","-4","4279","-3" "Brantford","76.3","-8","5602","-10" "Guelph","47.7","9","3745","4" "London","66.3","-2","5477","5" "Windsor","58.1","-5","4251","-3" "Barrie","43.6","2","3754","1" "Greater Sudbury","61.3","-8","4525","-3" "Thunder Bay","89.9","10","6402","-1" "Winnipeg","80.7","-4","5398","0" "Regina","102.8","-3","7858","-4" "Saskatoon","109.7","10","8229","3" "Calgary","59.9","-2","4205","-2" "Edmonton","87.1","2","6783","0" "Kelowna","87.9","0","7374","0" "Abbotsford–Mission","84.4","6","6496","7" "Vancouver","96.7","8","7425","8" "Victoria","62.8","6","5586","4"