Crime in Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crime in Canada is often characterized as being comparatively low and tightly controlled.
Under the constitution, criminal law is in the federal jurisdiction, with the provinces being constitutionally responsible for enforcement and prosecution. Punishment and the laws themselves are uniform throughout the country, but some provinces maintain different levels of enforcement.
Contents |
[edit] Statistics
In 2005, there were roughly 2.5 million crimes reported, of which 48% were property related crimes and 12% were violent crimes.[1] However, the number of reported crimes are only a fraction of the total number of crimes committed in the country. It has been estimated that only 52% of thefts, 47% of robberies, 46% of vandalism, 32% of general assaults and 10% of sexual assaults are reported.[1]
The crime rate in 2002 was the lowest crime rate in twenty-five years with 7,590 reported incidents per 100,000 people. This number increased to over 8,000 per 100,000 in 2003 and 2004, and raise slightly in 2005 to 7,761 per 100,000[2]. While most type of crimes have shown a modest decrease or have held steady in the past few years, in 2005, murder and attempted murder rates rose to their highest levels in a decade, to 658 and 772 respectively. Even though attempted murder has gone up from 2003, from 1995 it has decreased 20%. Homicide has only increase by 2% from 1995.[3] Much of this increase has been attributed to drug related turf disputes.
The province with the lowest crime rate is Ontario with 5,780 per 100,000. Quebec is close behind with 6,032 per 100,000. The province with the highest crime rates is Saskatchewan with 14,320 per 100,000. Saskatoon is the city with the highest violent crime rate of major cities overtaking its provincial counterpart Regina. Quebec City, Trois-Rivieres, and Saguenay have the lowest crime rates of any city and are all from Quebec.[4] In 2005, Edmonton had the highest murder rate. The three northern territories have higher crime rates per capita than any province.
[edit] Comparisons
[edit] United States
Compared to the United States Canada has a lower rate of murder and assault, but a higher rate of rape. The Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 - 2000 Shows Canada's rate of rape per capita was 0.733089 per 1,000 people compared to the United States 0.301318 per 1,000 people. However the definition of rape differs in the two countries, as Canada's rate includes the broader defined Sexual Assault making an accurate comparison difficult. The United States rate for aggravated assault was double the Canadian rate. The rate for robberies was 65% higher in the US.
Rates of property crime are more comparable with higher rates of motor vehicle and bicycle theft in Canada and similar rates of shoplifting. Canada also has a higher rate of arson. Some of this may be connected to Canadians being more likely to report property crimes to police than Americans. A 1995 survey by the International Crime Victim Survey found the gap between the countries shrank when the population was directly surveyed about their experiences.
The United States has about triple the per capita number of arrests for drug related crimes. Actual rates of drug use are quite similar however, but in the United States far more law enforcement resources are dedicated to the war on drugs and police often lay drug charges in the US for minor cannibas possesion whereas Canadian police would not in the same circumstance.
In recent years the gap between in crime rates between the United States and Canada has been narrowing, with the Canadian rates more or less holding steady except for minor annual fluctuations while the US rate has continued to drop for over a decade. The current US murder rate is 2.5 times that of Canada per capita, this is down from about 3.5 times as high during the early 1990's. Approximately 70% of the total murders in the US are commited with firearms, which is roughly double the percentage of Canada.
[edit] Other countries (comparisons)
Canada's crime rate is close to the averages in Western Europe or Australia but with differences. Property Crime is lower than in some nations (ie. United Kingdom, Sweden), and significantly lower than Australia but higher than in others (ie. Spain, France). The violent crime rate (ie., murder, weapons offences and rape) is higher than most western european nations, in some cases more than double. Canada has several times more violent crime per capita than the safest nations such as Japan, Sweden, Yemen or Switzerland but substainally (many times less) than countires with very high violent crime rates such as Russia, Mexico, Colombia or South Africa.
[edit] Guns
One of the most common explanations of the higher violent crime rate in the United States are guns. Gun crimes are far more common in the United States. Only one third of Canadian murders involve firearms compared to two thirds in the States. Guns are more likely to be used in robberies in the United States. Overall gun ownership rates are significantly higher in the United States 41% of households vs. 26% in Canada (1998), and even to greater extent, handguns. Most Canadian weapons are rifles or shotguns owned by rural property owners, hunters and target shooters, and are less likely to be used in crimes. More types of weapons are banned or restricted in Canada than the United States. Canada also has a national gun registry. Even before the creation of the national gun registry, the two biggest provinces, Ontario and Quebec had a long history of strict gun controls.
Canada has effectively no legal concealed carry of handguns for self-defense, whereas forty five U.S. states have such a provision. Defensive use of firearms is much more common in the United States than in Canada.
Canada has more guns and fewer controls on them than most nations in Western Europe (exceptions Finland, Norway and Switzerland) or Japan.
[edit] Police
In 2005 there were 61,050 police officers in Canada which equates to one police officer per 528.6 persons.[2] Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island have the fewest police per capita with 664.9 persons per police officer in Newfoundland and 648.4 persons per officer in PEI. Conversely, the highest ratio of police to population is found in Canada's northern territories; Nunavut has 247.9 persons per police officer, the Northwest Territories has 248.5 persons per officer and the Yukon has 258.2 persons for each police officer.[3]
That is a substantially lower rate than most developed countries with only Japan and Sweden having so few police officers. The United States has 243 per 100,000 and Germany 290. Canada's national police force is the RCMP which is the main police force in Canada's north and rural areas outside of Quebec, Ontario, and Newfoundland. Those three provinces have their own provincial police forces. Major cities also have their own police forces.
[edit] Punishment
There is controversy among criminologists over whether American harsh sentences are a cause or a reflection of higher crime rates. American sentences have been higher throughout the twentieth century, even during periods when the two country's crime rates were comparable.
Canada has comparatively low sentences for many crimes and most convicts receive parole after serving one third of their sentence. Canada also has not had the death penalty since the 1970s. Sentences, especially for drug related crimes are vastly lower than sentences in the United States. There is nowhere in Canada a law such as California's three strikes policy. Canadian criminals are more likely to be given alternative sentences than jail times and more money is put into rehabilitation. Canada thus has a far lower percentage of its population in jail than the United States.
In 2001, Canada had about 32,000 people in prison or about 0.13% of the population. In the United States about 0.7% of the population is incarcerated and the European average is 0.2% with France and Germany having lower rates than Canada, but the United Kingdom, Spain and most of Eastern Europe having higher ones.
[edit] Racial factors
Although aboriginal persons make up 3% of Canada's population they account for about 20% of the prison population.[4]
In the United States, Blacks and, to a significantly lesser extent, Hispanics are incarcerated at a higher rate than non-Hispanic Whites. Canadian Blacks have suffered less persecution and the lack of slavery in Canada has attracted many Blacks to flee there. Canadian Blacks have not undergone the Ghetto experience to the degree as have Blacks in the United States. The Black ghettos of the United States have high numbers of individuals who live in poverty. Canadian Blacks have faced less discrimination than their American counterparts and are generally better off economically.
The lack of a common border between Canada and Mexico has prevented Mexican criminal organizations and drug cartels from effectively penetrating Canada. Mexican criminal organizations are estimated to be responsible for the importation of 60-70% of methamphetamine into the United States. The US/Mexico border is a major conduit for drug trafficking and human smuggling into the United States.
[edit] Immigration and crime
In 2005, Gwyn Morgan raised the issue of linking refugees with crime in Canada, saying among other things that "It's fair to say that most immigrants who abuse our society have come in as refugee claimants rather than 'economic immigrants'." His opinions on this topic were rejected by, most notably, some New Democratic Party and Liberal Members of Parliament (Maclean's, 2006).
The federal Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada department ran a program from 1999 to 2003 called Project Early Intervention that targeted children in a community "made up of recent Arabic and Somalian immigrants" with the goal of reducing crime.
In 2004, Canada established a national action plan, aimed in part at reducing violence, called A Canada Fit for Children which said "children of recent immigrants and refugee children are more likely to experience economic disadvantage with its associated risks."
Terrorist attacks in Canada have been committed by both foreign-born (typically naturalized citizens) and Canadian-born people. Half of the 12 identified alleged terrorists in the 2006 Toronto terrorism case are foreign-born and the other half are Canadian-born.
[edit] References
- ^ Roach, Kent (2004). Criminal Law, 3rd Edition. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Irwin Law, pp. 1-2. ISBN 1-55221-091-X.
- ^ Police personnel. Statistics Canada. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
- ^ Police officers, by province and territory. Statistics Canada. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
- ^ Aboriginal people over-represented in Saskatchewan's prisons. Statistics Canada. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
[edit] External links
- Correctional Service Canada (commonly called Corrections Canada) administers federal prisons and parole boards.
- Crime comparisons between Canada and the United States
