Police-reported crime in Canada continues to decline. Both the volume and severity of police-reported crime fell in 2009, continuing the downward trend seen over the past decade.
Are we not catching them? Are they not being reported? or are the Police getting better?
Nearly 2.2 million crimes were reported to police in 2009, about 43,000 fewer than in 2008. Overall, three property crimes accounted for the majority of this drop: 17,000 fewer motor vehicle thefts, 10,000 fewer mischief offences and 5,000 fewer break-ins.
The crime rate, a measure of the volume of crime reported to police, fell 3% in 2009 and was 17% lower than a decade ago.
The Crime Severity Index (CSI), a measure of the seriousness of police-reported crime, declined 4% in 2009 and stood 22% lower than in 1999.
Violent crimes, which range in seriousness from harassing phone calls to homicide, accounted for about 1 in 5 crimes in 2009. Police-reported violent crime in Canada is also declining, but to a lesser extent than overall crime.
Police identified about 165,000 youth aged 12 to 17 accused of a criminal offence in 2009. Both the number of crimes and the seriousness of crimes committed by youth have generally been declining since 2001, including a slight drop in 2009.
Police reported about 443,000 violent crimes in 2009, about 4 in 10 of which were minor assaults. Rates for many violent crimes fell in 2009, including serious assault, sexual assault and robbery.
However, some violent crimes did increase. There were 806 attempted murders in 2009, 85 more than in 2008. Increases were also reported in the rate of extortion, firearms offences and criminal harassment.
There were 610 homicides in 2009, about the same as the previous year. The homicide rate has been relatively stable for the past decade and well below the peak during the mid-1970s.
Break-ins have been steadily declining since peaking in the early 1990s, including a 4% drop in 2009. Police reported just over 205,000 break-ins in 2009, of which 6 in 10 were residential.
Is this due to more and more people getting home security systems?
This is the scariest stat, Impaired driving increases for third year in a row
Following 25 years of general decline, impaired driving offences increased for the third consecutive year, up 3% in 2009.
In July 2008, new legislation came into effect enabling police to conduct mandatory roadside testing and assessment of suspected drug-impaired drivers. Of the 89,000 incidents of impaired driving in 2009, just over 1,400 were reported by police to have been drug-impaired driving.
Hope you enjoyed this update,
Kenny
Check out the Stats here, thrown into a pie
Whether it declined or increased doesn't make much of a difference. As long as the possibility of crimes exist, I'm keeping my alarm systems Bristol up and running. It's better to be safe than sorry these days.
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