National Homicide Rate on the Climb

In 2003, our homicide rate hit an all-time low. However, the last few years it has been on the climb.

National homicide rate rose in 2005: StatsCan

Updated Wed. Nov. 8 2006 1:56 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

In 2005, Canada's homicide rate climbed to its highest level in close to 10 years, an increase triggered by a spike in gangland violence.

It was the second straight year Canada's homicide rate has gone up.

The findings were included in the Statistics Canada annual homicide survey. The number of overall homicides in Canada has been on the rise since 2003, when the national rate hit a 30-year low.

According to the numbers, 628 homicides were committed in Canada last year, 34 more than in 2004.

In total, 222 of those were committed with a firearm, compared to 173 in 2004. Last year marked the third straight year firearms-related killings have increased.

Link

Now it is disappointing that the rates are on the climb, but considering the stats, our reputation as a relatively safe and peaceful nation are reinforced.

One of my biggest concerns of this article is:

Youth homicide on the rise

The report also found that the rate of youths accused of homicide in 2005 was at its highest level in over a decade.

In 2005, 65 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 were accused of homicide, an increase of 21 compared to the previous year.

But while youth homicides were on the rise, overall youth crime declined by 6 per cent, including a 2 per cent decline in overall violent crime.

Youth crime is rampant all over our country. Bullies are turning to murderers, fists have turned to guns, it is a trend that should be acknowledged.

Here are the homicide rates for each province over the last two years:

* Newfoundland 2, 9
* P.E.I. 0, 0
* Nova Scotia 14, 20
* New Brunswick 7, 9
* Quebec 111, 100
* Ontario 187, 218
* Manitoba 50, 49
* Saskatchewan 39, 43
* Alberta 86, 109
* British Columbia 113, 98
* Yukon 7, 1
* Northwest Territories 4, 0
* Nunavut 4, 2

Prince Edward Island knows how to do it. One thing the stats do not signify are the increase of crime on the east coast. The recent murder of an American sailor in Halifax, may bring this issue to the forefront. We have been long known for our peaceful and friendly ways, but if things continue the way they are, we may lose this reputation.

My big question here is, are these stats a positive or a negative? I fully understand the rates are increasing, but are they still low enough to consider them a positive? Or, taking into consideration our population, are they too high?

I'm no expert on crime rates, but I think ours are still fairly low.

There is a problem with youth violence and gangs, but I think that's a really complex social issue that I can't even begin to come up with a solution for. I'm not sure what we can do to prevent murders from happening.

The number I really notice (showing my bias ) is that a full 1/3 of the murders are committed with firearms. That is more than enough reason for me to cooperate with the US on border patrolling to their little heart's desire (as long as they don't cross the border). They can satisfy their concerns about terrorists, pot and Canadian medication and we can keep those damn guns south of the border. Of course, they could all be using rifles to kill people and these could be Canadian weapons, but somehow, I just don't think that's the case.



[edit on 8-11-2006 by Duzey]

Originally posted by Duzey
I'm no expert on crime rates, but I think ours are still fairly low.

Oh I believe your title begs to differ. Your humbleness though.. *Here*Here*

Originally posted by Duzey
I'm not sure what we can do to prevent murders from happening.

How about some precog's? Cruise + Minority Report style? It could work.

Originally posted by Duzey
The number I really notice (showing my bias

) is that a full 1/3 of the murders are committed with firearms. That is more than enough reason for me to cooperate with the US on border patrolling to their little heart's desire (as long as they don't cross the border). They can satisfy their concerns about terrorists, pot and Canadian medication and we can keep those damn guns south of the border.
[edit on 8-11-2006 by Duzey]

Yes. I'm not a fan of the American government dictating how we govern ourselves, but them patrolling the borders works both ways. It appears keeping the American government happy is at the top of our totem pole these days, so whatever works I guess.

After rereading the article, I am overly satisfied with our current situation. Things could be much worse on our side of the border.

What is the murder rate in each country?

edit:

according to the FBI, 469.2 people out of 100,000 were victims of some type of violent crime (not necessarily murder) in 2005. 5.6 people out of 100,000 were victims of some type of nonaccidental homicide.

Link: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation

[edit on 11/8/2006 by djohnsto77]

[edit on 11/8/2006 by djohnsto77]

Originally posted by chissler
How about some precog's? Cruise + Minority Report style?

I seem to recall there were some small issues with that program.

As an aside, The PTS FSME thingy doesn't really mean I'm an expert in all things Canadian. It's more of a setting the tone, encouraging discussion kind of thing. I think. I'd re-read Majic's threads on the subject to refresh my memory, but I don't have that much extra time right now.

For now, I'm just trying to make sure there are threads here that people can post on. That's why I like it so much when people start new threads.

...

After some searching, I tracked down our crime statistics for 2005. Our murder rate for 100,000 is 2.0. Violent crime was at 943 per 100,000.

Now before you get all excited that the US has a lower violent crime rate, there are a few differences in how the reports are done. In the US, the data follows a hierarchy rule where only the worst offence is used in the case of multiple crimes in one incident. In Canada, they are allowed to list four crimes per incident.

Say there was an incident where someone robbed a bank, assaulted two employees and killed the bank manager; under the US system only the homicide would be reported. In Canada, all four offences would be reported and reflected in our violent crime stats. I'm unsure if that means that if two people were murdered in one incident in the US, only one murder would go into the statistics.

Without the raw data I'm not sure how well the two sets of statistics can be compared, due to the differences in reporting policies.

Here's the Canadian stats for 2005, maybe you can make more sense out of them than I can.

One thing that surprised me is that Vancouver (city proper) had a higher murder rate than Toronto (city proper) in 2005. I had no idea. I can't even remember to lock my doors half the time (I'm the one Micheal Moore was talking about). :shk:

Edmonton is a city that scares me. Living on the east coast, murders and rapes are something we rarely hear of. If we do, its in the national section of our newspaper. When I lived in Red Deer, there was a steady stream of murders that summer. I actually believe there was a serial killer preying on prostitutes in the city. Never heard anything else on the story after moving home, so I'm not sure what ever came of it.

It was in the summer of 2005 though, so I'll have to have a look into it. Maybe one of our members from Alberta has some insight to this story.

Thank you for the stats Duzey.