Think about it, the homicide rate is slightly more than double London’s rate of 1.2 per 100,000 and getting uncomfortably close to New York’s terrifying rate of 3.4 per 100,000 population. We’ll all have to be patient as far as a solution is concerned. Break & enter is almost 50% higher than average. Come on guys. Historically the city is as safe as it’s been for the past several decades and while 1 homicide is one too many, 2.57 is a reasonable rate for a city that now has almost 3 million inhabitants. It has an assault rate almost 50% higher than average and a sexual assault rate over 50% higher than the national average. Firearms offences have an incidence rate of 7.95 per 100,000 which is above the 6.79 average for Canada. For a city of its size, it’s a quite a safe place. If break & enter worries you, then small cities on the prairies are definitely no-go places for you. In fact, as with many other cities, it’s a bit of a mystery why Montreal isn’t lower down the list in terms of its CSI which comes in at 72. Somewhat high. It must mean that property crimes (robbery, break & enter, and fraud) are given fairly high weights when calculating the Crime Severity Index. Slightly below the national average. Fraud was up in Greater Sudbury by 37 per cent as well as in Guelph and Barrie by 27 per cent, all three making the top five list along with Trois-Rivieres and Winnipeg. Yet at the same time firearm offences are less than half Canada’s already low average. The question we have to ask is: are you safer in a large city in Canada or in a smaller town? Looking into the details we get a homicide rate of 1.76 which is just above Canada’s average and low for a top-10 CSI city. Robberies, break & enter, and fraud are all around 50% higher than the national average. You really see the effects of that.”. The good news? Although it was down from a decade ago, the Barrie area's index increased nine per cent over 2018. More than somewhat high. That’s not an insurmountable problem, and hopefully the city can work out some solutions to their crime problems in the years ahead. Fraud is almost 50% higher. Robberies? The views of the authors of content on immigroup.com/news do not reflect the views of the consultants employed by IMMIgroup Inc. "All images on immigroup.com are CC licensed, public domain or the work of IMMIgroup employees. Is Toronto, in fact, dangerous? Remember, we’re talking about crime rates that, relative to most countries in the world, are quite low. by Anastasia Shesterinia / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0. Impaired driving is less than half the national average while drugs offences of all kinds are well below the average for Canada. Hamilton is safe, if not quite as safe as its big brother just east long Lake Ontario’s shoreline. So are assaults and firearms offences, but sexual assaults are higher than average. Bad to fairly bad. Homicide rate? Immigroup.com/news is independently run and does not seek editorial input from IMMIgroup Inc. And Canada’s average crime statistics are really quite low because the majority of towns and cities in the country have very little crime indeed. Not good. 338 per 100,000 as opposed to an average of 431. Although it was down from a decade ago, the Barrie area’s index increased nine per cent over 2018. Impaired driving is less than average while firearm offences are only about 25% higher than average. “A large amount of crime is committed by a very small number of people. Youth crime is only a quarter of Canada’s average. Canada’s largest maritime city presents us with a bit of a puzzle. Below Canada’s average. This is the smallest CMA so far on our list with less than 150,000 residents and what seems to be a very healthy crime profile. Break & enter? Impaired driving is close to average while drugs offences are quite low and well below average, except for cocaine trafficking which is just slightly below average in terms of incidents per 100,000 population. Break & enter is about double. Others, like the ones we investigated in part 1 of this article, are places where the crime is so bad you should think twice before moving there. The Crime Severity Index (CSI) assesses the severity of criminality by measuring both the volume of police-reported criminal incidents and weighting for more severe crime, while factoring for the level of population. PRINCE GEORGE – Statistics Canada has released the annual Crime Severity Index and, at first blush, it would appear crime has spiked in Prince George. The assault rate for every 100,000 people is at 1351.22 compared to the Canadian average, which is at 430.68. This will not be easy to solve. An Olympics host city. This is Canada’s smallest Census Metropolitan Area and it likely owes its status as a CMA to its location between Southern Ontario and Manitoba and the Prairies. BC has the highest crime associated with the opioid crisis. And it gets strange when you dig into the individual crime statistics. Ottawa is about an hour’s drive up Highway 416 (take the exit off the 401 a few minutes East of Brockville). So why the high CSI ranking? A harbour that puts the rest of the country’s ports to shame. In addition, those identified as belonging to a visible minority group account for almost one-third of the country’s homicide victims. The homicide rate is 3.58 per 100,000 compared to Saskatoon’s higher rate, while it’s assault and sexual assault rates are slightly over average levels compared to Saskatoon’s being much higher. But Thunder Bay has had its history of crime problems in the past, so its position at number 7 is not surprising. Read more: Canada-wide, crime — including violent crime — increased somewhat last year, compared to 2018, although it was lower than it was a decade earlier, according to the information released by the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics. This feels like a bit of a statistical anomaly that brings a very safe city into the top 16. by Taxiarchos228 / Wikimedia Commons / Copyleft 1.3. That’s already been happening for around 30 years. F: 416-640-2650. And youth crime while very high is 6 times the average compared to 9 times in Saskatoon. But greater Victoria has a population of 367,770, which is over 3 times greater. Then there’s youth crime. Youth crime is minimal. Well below Canada’s average. That’s a problem that Saskatoon and more than a few smaller cities and towns out West are still struggling with. Regina has similar but slightly higher CSI and Violent CSI numbers compared to Saskatoon, at 132 and 133 respectively. Fairly bad for a larger city in Canada. And that is a closely guarded secret it seems. The answer depends on where in Canada your small town is located. The assault rate and the sexual assault rates are about the same or slightly less than the nation’s average rates. Impaired driving is noticeably higher, but drug offences are about the same or lower compared to Saskatoon. Is armed robbery a much bigger problem in Regina? But robbery and firearm offences are more than double the average. Both robberies and break & enter are almost double the national rate, while fraud is about 25% higher than average. by SmartCanadian / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. Homicides are about double the national average at 3.26. And, being a hub city, brings some concern given the fact we’re seeing incidents that the RCMP are having to deal with.”. The Barrie Census Metropolitan Area tracks largely north-south, taking in Innisfil, Barrie as well as Springwater Township and the three accompanying police forces: South Simcoe Police Service, Barrie Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police. As well, Kingston’s Violent CSI is a very low 44, well below the 75 level for Canada. 394 vs. 194 per 100,000. Homicide rates for Victoria are low, 0.95 which is slightly more than half Canada’s rate. Firearm offences are 4.28 compared to a national average of 6.79. Overall, there is a low rate of crime in Canada.Under the Canadian constitution, the power to establish criminal law and rules of investigation is vested in the federal Parliament. So, having it in the top 10 for CMAs is surprising. 87 vs. 60. Fairly bad. The ability to report fraud online, combined with high-profile fraud schemes, are considered factors in the increase. Sexual assault rate? 101 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. Get a roundup of the most important and intriguing national stories delivered to your inbox every weekday. The big bad cities. Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time. HEAD OFFICE • Mon-Fri 9:00AM - 5:00PM EST, Call Us: 1-866-760-2623 How do they kill each other in Halifax? Interestingly, from 2018 to 2019, the city's violent crime severity index dropped by more than 10 per cent, the report shows. Robberies are more than double the average. And it’s hard to tell exactly why it received a CSI of 77 overall which is somewhat above the Canadian average of 70.96. Reports of child pornography saw a 46 per cent jump across the country and other areas that saw increases were uttering threats, mischief and sexual assault. Robberies are higher but break & enter is lower and impaired driving and drug offences are all less than the national average. At the same time it has zero firearms incidents which seems a little odd given the high rate of homicide. We wonder if perhaps some of the statistics behind these are perhaps a little flawed in their methodology, but without the base data, it’s hard to tell. Assault and sexual assault are below average. And meantime we should all look elsewhere for a place to live and work when faced with a CSI of 128 and a Violent CSI of 129. by Jd. I think in small cities when those incidents are reported much more than the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, let’s say, has artificially inflated our stats.”. LETHBRIDGE, AB – Statistics Canada has given Lethbridge an unfortunate distinction – having the highest Crime Severity Index (CSI) in the country. Nationally, police-reported crime increased five per cent in 2019 from the previous year, but was nine per cent lower than a decade earlier in 2009. Impaired driving and drug offences are noticeably higher than average while the youth crime rate is just under Canada’s average, which once again, is high for a CMA. Let’s find out. Impaired driving is below average while drugs offences are average or slightly higher than average. Sexual assault is double the average. And, in fact, statistically, about five percent of our weighted CSI index was related to opioid trafficking.”, The StatsCan report also makes note, in Prince George’s particular case., “a high crime rate or Crime Severity Index (CSI) may indicate that a municipality is a geographical area that provides commercial business, human or public services, or entertainment for many people who reside outside, as well as inside, the municipality.