Thursday, July 21, 2011
Crime rate lowest in 40 years... Why are we building superjails, then?
Canada’s crime rate at lowest level in almost 40 years: StatsCan
Jill Mahoney
Globe and Mail Last updated
Canada’s crime rate continued its long decline last year, hitting the lowest level since 1973.
Crimes reported to police dropped 5 per cent in 2010. The decline spanned a wide range of offences, including the homicide rate, which fell by 10 per cent to a level not seen since 1966.
“Homicide is one of the few types of violent crime that almost invariably comes to the attention of police and, as such, is generally recognized as a country’s barometer of violence,” Statistics Canada said in a report released Thursday.
In addition, an index measuring the severity of crimes fell 6 per cent from 2009, reaching its lowest point since it was introduced in 1998.
The national crime rate has been dropping steadily for the past 20 years. However, the Conservative government argues that the crime is on the rise and plans to introduce a tough law-and-order package in the House of Commons in the fall.
Prime Minster Stephen Harper’s government has long looked to victimization surveys rather than the official crime rate, which is based on offences reported to and substantiated by police. Statscan’s last victimization survey found that Canadians reported just 31 per cent of criminal incidents to police in 2009.
Winnipeg Police Chief Keith McCaskill says he's working to lower his city’s crime rate as the Manitoba capital was once again painted as the most violent major metropolitan area in the country.
But Chief McCaskill says he takes comfort that the rate is going down.
The violent crime severity index for the city dropped by 13 per cent last year compared with the previous year. Manitoba is also once again leading the provinces in violent crime. Statistics Canada says there were 3.6 murders for every 100,000 people in Manitoba last year.
On the day the numbers came out, Chief McCaskill's police force was dealing with two shootings — one involving a robbery suspect shot by police and another a man wounded in an unexplained incident downtown.
Overall, Canadian police forces reported nearly 2.1 million Criminal Code offences last year, about 77,000 fewer than in 2009. The figures do not include traffic violations.
Statscan credited four property crimes for the majority of the drop in the crime rate: theft under $5,000, mischief, car thefts and break-ins. However, there were also fewer attempted murders, serious assaults and robberies.
By contrast, there were more sexual assaults, gun offences, criminal harassment, child pornography and drug offences in 2010.
Among Statscan’s findings:
- There were 554 homicides in 2010, down 56 from the year before. The decline in the homicide rate was largely driven by a decrease in British Columbia, where the rate hit an all-time low.
- There were 693 attempted murders last year, down from 801 in 2009. This resulted in the lowest level in more than 30 years.
- Nearly 93,000 vehicles were reported stolen last year, representing a 15 per cent drop and continuing a downward trend that started in the mid-1990s.
- Nearly 153,000 youth between the ages of 12 and 17 were accused of a crime in 2010, almost 15,000 fewer than a year earlier. The youth crime rate declined by 7 per cent.
- More than 22,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2010, an increase of 5 per cent. The higher number represented the first increase since 2005.
- Drug offences rose 10 per cent from 2009, continuing an upward trend. About half were for marijuana possession.
- Three cities had increases in their crime severity index, which measures the seriousness of crimes: St. John’s, Sudbury, Ont., and Peterborough, Ont. The cities with the lowest crime severity indexes were Guelph, Ont., Quebec City, Toronto and Ottawa.
From The Globe & Mail.
Check out more about it here.
Act like a lady in politics? Just because we speak our minds, we're not lady like?!!
"Female House Democrats want rebuke of West for insults to Wasserman Schultz"
By Felicia Sonmez,
Reps. Gwen Moore (Wis.), Lois Capps (Calif.), Jackie Speier (Calif.), Donna F. Edwards (Md.) and Carolyn B. Maloney (N.Y.) said that West should apologize for his comments and that House GOP leaders should publicly disavow them.
West’s remarks came in an e-mail sent Tuesday afternoon, after Wasserman Schultz criticized on the House floor West’s support for a bill that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised in exchange for significant spending cuts and congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
“The gentleman from Florida, who represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries – unbelievable for a member from South Florida,” she said.
West, a freshman, accused the four-term Democrat of “unprofessional and inappropriate sophomoric behavior.”
“Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me,” West wrote in the e-mail, which also went to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and West’s chief of staff. “Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up. Focus on your own congressional district!”
“You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!” he added.
On Wednesday, Maloney said, “I’ve got to tell you that standing up for what you believe in, speaking out on the floor of Congress, and getting elected to office is very ladylike, Mr. West. And I’d like to say that I believe it’s sad that Mr. West felt he had to resort to that kind of language, but they resort to that type of language because they cannot win on the merits.”
The New York Democrats added, “If [West] had given those comments on the floor of the House of Representatives, his words would have been taken down and stricken from the record because his words were nothing more than personal attacks, and the rules of this Congress do not permit personal attacks.”
Both parties have been fundraising off the imbroglio. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Emily’s List excerpted West’s remarks Wednesday in fundraising letters to supporters, and West’s campaign sent a fundraising missive highlighting the comments Wednesday afternoon.
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