WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 287 -- Canadian Crime Wave.

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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 287 -- Canadian Crime Wave.

Crime In Canada & The United States-

Some facts about crime trends in the U.S. and Canada over the past decade:

America's crime problem has dramatically improved, while Canada's is becoming seriously worse. Toronto's 78 homicides in 2005 represents a 28% increase over the 61 homicides recorded in Toronto in 1995. Meanwhile, U.S. cities achieved dramatic decreases over the past decade: Chicago down 46% from 823, Washington down 46% from 365, Baltimore down 17% from 322.

More broadly: Canada's overall crime rate is now 50% higher than the crime rate in the United States. Read that again slowly--it seems incredible, but it's true. It's true too that you are now more likely to be mugged in Toronto than in New York City.

Interesting. Who knew?

America's crime problem is becoming concentrated in ever fewer places, while Canada's is spreading out to ever more places.

The United States is a huge country, and it will always be possible to find a jurisdiction with shocking crime numbers. The overwhelming majority of Americans, however, live in places that are becoming steadily safer. Since the early 1990s, crime rates have dropped in 48 of the 50 states and 80% of American cities. Over that same period, crime rates have risen in six of the 10 Canadian provinces and in seven of Canada's 10 biggest cities.

Again, interesting.

While American cities and states are adopting anti-crime policies proved to work, Canadian cities and provinces are adopting policies proved to fail.

Over a decade of successful crime-fighting in the U.S., criminologists and police departments have learned some important lessons.

Bluntly: prison works. Criminals do not commit crimes while they are held in prison. Yet a Canadian criminal is 80% less likely to go to jail than his American counterpart.

Putting police on the streets works. Yet Canada employs 25% fewer police officers per capita than the United States.

Very interesting. Crime, incidentally, is also up in Europe in recent years.

Why?

Policies matter. Europe and Canada, with their left-wing attitudes toward crime, have allowed crime to flourish. In the U.S., crime is down everywhere police and prosecutors and courts are tough on crime. Where there is a functional criminal justice system, crime falls. It's what gives me hope that Houston will be able to put out the post-Katrina crime fire over the next year or two.

Source:
David Frum: "Reaping What We Sow."

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Previous Trivia Tidbit: When Spending Cuts Are Spending Increases.

Posted by Will Franklin · 5 March 2006 10:46 AM

Comments

When you take away the rights of people to protect themselves, espeically by gun control, there is less deterant.

When your victim might be packing, makes you think twice. When the cops might catch you, makes you think twice. When you might get jail time when the cops do catch you, makes you think twice.

The question is whether you actually want to deter crime or not. Canada needs to tell the truth, that they don't care about the crime problem in Ottawa. They put the good of the criminals above the good of the citizens.

You think Michael Moore will be touting Canada's failing health care system and rampant crime problems in Bowling for Columbine II?

Posted by: Justin B at March 5, 2006 11:27 AM

Justin, that is a good point, the armed citzenry. When you look at gun control laws in Canada and England, I think it accounts a substantial increase in their crime rates.
Look at the big cities in the US that strictly enforce gun control laws, Washington DC, Boston Mass, and Chicago ILL, their crime rates go up every year.

Posted by: Eneils Bailey at March 5, 2006 12:38 PM

Take the #s of crime per capita to do a comparison. Canada is high on some, but much lower on others. 78 murders in Toronto?? A 100% increase would put you well under the murder rates in most American cities. But house breaks, vehicle thefts, and what not are higher in Canada, do to 1) lower levels of policing, 2) reporting anamolies, and 3) soft on crime.

Rgds,
Derek Butler
St. John's, NL

Posted by: Derek Butler at March 6, 2006 01:46 PM