Study: Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime in Winnipeg

The demonstration study Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime in Winnipeg, is Statistics Canada's first to examine crime data at a neighbourhood level through a combination of statistical analyses and crime mapping based on Geographic Information System technology.

The study, funded by the National Crime Prevention Centre at Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, used demographic and socio-economic information from the Census, zoning data from the City of Winnipeg and police-reported crime data for 2001 to investigate neighbourhood-level crime patterns.

The analytic approach examines such questions as how police-reported crimes are distributed across city neighbourhoods, and whether the crime rate in a given neighbourhood is associated with factors specific to that neighbourhood, such as housing, land use or socio-economic characteristics.

In Winnipeg's case, findings indicate that crime was not randomly distributed across the city in 2001, but rather was concentrated in the city centre and highly correlated to the distribution of socio-economic and land-use characteristics.

About 1,100 incidents per square kilometre were reported within a two-kilometre radius of the geographic centre of the city. About six kilometres out from the centre, the density of reported incidents fell dramatically to about 150 incidents per square kilometre.

There were also differences in the level of concentration for violent and property crimes. About 30% of reported violent crime incidents occurred in 3% of neighbourhoods. Although there was a wider distribution of property crime incidents, about 30% of reported property crime occurred in 7% of neighbourhoods.

The Winnipeg Police Service reported more than 66,000 incidents in 2001. The vast majority (83%) were property crimes, while 15% were violent offences and about 2% were other offences such as prostitution, drugs or weapons.

After taking into account the available factors, the study showed that the factor most strongly associated with the highest neighbourhood rates of both violent and property crime was the level of socio-economic disadvantage of the residents.

Second in importance was the condition of housing in the neighbourhood, indicated by the proportion of dwellings in need of major repair. The third important factor was land use. With respect to violent crime, multiple family zoning, and to a lesser extent, commercial zoning, such as hotels and restaurants were associated with higher neighbourhood rates.

Commercial zoning was the only factor apart from socio-economic disadvantage and the condition of housing that contributed significantly to the explanation of higher rates of property crime.

The implication of these findings is that high-crime neighbourhoods exhibit distinct characteristics that are quite different from low-crime neighbourhoods. They are characterized by residential populations with smaller shares of social and economic resources, and by land-use patterns that may increase opportunity for crime.

The report Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime in Winnipeg no. 4, which is part of the Crime and Justice Research Paper Series (85-561-MIE2004004, free) is now available online. From the Our products and services page, under Browse our internet publications, choose Free, then Justice.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts or methods of this release, contact Client Services (1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023) at the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.