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Police-reported Crime Severity Index

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1998 to 2007

According to the new Police-reported Crime Severity Index (PRCSI), police-reported crime in Canada in 2007 was less serious overall than 10 years earlier. The traditional Police-reported Crime Rate (PRCR), which tracks the volume of police-reported crime, also dropped over the 10 years, but to a lesser degree. However, the seriousness of police-reported violent crime did not follow this downward trend and remained stable.

Police-reported overall Crime Severity Index and police-reported crime rate, 1998 to 2007

The Police-reported Crime Severity Index tracks changes in the severity of police-reported crime. Each offence is assigned a weight and more serious crimes are assigned higher weights, or relative importance. Changes in more serious crimes, such as break-ins and robberies, drive changes in the index.

Note to readers

This release launches the Police-reported Crime Severity Index (PRCSI), a new tool that, for the first time, tracks changes in the severity of police-reported crime.

For a full explanation of the index and how it is calculated, consult the report Measuring Crime in Canada: Introducing the Crime Severity Index and Improvements to the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (85-004-XWE, free). A short backgrounder is also available by request.

The new index adds to existing measures of crime. The traditional Police-reported Crime Rate (PRCR) will continue to be released annually. Statistics Canada also releases victimization data from the General Social Survey every five years. The new index will become part of Statistics Canada's annual release of police-reported crime statistics in July 2009.

The index was developed in response to a request by the police community to create a measure of crime that reflects the relative seriousness of different offences and addresses limitations of the current Police-reported Crime Rate. Its development was guided by a Working Group comprised of representatives from police; federal, provincial/territorial justice partners; and academics.

The Police-reported Crime Rate, which measures changes in the volume of crime, counts each criminal incident equally. As a result, the rate is dominated by high volume, less-serious offences.

The Police-reported Crime Severity Index measures changes in the severity of crime from year to year. Each type of offence is assigned a weight derived from actual sentences handed down by courts in all provinces and territories. Weights are calculated using the five most recent years of available sentencing data.

More serious crimes are assigned higher weights, less serious offences lower weights. As a result, when all crimes are included, more serious offences have a greater impact on changes in the index.

Crime severity is expressed as an index for which 2006 is the base year at 100. In 2007, the index for overall crime was 94.6, down from 119.1 in 1998. This means that crime severity fell by about 20% during the decade. The 10-year decline was driven by a 40% drop in break-ins.

The seriousness of police-reported crime fell in every year during the decade, except for 2003. In that year, the index rose as a result of increases in robberies and break-ins.

The traditional Police-reported Crime Rate measures changes in the volume of police-reported crime. The majority of offences making up the rate are high-volume, less-serious offences, such as mischief and minor thefts.

The Police-reported Crime Rate also dropped between 1998 and 2007 but to a lesser degree than the index. The volume of police-reported crime fell by 15% compared with the 21% decline in the severity of crime.

The index and the rate provide different information on police-reported crime trends and may diverge at points. For example, between 1999 and 2002, the Police-reported Crime Rate was relatively stable while there was a notable drop in crime severity.

The severity index fell due to a decrease in several serious crimes, such as break-ins (-16%) and robberies (-11%), while an increase in reported incidents of mischief kept the rate stable.

Police-reported violent crime severity

The Violent Crime Severity Index and the traditional violent crime rate include only police-reported crimes against the person, such as homicide, robberies and sexual assault. Changes in more serious violent crimes, because they are assigned higher weights, have a greater impact on the violent severity index than on the rate.

Police-reported Violent Crime Severity Index and police-reported violent crime rate, 1998 to 2007

In contrast to the downward trend in the seriousness of police-reported crime as a whole, the index for just violent crime stayed relatively stable during the decade. This suggests that the situation with respect to serious crimes against the person was about the same as 10 years ago.

In 1998, the Violent Crime Severity Index value was 98.0 and in 2007, it was 96.5, a drop of about 2%. The traditional violent crime rate was also at about the same level in 2007 as in 1998.

However, the Violent Crime Severity Index and the rate moved in different directions at various points throughout the decade.

For example, between 2004 and 2006, the violent crime severity index rose by 4%. During this period, there were increases in many serious violent crimes, including attempted murder and aggravated assault, the most serious form of assault.

These increases were not picked up in the violent crime rate, due to a decline in minor assaults, the highest-volume violent crime.

Severity of crime in the provinces and territories

The Police-reported Crime Severity Index can be used for measuring the increase or decrease in the severity of police-reported crime over time in any given jurisdiction. It can also be used to compare severity among jurisdictions in any given year.

Police-reported crime rates have generally been higher in the west and north than in eastern and central regions of the country. This is also true for crime severity. Provincially, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia had crime severity index values well above the other provinces in 2007.

Ontario and Quebec have had the lowest police-reported crime rates in recent years. However, with respect to the seriousness of police-reported crime, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick had the lowest index values.

Crime severity fell in every province during the 10-year period, with the largest declines in Ontario and Quebec.

Severity of crime in Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver

Among Canada's three largest census metropolitan areas, crime was less serious overall in Toronto in 2007 than in either Montréal or Vancouver.

Canada's largest metropolitan area, Toronto, had a Police-reported Crime Severity Index of 65.6 in 2007, well below the national average of 94.6 and the lowest of all 27 census metropolitan areas.

Montréal had an overall index of 94.3 while Vancouver's overall index was 128.5, well above the national average and sixth highest of all metropolitan areas.

On the other hand, Toronto's violent severity index was almost the same as the national average while the indexes for both Montréal and Vancouver were above. Vancouver's violent index was sixth highest of all the metropolitan areas.

Other census metropolitan areas

Of all census metropolitan areas, overall crime severity was highest in Regina in 2007. Regina's index value of 189.0 was about twice the national average of 94.6. However, the severity of police-reported crime in Regina has been declining in recent years.

Regina was followed by Saskatoon and Winnipeg in 2007. The seriousness of police-reported crime in Saskatoon has also declined in recent years, while in Winnipeg crime severity has remained relatively stable.

Although the Atlantic provinces had below-average Police-reported Crime Severity Index values, this was not the case for the three major metropolitan areas in those provinces. In 2007, Saint John, Halifax and St. John's all had overall index values above the national average.

For violent crime, index values were again highest in Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg. Québec had the lowest index value for violent crime.

Available on CANSIM: tables 252-0051 and 252-0052.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3302.

The report, Measuring Crime in Canada: Introducing the Crime Severity Index and Improvements to the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (85-004-XWE, free), is now available. From the Publications module of our website, choose All subjects, then Crime and justice.

For more information, to obtain the Backgrounder, or to enquire about concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Information and Client Services (toll-free 1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.

Table 1

Police-reported crime rate and Crime Severity Index values, 1998 to 2007 
  Police-reported Crime Severity Index Police-reported Crime Rate¹ Police-reported Crime Severity Index Police-reported Crime Rate²
  total violent
1998 119.1 8,092 98.0 1,345
1999 111.5 7,694 99.6 1,440
2000 107.0 7,607 98.0 1,494
2001 105.5 7,586 97.4 1,473
2002 104.3 7,508 96.4 1,440
2003 107.0 7,761 97.7 1,433
2004 104.2 7,587 96.1 1,402
2005 101.4 7,310 98.5 1,386
2006 100.0 7,228 100.0 1,383
2007 94.6 6,862 96.5 1,342
  % change
1998 to 20073 -20.6 -15.2 -1.6 -0.2
The crime rate consists of all Criminal Code offences excluding traffic. It also excludes drug offences and all federal statutes.
The violent crime rate has been expanded to include a number of offences not previously included in the violent crime rate, including uttering threats, criminal harassment and forcible confinement.
Percent change calculations based on unrounded data.
Note(s):
This table does not show the Non-violent Crime Severity Index or the property and Other Criminal Code crime rate. Rates are expressed per 100,000 population.

Table 2

Police-reported crime rate and Crime Severity Index values, Canada and the provinces and territories, 2007 
  Police-reported Crime Severity Index Police-reported Crime Rate¹ Police-reported Crime Severity Index Police-reported Crime Rate²
  total violent
Newfoundland and Labrador 75.3 6,375 61.8 1,482
Prince Edward Island 62.8 5,976 38.9 1,107
Nova Scotia 90.8 7,490 92.0 1,741
New Brunswick 70.0 5,521 64.2 1,365
Quebec 84.7 5,119 84.1 1,078
Ontario 73.3 5,062 83.1 1,066
Manitoba 149.9 10,868 173.6 1,986
Saskatchewan 164.7 13,270 170.5 2,623
Alberta 115.0 9,214 107.5 1,498
British Columbia 130.6 10,334 117.1 1,778
Yukon 189.2 21,320 196.2 3,969
Northwest Territories 339.2 43,903 345.1 9,396
Nunavut 310.3 29,997 487.7 8,829
Canada 94.6  6,862 96.5  1,342
The crime rate consists of all Criminal Code offences excluding traffic. It also excludes drug offences and all federal statutes.
The violent crime rate has been expanded to include a number of offences not previously included in the violent crime rate, including uttering threats, criminal harassment and forcible confinement.
Note(s):
This table does not show the Non-violent Crime Severity Index or the property and Other Criminal Code crime rate. Rates are expressed per 100,000 population.

Table 3

Police-reported crime rate and Crime Severity Index values, census metropolitan areas, 2007 
  Police-reported Crime Severity Index Police-reported Crime Rate¹ Police-reported Crime Severity Index Police-reported Crime Rate²
  total violent
Population 500,000 and over        
Winnipeg 153.2 9,682 183.4 1,369
Edmonton 131.3 9,524 131.7 1,343
Vancouver 128.5 9,011 128.6 1,478
Montréal 94.3 5,581 108.1 1,088
Calgary 91.8 6,166 92.8 876
Hamilton 83.5 6,824 96.7 1,442
Ottawa 76.6 5,399 77.4 890
Québec 66.4 4,439 56.7 982
Toronto 65.6 4,278 95.0 1,036
100,000 to less than 500,000 population        
Regina 189.0 11,851 185.1 1,871
Saskatoon 158.6 11,623 212.2 2,115
Abbotsford 142.9 10,185 103.3 1,492
Thunder Bay 115.6 8,876 140.2 1,966
Victoria 109.2 9,213 81.2 1,408
Saint John 106.5 8,337 108.8 2,258
Halifax 106.3 8,000 125.3 1,873
St. John's 100.4 7,363 76.4 1,561
London 90.4 7,187 68.6 1,009
Windsor 82.5 6,119 67.1 1,032
Gatineau 81.8 5,689 69.6 1,265
St.Catharines–Niagara 81.4 5,614 64.6 986
Greater Sudbury 79.4 5,539 91.7 1,143
Sherbrooke 74.7 4,785 65.3 827
Kingston 72.7 5,931 62.9 1,282
Trois-Rivières 69.1 4,464 62.5 882
Kitchener 68.6 4,857 64.5 779
Saguenay 66.1 4,364 69.3 1,155
The crime rate consists of all Criminal Code offences excluding traffic. It also excludes drug offences and all federal statutes.
The violent crime rate has been expanded to include a number of offences not previously included in the violent crime rate, including uttering threats, criminal harassment and forcible confinement.
Note(s):
This table does not show the Non-violent Crime Severity Index or the property and Other Criminal Code crime rate. Rates are expressed per 100,000 population.