Delinquency in the study population and the national population

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During the period from their 8^th to their 18^th birthdays, children and youth born in 1987 were responsible for 47 recorded offences¹ per 100 population, or approximately one offence for every two persons in the birth cohort, in the parts of Canada included in the study.² This does not necessarily mean that every second cohort member was an alleged criminal: some cohort members were allegedly involved in several criminal incidents and most were involved in none.

Looking only at the age range from 12 to 17 inclusive – i.e. the six years from the 12^th birthday to the day before the 18^th birthday – members of the 1987 cohort were responsible for approximately 45 recorded offences per 100 population, or one offence per 2.2 cohort members.³ This is an average annual crime rate of 7.5 offences per 100 population. This youth crime rate is about 2% lower than the average national youth crime rate during the same period, which was approximately 7.7 offences per 100 youth.⁴ The lower crime rate for the study population reflects the over-representation in the data of youth in Quebec, who had a lower recorded youth crime rate than youth in Canada as a whole.

Members of the study population born in 1990 committed less recorded crime, because they were observed at younger ages. During the period from their 5^th to their 15^th birthdays, children and youth born in 1990 were responsible for approximately 15 recorded offences per 100 population, for an average annual crime rate of 1.5 per 100 population, in the parts of Canada included in the study.⁵ This cannot be compared with national data because they are not available for children aged 5 to 15 years. However, it can be compared with the crime rate of the study population born in 1987, if the comparison is restricted to the age range which these two cohorts have in common, namely the ages of 8 to 14 inclusive. During these seven years, members of the 1987 birth cohort had an average annual crime rate of 2.4 offences per 100 population; and members of the 1990 birth cohort had an average annual crime rate of 2.1 per 100 population. The higher crime rate for the 1987 birth cohort between the ages of 8 and 14 reflects the higher youth crime rates in Canada during 1995 and 1996, when they were 8 and 9 years old but members of the 1990 cohort were only 5 and 6 years old.

The types of offences committed by members of both cohorts in the study population are shown in the first two columns of Table 1. The offence distributions shown in Table 1 are based on the most serious offence allegedly committed in the incident, so less serious offences may be under-represented, relative to more serious offences. The distribution of offences committed by members of both cohorts can be compared with the national distribution reported in the aggregate UCR Survey for Canadian children and youth in general, over the same period, which is shown in the last column of Table 1. The distribution of recorded offences into the three broad categories of offences against the person,⁶ against property, and other offences,⁷ is similar for the study population born in 1987, and for all Canadian youth. However, the study population born in 1987 has a lower proportion of "other Criminal Code" offences and of indictable property offences, and higher proportions of offences against the person (except common assault), some property offences, and drug offences. The distribution of offences among the study population born in 1990 is considerably different from the other two groups, reflecting the less serious crime which is characteristic of the younger age range of the 1990 birth cohort: it has higher proportions of minor assaults, minor thefts and minor mischief.

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Notes

1. The term "offence" is used throughout this report to refer to a person's recorded involvement in a criminal incident. If a person is recorded by police as having committed more than one violation of the law in connection with the same incident, this is still counted as one offence. If more than one person (in the study population) is recorded as being implicated in the same incident, each person is counted as having committed one offence.
2. Persons born in 1987 were involved in 91,491 recorded incidents during the 10 years of observation from their 8^th to their 18^th birthdays. During 1995 to 2005, the population in the parts of Canada included in the study of the cohort born in 1987 averaged approximately 195,000. Thus the 10-year crime rate per capita is 91,491/195,000, or 0.47.
3. The crime rate is defined here as the number of recorded incidents involving persons in this birth cohort divided by the number of persons in the birth cohort. The 6-year per capita crime rate is 87,725/195,000, or 0.45.
4. Based on data from the aggregate UCR Survey, which provides data for the whole of Canada on youth crime, but not broken down by year of age.
5. They were involved in 31,588 recorded incidents during the 10 years of observation from their 5^th to their 15^th birthdays. During 1995 to 2005, the population in the parts of Canada included in the study of the cohort born in 1990 averaged approximately 207,400. Thus the 10-year crime rate per capita is 31,588/207,400, or 0.15.
6. This term ("offences against the person and reputation") is used in the Criminal Code, and is preferable to "violent offences", which is not. The Supreme Court of Canada recently adopted, for the purposes of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, a harm-based definition of "violent offence", from which it follows that whether or not an offence is "violent" must be determined from the facts of the particular case, and that not all offences against the person are necessarily "violent": "...while a harm-based definition may exclude assaults committed without causing, attempting to cause or threatening to cause bodily harm, these relatively minor assaults ought not to be considered "violent offences" within the meaning of s. 39(1)(a)" (R v. C.D., [2005] S.C.J. No. 79).
7. For a list of the specific types of offences included in each group, please see the Appendix. Persons who were implicated in more than one incident at a given age, where the multiple incidents involved alleged offences in different categories, are double- or triple-counted. For example, a person involved in an incident of assault and another incident of break and enter, would be counted in the prevalence statistics for both person and property crime. The UCR2 data do not distinguish which crime was allegedly committed by whom in incidents involving multiple alleged violations and multiple alleged offenders – and co-offending is relatively common among children and young persons (Carrington, 2002). Therefore, the most serious offence allegedly committed in the incident was not necessarily attributed by police to the person so classified in the analyses presented here; for example, if a 5 year old and an 11 year old were involved in an incident in which the former allegedly committed shoplifting and the latter allegedly committed assault, both persons would be classified in the UCR2, and therefore in these analyses, as apprehended in connection with the more serious offence, namely assault.