Distribution of Crime

Sociology 12
Miss Wilkinson
Go to the following website: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2015001/article/14211eng.htm
Crime severity and crime rates
Part I: Answer the following questions from the information on the web page
1. Go to the top of the page and click Police-reported crime in Canada continued to
decrease in volume and severity. According to The police-reported Crime Severity
Index (CSI), what percentage did crime decrease in Canada between 2013 and 2014?
Explain the reasons for the CSI decrease in 2014.
2. What does the Police-reported Crime Severity Index (CSI) measure?
3. What was the police reported crime rate for incidents per 100,000 population in 2014?
4. In your own OPINION, why do you think that police-reported crime rates are the lowest
they have been since 1969? Do you think media reflects this statistic?
5. According to TEXT BOX 1, explain two differences between the Crime Severity Index
(CSI) and the Crime Rate.
6. Click on Declines in police-reported crime recorded by almost all provinces and
territories at top of page. List the two provinces that experienced an increase in CSI
between 2013 and 2014. Which crimes caused the increase in CSI for each province?
7. Which province had the highest CSI and Crime Rate in 2014?
8. Which province had the lowest CSI in 2014?
9. Which province had the lowest Crime Rate in 2014?
10. Scroll down and examine Charts 4 through 7 -Police-reported Crime Severity Index
between the years of 2004-2014. In your own OPINION, why do you think the Prairies
and the Territories have a higher CSI than the national average?
11. Scroll down to Chart 8.Which city in Canada has the highest CSI rate? What is the CSI
rate of Halifax?
Violent Crime
Part II:

Go to the top of the page and click Violent Crimes.

12. How many violent police-reported crime incidents were reported in 2014?
13. Scroll down. According to Chart 9, which city ranks highest on the Violent Crime
Severity Index?
14. Is Halifax below or above the national average for violent crimes?
Assault
Go to the top of the page and click All forms of police-reported assault decreased in 2014.

15. Physical assault accounted for what percentage of violent crimes reported by police in
2014?

16. How many physical assaults were reported in 2014?

17. What are the three levels of assault?
18. On a different page open this website: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002x/2009003/definitions-eng.htm#c1 Scroll down to Assault. Explain the differences
between the three levels of assault.
Robbery
Go to the top of the page and click Police-reported robbery continued to decrease
19. How many robberies were reported in 2014?
20. Which provinces or territories experienced a growth in the rate of robberies between
2013 and 2014?
Homicide
Go to the top of the page and click Homicide rate remained stable from previous year.
21. Homicide represents what percentage of violent crime in Canada?

22. According to Chart 11, which province or territory in Canada had the highest levels of
homicide in 2014? Which had the lowest?
Sexual Assault
Go to the top of the page and click Police-reported sexual assault declined in 2014
23. Explain the three levels of sexual assault.
24. How many sexual assaults were reported in 2014?
25. What percentage of sexual assaults are estimated to NOT be reported to police? In your
OPINION, why do you think that the majority of sexual assaults are not reported?
Non-Violent Crime
Part III
Go to the top of the page and click Possession of drugs other than cannabis and cocaine
increased in 2014
26. Which offenses fall under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA)?
27. In 2014, what percentage of offenses were related to cannabis?
Scroll up to Police-reported impaired driving down for third consecutive year
28. How many alcohol or drug impaired driving incidents were there in 2014?
Go to the top of the page and click Police-reported non-violent crime continued to decline in
volume and severity

29. How many police-reported non-violent incidents were there in 2014?

30. Did child pornography incidents increase or decrease in 2014?
31. How many terrorism incidents were reported in 2014?
32. List three more non-violent violations that increased between 2013 and 2014.
Answer Key
1. 3%
2. Volume and seriousness of a crime

3. 5,046 incidents per 100,000 population

4.
5.
6. Yukon: homicide
British Columbia: theft of $5,000 or under, child pornography, breaking and entering, and theft
of a motor vehicle
7. Saskatchewan
8. Ontario
9. Quebec
10.
11.Saskatoon/ 59
12. 369,500
13. Thunder Bay
14. Above
15. 21,000 robberies
16. rince Edward Island (+17%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+15%) recorded the largest
growth in the rate of robbery among the provinces, while the rate of robbery also increased in
both Nunavut and Yukon.
17. 58%
18. 213,000 assaults
19. Common assault (Level 1), assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (level 2),
aggravated assault (level 3)
20. Assault
a violent offence classified into three levels: level 1 or common assault, the least serious form
including behaviours such as pushing, slapping, punching and face-to-face threats; level 2
assault, defined as assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm; and level 3 aggravated assault,
defined as assault that wounds, maims, disfigures or endangers the life of the victim.
21. 1%
22. Nunavut/Newfoundland
23. level 1 sexual assault criminalizes assault of a sexual nature that violates the sexual integrity
of a person. Sexual assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (level 2) criminalizes sexual
assault that involves a weapon, bodily harm or threats to cause bodily harm to a person. Lastly,
aggravated sexual assault (level 3) criminalizes sexual assault which wounds, maims, disfigures
or endangers the life of another person
24. 20,700 police-reported sexual assaults,
25. 88
26. In Canada, drug offences such as possession, trafficking, importation and exportation, and
production fall under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA)
27. 66
28. 74,800 alcohol or drug impaired driving incidents in 2014
29. 1.4 million police-reported non-violent incidents in 2014
30. Increase
31. 100
32. identity fraud (+8%), fraud (+2%) and motor vehicle theft (+1%) also rose between 2013 and
2014.