Patterns of Crime in Canadian Cities :  A Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Appendix 1. An Illustration on the Difficulty of Describing a Crime Pattern

The following table shows the crime rates (per 100,000 population) reported by the Waterloo Region, Ontario for the 25 offence categories, as well as the crime rates for all Canada.

Offence Category Canada Mean of all cities Waterloo Region Compared to Mean
Homicide 1.8 1.1 0.5 -54%
Sexual assault I 76.1 115.5 72.1 -38%
Major sexual assault 2.2 3.7 1.1 -70%
Other sexual offences 10.8 17.4 3.2 -82%
Non-sexual assault I 594.7 910.3 403.8 -56%
Major non-sexual assault 133.3 145.9 103.6 -29%
Other non-sexual assault 40.0 87.1 28.3 -67%
Robbery 94.3 38.1 54.3 42%
Abduction & kidnapping 9.0 6.7 8.2 22%
Break & enter 1,044.4 1,040.6 1,029.5 -1%
Theft motor vehicle 529.3 381.0 624.8 64%
Theft over $5000 73.7 98.0 32.9 -66%
Theft $5000 & under 2,227.2 2,341.6 1,924.4 -18%
Possession of stolen goods 94.0 102.4 213.1 108%
Fraud & counterfeiting 415.6 624.0 364.5 -42%
Arson 41.9 44.8 47.5 6%
Vandalism 1,025.1 1,556.5 935.1 -40%
Moral offences 41.8 31.2 42.9 38%
Offensive weapons 52.6 78.3 36.7 -53%
Miscellaneous Criminal Code 1,224.9 2,146.3 438.2 -80%
Narcotics possession 158.9 230.4 106.8 -54%
Narcotics trafficking 76.9 109.6 27.2 -75%
Controlled & restricted drugs 26.1 2.2 0.0 -100%
Misc. Federal Statutes 126.5 118.9 123.6 4%
Criminal Code traffic 449.8 882.0 425.4 -52%
VIOLENT CRIMES 962.2 1,325.7 675.1 -30%
PROPERTY CRIMES 4,384.2 4,587.6 4,189.2 -4%

NOTE: Positive percentages indicate that crime rates in the Waterloo Region are higher than the mean crime rates for all 600 cities, and vice versa.

Because of the difficulty of summarizing the crime pattern of a city from a long list of crime rates such as above, a typical report on the crime rates in Waterloo Region would be something like: “The 1999 violent crime rate was 675 per 100,000 population, 30% below the Canadian rate of 962 per 100,000. The property crime rate was 4,189 per 100,000 population, 4% below the Canadian rate of 4,384 per 100,000.” However, such a brief report does not provide details of the overall crime pattern. See section 4 for a simplified crime picture.

The following table shows crime rates (per 100,000 population) for cities used as examples in this study (see Sections 5 and 6).

Offence Category Gatineau QU Longueuil QU Richmond BC Delta BC
Homicide 1.8 0.8 1.8 1.0
Sexual assault I 49 96 31 58
Major sexual assault 3 2 2 0
Other sexual offences 18 15 8 2
Non-sexual assault I 376 863 488 514
Major non-sexual assault 106 128 65 66
Other non-sexual assault 21 55 5 7
Robbery 54 167 105 58
Abduction & kidnapping 13 11 5 2
Break & enter 1,034 1,523 954 835
Theft motor vehicle 311 728 498 400
Theft over $5000 99 67 121 74
Theft $5000 & under 1,552 2,163 2,944 2,400
Possession of stolen goods 39 138 45 109
Fraud & counterfeiting 359 603 479 290
Arson 38 82 77 41
Vandalism 714 1,180 921 1,159
Moral offences 14 27 29 22
Offensive weapons 17 14 375 60
Miscellaneous Criminal Code 655 1,192 638 863
Narcotics possession 285 98 218 290
Narcotics trafficking 60 55 160 111
Controlled & restricted drugs 0 0 0 0
Misc. Federal Statutes 13 5 84 40
Criminal Code traffic 1,273 233 1,814 1,219
VIOLENT CRIMES 642 1,337 712 709
PROPERTY CRIMES 3,394 5,221 5,041 4,108