Crime data without reasons?Pliable !

Statistics Canada released a report last week that highlighted an increase in crime rate by three percent in 2015. Another noteworthy fact that knocked down the Canadians with a feather was that it was the first increase in 12 years. The report highlights –that there were almost 1.9 million Criminal Code incidents –excluding traffic offences. Another fact that should not be ignored, a wide difference was reported among the provinces – Rising 12 per cent in Alberta, staying the same in Ontario and dropping 12 per cent in Prince Edward Island.
The date shows National rates of police-reported crime increased for most Criminal Code violations, including homicide, attempted murder, firearms offences, robbery and sexual assault.Rates for all types of property crimes also increased from the previous year, including fraud, possession of stolen property, identify fraud, theft, and breaking and entering.In Alberta, the higher severity index was primarily the result of more incidents of breaking and entering, theft of $5,000 or under and motor vehicle theft, Statistics Canada said.More incidents of breaking and entering in 2015 also contributed to the severity index increase in New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
The national crime severity index, which measures the volume of reports and how serious they are, rose five per cent in 2015, but the agency said that was still 31 per cent lower than a decade ago!
All those figures presented by Statistics Canada did bring out what Mark Twain once said, “Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable”. Yes, that kind of flexibility has been used with the data, but to state in simple words that the crime rate is increasing. 99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story! True?
Canada remains a “relatively safe country”. Relatively –when compared with other countries. Its homicide rate is less than 2 per 100,000 and is marginally higher than most advanced nations such as England or Sweden and much lower than the USA. However, not “relatively safer” when compared with its earlier times. Anyone who has been in Canada for twenty years knows they were lot safer before. Data can be maneuvered by the way the question is worded and this report does the same.
Crime control and the ways to do the same are of prime concerns. Canada has a moderate number of police officers per capita at about 200 per 100,000-as per another study conducted by Statistics Canada in 2015. That is in a lower range for many advanced nations-similar to Sweden and the Netherland and below the 230 per 100,000 for the USA. However, the cost of policing has escalated since 2000 with total expenditure doubling to 13.5 billion. Earlier, the way police officers were engaged in partnership with social agencies –was the key to violence reduction. However, the same doesn’t hold good now especially when the police have other issues like likely threat to internal terror related activities. Canada can’t discount the very fact that it’s no longer a country that was perceived as a crime free nation by others who sought immigration here and there is a need to access the underlying causes.
Anthropologists have blamed the biological constitution and heredity of offenders, their psychological makeup and social conditions. Crime has also been associated with expression of power, a statement of having being deprived. Also crime involves so many different situations and acts that it is difficult to generalize. The reports from Statistics Canada would be classified as incomplete if the associated reasons of the same are not attributed. Has the declining job rate contributed towards the crime? Are fewer full time jobs responsible for leading the offenders to carry out a criminal act? Easy availability of drugs –could that be the reason? Gun Control?
How easy it is for so many of us today to be undoubtedly full of information yet fully deprived of accurate information! The reports so presented by Statistics Canada when viewed in its present form is just a data and not an analysis till the reasons there off are not ascertained by the authorities concerned.