If you’re feeling that crime in Windsor has grown more severe — Statistics Canada has data showing you just might be right.
According to the agency’s most recent release on crime statistics, Windsor’s Crime Severity Index rose by seven per cent in 2017 compared to 2016.
Canada’s Crime Severity Index as a whole rose by two per cent — although Windsor’s CSI of 71.7 remains below the country’s average of 72.9.
It’s the third year in a row that the national Crime Severity Index has increased.
The Crime Severity Index was developed by Statistics Canada in 2009 at the request of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in order to better analyze police-reported crime data.
The traditional crime rate — expressed as the number of incidents per 100,000 population — counts all criminal incidents the same, making no distinction regarding the type or seriousness of the offence.
Statistic Canada’s release puts Windsor’s 2017 crime rate at 4,705 total incidents — a six per cent increase compared to 2016.
Related
The Crime Severity Index attempts to provide a more accurate accounting of crime data by assigning weights to offences based on their actual sentences upon conviction.Thus, a robbery incident is weighted approximately 19 times heavier than a mischief incident.
Murder carries the heaviest weight of all offences. Cannabis possession carries the least.
Windsor wasn’t alone in seeing an increase in its Crime Severity Index. More than half the Canadian census metropolitan areas included in the analysis had increases.
Sudbury had the worst increase, with a rise of 25 per cent. Moncton and Guelph were next, with increases of 15 per cent. Break-ins and fraud cases were major contributors to those numbers.
Firearm-related violent crime was of particular focus in the analysis. Statistics Canada says a total of 2,734 incidents in 2017 involved the offences of discharging a firearm with intent, pointing a firearm, or using a firearm in the commission of an indictable offence.
That’s an increase of seven per cent compared to 2016 — and the third consecutive year with an increase in gun crime in Canada.
Meanwhile, rates of cannabis-related drug offences continued to decline — a trend that’s been going on since 2011. Statistics Canada’s 2017 data shows a 15 per cent drop in cannabis offences reported by police.
A chart by Statistics Canada showing changes to the nation’s Crime Severity Index by census metropolitan area. Released July 23, 2018.
A chart by Statistics Canada showing how different offences are weighed to calculate the Crime Severity Index.
dchen@windsorstar.com