Crime Rate in Canada - 1962-2009

On Thursday I wrote about Canada's decreasing crime rate, although I only had data going back to 1999 to demonstrate this trend. I have since located a 1998 copy of the Juristat Crime Statistics in Canada that has additional data going back to 1962 on page 15. I have graphed them below.

You will notice a break in the detailed crime data between the years 1998 & 1999. As I am retrieving this data from two different sources, it is clear that several items that used to be classified as 'other crime' have been reclassified into 'violent' or 'property' crime. I could make some guesses based on what is not specifically mentioned in the old report (see page 16) compared to Table 2 in the new data; the only one I can confirm, because it is listed in both reports, is that 'arson' has been reclassified as a property crime. I have left the total crime as a contiguous curve as that would be the same in both reports.

It is clear from this data that the crime rate in Canada peaked around 1991, and has been declining since. I am still unable to locate Stockwell Day's August 3^rd unreported crime statistics to report on.