Big cities and crime

[Darth Wong]

In the height of today's spirit of civic pride in Toronto, I would like to present a refutation of the widespread claim that big cities are inherently crime-ridden, violent places. Note that I understand why people feel that way about many American cities, but that is quite frankly a matter of historical happenstance rather than anything intrinsic to the nature of large cities. As evidence, I present statistics from our federal government here in Canada:

Code: Select all

2002 Crime Statistics for Central Canada
(all figures are rates per 100,000 population)

                            Canada    Quebec    Ontario   Manitoba     Sask.

All incidents               8,386.6   6,392.1   6,704.1   12,259.4   15,141.5
Crimes of violence            965.5     719.3     828.5    1,644.4    1,811.7
Homicide                        1.9       1.6       1.5        3.1        2.7
Attempted murder                2.2       3.2       1.9        2.0        2.8
Assaults (level 1 to 31)      748.9     508.1     639.6    1,301.6    1,465.9
Sexual assault                 77.5      56.2      68.6      129.3      147.4
Other sexual offences           8.7      14.5       4.9        9.9       12.6
Robbery                        85.0      92.4      73.8      142.1      105.6
Other crimes of violence       41.3      43.3      38.2       56.5       74.9
Property crimes             3,959.8   3,338.6   3,231.2    4,976.9    5,677.7
Breaking and entering         875.1     943.9     672.7    1,096.2    1,487.9
Motor vehicle theft           514.1     495.0     379.8    1,053.2      682.3
Theft over $5,000              63.3      88.8      59.7       42.3       50.1
Theft $5,000 and under      2,128.3   1,520.6   1,756.1    2,484.4    2,858.4
Possession of stolen goods     88.6      41.2      86.2       77.3      189.9
Frauds                        290.4     249.0     276.8      223.4      409.1
Impaired driving              257.2     263.5     170.6      281.7      607.9
Federal statutes              422.3     317.1     337.2      638.1      763.3
Drugs                         294.7     270.5     240.5      232.2      351.1

Now, I don't know how readable that is, but look at the third column: Ontario (the most urbanized province in the nation, with fully half of its population concentrated in the Toronto metropolis) has a much lower crime rate than the national average. The distinction is even more striking when you compare Ontario to the soaring crime rates of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which are the least urbanized provinces in this grouping.

Conclusion: all of those fucking country bumpkins who keep flaming my hometown by saying that it's more crime-ridden than the countryside can suck this hard data down.

[kojikun]

youre still loosing the french wannabes, which is sad.

[Sea Skimmer]

Clearly this is because guns have killed all the criminals.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

youre still loosing the french wannabes, which is sad.

At least we can write proper sentences.

[kojikun]

to the* blegh. clearly i cant think properly. e_e;

mike, do you have any stats for the US?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Conclusion: all of those fucking country bumpkins who keep flaming my hometown by saying that it's more crime-ridden than the countryside can suck this hard data down.

The figures from B.C. are interesting, though.

[Darth Wong]

Conclusion: all of those fucking country bumpkins who keep flaming my hometown by saying that it's more crime-ridden than the countryside can suck this hard data down.

The figures from B.C. are interesting, though.

Yes, the Western provinces are bizarre, aren't they? Mind you, Vancouver is not a real city; I've been there, and when you move about the city you can tell it's a small town with big suburbs. And having driven around BC, I can say it's much more rural than Ontario is; even the portions of Ontario which are technically outside Toronto still tend to orbit around its centre of gravity, acting as extended suburbs. If you travel through Ontario and travel through BC, you'd see the difference.

The most startling crime statistic is from the Yukon. Out in those isolated territories, alcoholism runs rampant, crime rates are absolutely sky-high, yet the murder rate is zero! The funny thing is that their attempted murder rate is very high, which implies that they try to kill each other all the time, but they're too drunk to shoot straight

[TrailerParkJawa]

San Jose is a fairly big city, although it is more of a very large suburb than a city in the classical sense. For a place with almost 900,000 residents it is one of the safer larger cities. A couple or reasons for this are we have a good police dept, and high land values.

[kojikun]

fuckers in the northwest terr. have 0 attempted murders but 9.7 murders. and theyve got more drunk driving. i think we all know who to call if we want good marksmen regardless of sobriety.

[Hamel]

I live waaay out in the boonies. Just about everyone is a thief or has one in the immediate family. When we had our trailer built, we received a kind greeting from the community in the form of our appliances getting stolen. We get nightly occurances of people slowly driving by the house and even pulling into the driveway briefly, no doubt for the purpose of checking for an opportunity to rip us off. Thank Bob Hope's immortal penis for my dad's glock18.

Every other country area I've had the (dis)pleasure of living at had similar problems. Kids act like bloody gangsters even out in the waves of grain (hehe).

[HemlockGrey]

I blame the drug war for perpetuating organized gangsta-type crime in American cities.

[Wicked Pilot]

We don't worry about crime down here in the Bible Belt. The fear of God Almight and our automatic weapons keep the criminals in check. Just look at New Orleans...

[RogueIce]

fuckers in the northwest terr. have 0 attempted murders but 9.7 murders. and theyve got more drunk driving. i think we all know who to call if we want good marksmen regardless of sobriety.

9.7 murders? Wouldn't that .7 be an attempted murder?

[Soontir C'boath]

It's an Average Ice. Before it got divided it was a whole number most likely.~Jason

[RogueIce]

It's an Average Ice. Before it got divided it was a whole number most likely.~Jason

Gar! Don't steal my fun!

[Stormbringer]

I blame the drug war for perpetuating organized gangsta-type crime in American cities.

It isn't just the drug war. It's the fact that the black and latino communities as a whole, especially in the inner city, have steadfastly refused to budge from the bottom of the economic heap. They've dug themselves into a cycle which has quite literally gutted the inner city. They can't advance because the framework isn't there yet they don't make any effort to build it, instead turning to crime and violence.

The drug and gang problem is but a symptom of the decay of most major American cities.

[Sea Skimmer]

The most startling crime statistic is from the Yukon. Out in those isolated territories, alcoholism runs rampant, crime rates are absolutely sky-high, yet the murder rate is zero! The funny thing is that their attempted murder rate is very high, which implies that they try to kill each other all the time, but they're too drunk to shoot straight

Or their Beaver overlords have confiscated all the ammunition.

They've dug themselves into a cycle which has quite literally gutted the inner city. They can't advance because the framework isn't there yet they don't make any effort to build it, instead turning to crime and violence.

I'd also blame unions in many places, which drove surviving industry out of major American cities. They also trashed the American merchant marine though that's not the source of low/no skill jobs it used to be.

[SPOOFE]

I just take this as further proof that Canada is backwards... even their crime happens in the wrong place!

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

I'm sure the country rednecks would say "Sure, you is beating us, but them Frenchies in Quebec is still better!".

[Glocksman]

Thank Bob Hope's immortal penis for my dad's glock18.

Glock18?

You mean he has the machine pistol version of the Glock 17?

[Hamel]

Thank Bob Hope's immortal penis for my dad's glock18.

Glock18?

You mean he has the machine pistol version of the Glock 17?

Yep, he never told me where he got it from, either