[mmmatt]

Here is the 2006 crime stats for Atlantic Canadian cities, taken from Mcleans Magazine who got the info from stats can.

The list includes the city name, the percentage difference from the national average, and the national rank, with 1st being the most crime ridden and 100th being the least.

OVERALL CRIME

Halifax (city) ------ 71.6 - 10th
Saint John --------- 6.3 -- 30th
Sydney ---------- -12.3 - 40th
Fredericton ------ -24.3 - 53rd
Moncton --------- -26.5 - 56th
Halifax(county) --- -30.7 - 61st
St Johns --------- -31.2 - 63rd
Oromocto -------- -45.0 - 75th

BREAK AND ENTER

St Johns ----------- 32.0 - 24th
Halifax (city) ------- 31.6 - 26th
Saint John ---------- 9.1 -- 39th
Moncton ------------ 8.3 - 40th
Fredericton -------- -0.9 - 52nd
Sydney ------------ -25.7 - 71st
Oromocto ---------- -37.3 - 84th
Halifax(county) ---- -40.1 - 83rd

ROBBERY

Halifax (city) ------- 186.4 - 5th
Saint John ---------- 20.7 -- 20th
Fredericton -------- -35.9 - 48th
St Johns ----------- -43.5 - 54th
Moncton ----------- -44.2- 57th
Halifax(county) ----- -57 - 70th
Sydney ------------ -25.7 - 71st
Oromocto ---------- -57.9 - 92nd

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT

Halifax (city) ------- 80.8 -- 12th
Moncton ----------- 44.8--- 16th
Saint John --------- -42.9 ---20th
Sydney ------------ -42.5 - 45th
Oromocto ---------- -49.7 - 50th
Halifax(county) ----- -42.8-- 53rd
Fredericton -------- -61.4 - 60th
St Johns ----------- -67.0 - 69th

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT

Halifax (city) ------- 12.2 -- 38th
Moncton ----------- -26.1-- 53rd
Sydney ------------ -32.6 - 56th
St Johns ----------- -53.0 - 73rd
Saint John --------- -58.1 --80th
Halifax(county) ----- -71.0-- 95th
Fredericton -------- -74.0 - 97th
Oromocto ---------- -77.1 - 99th

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Halifax (city) ------- 71.5 -- 3rd
Saint John --------- 59.0 ---5th
Sydney -------------25.3 - 18th
Halifax(county) -----17.4---23rd
Fredericton ---------9.0 ---28th
St Johns ---------- -11.0 --47th
Moncton ----------- -31.2-- 75th
Oromocto ---------- -35.2 - 78th

MURDER

Oromocto ---------- 82.2 ----12th
Sydney -------------56.2 --- 18th
Halifax(county) -----28.2---2525th
Fredericton ---------4.9 -----31st
Saint John --------- -22.4 ---41st
Halifax (city) ------ -49.6 --- 56th
St Johns ---------- -70.1----63rd
Moncton ----------- -100--- 100th

[Dmajackson]

Well eventhough Hali has 186% the national average of robberies its nice to know we dont hve the most murders.

How many murders happen in Moncton a year?

[mmmatt]

Well eventhough Hali has 186% the national average of robberies its nice to know we dont hve the most murders.

How many murders happen in Moncton a year?

Well Im assuming it was -100% along with a few other cities because they all had 0 murders in 2006. Usually there is like 1 murder every two or three years in Moncton...its huge news when there is one thats for sure.

[Smevo]

I'm wondering what the actual numbers are, rather than % above national average. I'm also wondering if "Sydney" includes CBRM, hence including Glace Bay and New Waterford which are both having problems with drugs and "drug-related deaths" (the news tagline including murders and overdoses in the same category) since Oxycodone hit the streets. Every murder everywhere in the maritimes is reported to death (excuse the unintended pun), and I can't really remember when the last one in Sydney+immediate suburbs was, but the other two communities both have had murders in each of the past couple of years. 1993 is still remembered as a very bad year for murders in Sydney with the McDonald's murders (Sydney River), one in a Seaview St residence (Whitney Pier), and the Big Ben's murder (Ashby). I was also very out of touch with news from home until this year, so I can't really speculate beyond the past year or so.

Fredericton's sexual assault rate either got a lot better, or it's severly under-reported. There's a trail on campus with the unfortunate nickname "rape row" because the very high incidence-rate there. Other than that, none of this really surprises me.

It's probably also on a per-capita basis, which is probably one of the reasons Oromocto tops the list for murder-rate. That's just my speculation though.

Why did we have to be above average in the worst two categories? :(

[Smevo]

I just checked, it's the whole area. Speaking of which, how large is Oromocto's "area" to include over 59,000 people in it? lol

[kirjtc2]

It would be the entire area that reports to Oromocto RCMP - basically the entire rural region around Fredericton.

Likewise, Tracadie was also included - their RCMP division covers the entire Acadian Peninsula.

[kwajo]

So by that system, do the Saint John numbers include the Kennebecasis Valley and Grand Bay-Westfield, or just the area serviced by the Saint John Police Force? Moncton's numbers for example include Dieppe and Riverview because they are under the same Cadiac RCMP jurisdiction, but Greater SJ has 3 different police forces (SJPF, Rothesay Regional and RCMP), so do the SJ numbers not include the suburban regions around the city, while in other cases they do?

[Smevo]

It would only be Saint John police force, the population for the SJ area described was only 69,000 or so.

I also did a little extrapolation on the numbers, using the average rate/100,000 for the country for each category (except aggravated assault...the free table had "Assault (level 1 to 3)") from Stats Can. It suggested 4 murders in Halifax city, 3 in Sydney-Glace Bay-North Sydney (pop 103,000 so the whole CBRP patrol area), and 2 or 1 each in the rest including Oromocto and Halifax (county) - except Moncton, which would have been 0.

[mylesmalley]

I can't speak much to the numbers or the methodology used, but I do have a few problems with this article.

Firstly, how exactly did Caledon, ON, end up with a crime rate more than 100% below the national average? There criminals must cross into other jurisdictions or something. Madness.

Second, a lot of these stats can be pretty variable. Like Smevo said, a lot of crime like Freddy's rape trail goes unreported. I'm sure a lot of petty theft goes unreported for a myriad of reasons. The RCMP, good as they may be, can be pretty slow to react to things sometimes.

Third. Every city has parts that are more crime ridden than others. As seen by the 'stats' given here, Moncton's a pretty safe city. There are places like Victoria Park and the Moncton High area that I wouldn't want to hang around at 2am. Saying Regina is the most crime-ridden big city is fine, but it gives the impression that the whole city is full of crime. I think it's a fair assumption that Regina is largely the same as every other 'safer' city in Canada, except for the bad parts.

Finally, this article is too sensational. Having the highest crime rate in Canada is like being the world's tallest midget. Toronto's murder rate was 45% higher than the national average, yet (and I lifted this from wikipedia)

the homicide rate for Toronto is 1.9 per 100,000 people (1999; Statistics Canada), compared to Atlanta (34.5), Boston (5.5) New York City (9.1), Vancouver (2.8) and Washington, DC (45.5). For robbery rates, Toronto also ranks low, with 115.1 robberies per 100,000 people, compared to Dallas (583.7), Los Angeles (397.9), Montreal (193.9), New York City (490.6) and Washington (670.6). The overall crime rate in general is an average of 48 incidents per 100,000 people, compared to Cincinnati (326), Los Angeles (283), New York City (225) and even Vancouver (239).

Now I'm not saying murder is good, but call me back when our cities are actually full of crime.


Just to add, if Toronto had the same murder rate as D.C., there'd be around 1200 murders/year.

[mmmatt]

On the brighter side, you dont really need to worry about your car being stolen in Atlantic Canada :P

[someone123]

Yes, it is kind of silly to naively talk about "crime rates" when in reality only a handful of crimes are actually being committed.

Halifax rates fairly poorly but it was divided in half while many other places were not. If you average the city and county (which no longer even exists...) you get figures closer to the middle of the pack.