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Originally Posted by whatnext
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hardly a reputable source, and one thing often overlooked is what the legal elements are of criminal offences in different countries. For instance in Canada reaching in through an open window is a b n e, in other places it may be a simple theft, no property stolen may be a mischief to property vs a b ne. Rape for instance in Canada is often over-represented as there is no such offence, only sexual assault which ranges from grabbing someone in a sexual manner right up to a rape. We are not able to distinguish one from the other as far as convictions go, since a sexual assault conviction can mean many things and results in Canada looking as though rape here is more common, which is not the case at all. I used to work sex crimes so I'm very in touch with this issue in Canada.
Not suggesting that property offences here are not bad, but stats are highly misleading, especially when comparing different legal systems and interpretation of the law. Crime is always constant, what is not is reporting of crime and how various departments assign legal descriptions. Was it an attempted murder or assault with a weapon for example?
here are stat sheet for each department:
http://vancouver.ca/police/Planning/...0082009YTD.pdf
http://www.seattle.gov/police/crime/
6700 b n e in seattle vs 5500 in Vancouver - murders are 29 and 17 so much the same again. as i noted reporting etc will influence the figures.
Pretty good comparisons as both forces are similar in size and police cities the same size, both are muncipal city forces. I was suprised to find crime is worse in seattle on all fronts (at least as far as reported crime goes).