Crime in Canada

Crime in Canada is generally considered low overall. Under the Canadian constitution, the power to establish criminal law & rules of investigation is vested in the federal Parliament. The provinces share responsibility for law enforcement (although provincial policing in many jurisdictions is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police), and while the power to prosecute criminal offences is assigned to the federal government, responsibility for prosecutions is delegated to the provinces for most types of criminal offences. Laws and sentencing guidelines are uniform throughout the country, but provinces vary in their level of enforcement.

According to Statistics Canada, overall crime in Canada had been steadily declining since the late 1990s as measured by the Crime Severity Index (CSI) and the Violent Crime Severity Index (VCSI), with a more recent uptick since an all-time low in 2014. Both measures of crime saw an 8% to 10% decrease between 2010 and 2018.

More current crimes that are increasing include drug-related offences, fraud, sexual assault and theft, with fraud increasing 46% between 2008 and 2018. The Crime Severity Index (CSI) in Canada rose by 2% in 2023, marking the third consecutive year of increase and the continuation of a trend that began in 2015.

Statistics

Overall crimes|frameless|upright=1.2|right

The Crime Severity Index (CSI) in Canada rose by 2% in 2023, marking the third consecutive year of increase and the continuation of a trend that began in 2015. The increase was largely attributed to significant shifts in certain types of crime, particularly in the Non-violent CSI, while the Violent CSI saw minimal change. Data showed that the police-reported crime rate per 100,000 people was 5,843 in 2023, reflecting a 2.5% annual change. Both the Violent Crime Severity Index and the Non-violent Crime Severity Index recorded values of 99.5 and 73.5, respectively.

The overall increase in the CSI was significantly influenced by a rise in reported child pornography cases, which soared by 52% in 2023. The increase was deemed partly due to enhanced awareness and better collaboration among law enforcement agencies. Other contributors to the CSI included increases in fraud and shoplifting rates, with fraud rising by 12% and shoplifting of amounts under $5,000 rising by 18%.

Youth under 18 accused of homicide increased, with 72 cases in 2024, compared to 65 in 2023. The homicide rate for Indigenous people was notably high at 10.84 per 100,000, showing a continued overrepresentation among victims. Racialized individuals constituted about 29% of all homicide victims. From 2019 to 2024, around one-third of those accused of homicide were already under some form of justice system supervision..

In 2023, rural areas in Canada represented 15% of the provincial population and accounted for 19% of all reported crimes. The crime rate in these areas was 34% higher than in urban areas, continuing a long-standing trend. The Crime Severity Index (CSI), which reflects the seriousness of crime, is generally higher in rural regions.

! City !! 2020 !! 2019 !! 2016 !! 2015 !! 2014 !! 2013 !! 2012 !! 2011 !! 2010 !! 2009

| Abbotsford–Mission || 77.2 || 86.4 || 82.3 || 90.4 || 81.1 || 70.7 || 79.7 || 72.4 || 89.8 || 118.8

| Barrie || 44.9 || 53.1 || 46.3 || 43.8 || 42.3 || 38.6 || 46.1 || 49.2 || 50.1 || 53.9

| Brantford || 80.8 || 83.4 || 88.4 || 70.0 || 73.5 || 73.9 || 67.6 || 84.5 || 92.5 || 91.5

| Calgary || 78.0 || 92.9 || 61.3 || 72.1 || 63.0 || 62.0 || 61.2 || 72.1 || 82.1 || 84.8

| Edmonton || 104.8 || 114.9 || 102.5 || 103.9 || 93.3 || 89.7 || 95.8 || 105.9 || 106 || 118.7

| Gatineau || 51.4 || 55.8 || 63.8 || 55.9 || 57.5 || 65.1 || 71.4 || 68.1 || 59.7 || 74.5

| Greater Sudbury || 87.8 || 82.1 || 61.4 || 63.9 || 62.9 || 66.3 || 75.4 || 78.7 || 85 || 98.1

| Guelph || 63.1 || 64.6 || 49.1 || 47.3 || 44.1 || 42.5 || 53.8 || 48.2 || 44.5 || 49.2

| Halifax || 64.3 || 60.7 || 60.2 || 77.3 || 79.0 || 73.6 || 84.8 || 92.4 || 111.7 || 105.6 || 120.0

| Hamilton || 55.5 || 66.0 || 54.6 || 55.0 || 59.9 || 62.5 || 75.8 || 80.9 || 84.3

| Kelowna || 111.9 || 121.4 || 62.7 || 69.8 || 60.4 || 67.1 || 81.8 || 86.0 || 95.9 || 104.3

| Kingston || 70.6 || 67.8 || 38.5 || 54.5 || 44.3 || 48.6 || 53.7 || 48.1 || 54.5 || 71.9

| Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo || 74.7 || 73.3 || 60.1 || 54.5 || 51.1 || 57.0 || 60.9 || 69.5 || 69.8 || 65.1

| London || 74.7 || 75.1 || 59.4 || 56.7 || 49.0 || 56.9 || 64.1 || 70.5 || 74.3 || 69.9

| Moncton || 104.2 || 108.9 || 79.3 || 75.6 || 74.5 || 66.5 || 73.4 || 68.2 || 72.4 || 79.4

| Montreal || 52.7 || 58.0 || 73.1 || 76.1 || 72.5 || 79.5 || 87.8 || 97.7 || 98.3 || 102.7

| Ottawa || 48.3 || 57.0 || 62.1 || 53.7 || 49.6 || 56.1 || 58.2 || 63.9 || 67.5 || 78.1

| Peterborough || 62.1 || 54.4 || 68.9 || 56.9 || 51.7 || 57.7 || 66.2 || 60.2 || 65.8 || 59.5

| Quebec || 41.81 || 43.1 || 47.5 || 48.3 || 50.8 || 48.6 || 51.3 || 50.9

| Regina || 104.8 || 130.0 || 124.1 || 107.9 || 103.8 || 105.8 || 110.1 || 123.5 || 151.2 || 155.6

| Saguenay || 67.7 || 47.7 || 61.3 || 58.2 || 57.2 || 79.4 || 55.2 || 59.2 || 72.8

| Saint John || 43.9 || 56.1 || 49.3 || 64.3 || 63.8 || 65.7 || 61.6 || 59.5 || 68.0 || 91.3 || 96.4 || 100.3

| Saskatoon || 105.7 || 117.3 || 114.0 || 113.5 || 122.6 || 109.9 || 126.4 || 134.5 || 155.7 || 154.7

| Sherbrooke || 47.8 || 47.2 || 55.6 || 44.1 || 51.6 || 45.3 || 49.7 || 49.3 || N/A || 54.2

| St. Catharines–Niagara || 58.1 || 64.3 || 37.6 || 42.2 || 40.9 || 49.3 || 54.1 || 48.0 || 56.9 || 63.5

| St. John's || 88.9 || 71.3 || 79.6 || 69.5 || 79.5 || 77.3 || 74.7 || 90.1 || 69.3

| Thunder Bay || 93.8 || 100.6 || 125.6 || 119.2 || 138.5 || 110.9 || 118.8 || 128.7 || 138.5 || 136.1

| Toronto || 46.2 || 54.2 || 70.4 || 64.6 || 63.5 || 68.2 || 78.4 || 84.7 || 88.4 || 94.5

| Trois-Rivières || 47.7 || 51.8 || 46.2 || 59.9 || 57.3 || 51.4 || 46.4 || 46.2 || 44.4 || 56.0

| Vancouver || 88.6 || 95.4 || 77.8 || 85.0 || 78.2 || 83.6 || 92.6 || 98.3 || 108.2 || 117.8

| Victoria || 75.8 || 74.3 || 56.8 || 69.1 || 58.4 || 54.4 || 63.7 || 70.9 || 81.3 || 81.0

| Windsor || 83.3 || 80.3 || 58.1 || 67.7 || 57.0 || 61.9 || 66.4 || 59.8 || 65.1 || 74.6

| Winnipeg || 116.3 || 131.7 || 149.6 || 122.1 || 116.1 || 119.9 || 145.4 || 173.8 || 163.9 || 187.0

|-class="sortbottom"

| Canada || 73.4 || 79.5 || 75.3 || 74.5 || 70.2 || 73.7 || 81.4 || 85.3 || 88.9 || 93.7

Police

[[Image:Police rate in Canada.svg|thumb|right|250px|Map of police per 100,000 population across Canada, 2012:

]]

In 2005, there were 61,050 police officers in Canada which equates to one police officer per 528.6 persons, but with significant regional variations. Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island have the fewest police per capita with 664.9 and 648.4 persons per police officer, respectively. Conversely, the highest ratio of police to population is found in Canada's northern territories; Nunavut has 247.9 persons per police officer, the Northwest Territories has 248.5 persons per officer and the Yukon has 258.2 persons for each police officer.

That is a substantially lower rate than most developed countries with only Japan and Sweden having so few police officers. The United States has one officer per 411.5 persons, and Germany 344.8.

Canada's national police force is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) which is the main police force in Canada's north, and in rural areas except in Quebec, Ontario, and Newfoundland. Those three provinces have their own provincial police forces, although the RCMP still operate throughout rural Newfoundland and also provide specific federal policing services in Ontario and Quebec. Many cities and districts have their own municipal police forces, while others have contracts with the provincial police or RCMP to police their communities.

Comparisons

thumb|upright=1.3|[[Global Peace Index 2023. Countries appearing with a deeper shade of green are ranked as more peaceful, countries appearing more red are ranked as more violent.]]

Comparing crime rates between countries is difficult due to the differences in jurisprudence, reporting and crime classifications. National crime statistics are in reality statistics of only selected crime types. Data are collected through various surveying methods that have previously ranged between 15% and 100% coverage of the data. A 2001 Statistics Canada study concluded that comparisons with the U.S. on homicide rates were the most reliable. Comparison of rates for six lesser incident crimes was considered possible but subject to more difficulty of interpretation. For example, types of assaults receive different classifications and laws in Canada and the U.S., making comparisons more difficult than homicides. At the time, the U.S. crime of aggravated assault could be compared to the sum of three Canadian crimes (aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and attempted murder). This comparison had a predicted bias that would inflate the Canadian numbers by only 0.1%. The study also concluded that directly comparing the two countries' reported total crime rate (i.e. total selected crimes) was "inappropriate" since the totals include the problem data sets as well as the usable sets. For reasons like these, homicides have been favored in international studies looking for predictors of crime rates (predictors like economic inequality).

{|class="wikitable sortable"

! colspan="13" | Crime Comparison Between Selected Countries <small>(Reported crimes per 100,000 population)</small>

!Country

!Homicide

!Robbery

!Sexual Assault

!Statistics Year

|Canada

|1.6

|79.4

|62.9

|2012

|Australia

|1.3

|63.3

|80.1

|2011

|England and Wales

|1.0

|119.3

|78.2

|2012

|Ireland

|1.0

|61.1

|39.7

|2011

|New Zealand

|0.9

|47.1

|76.5

|2012

|Northern Ireland

|1.5

|72.6

|88.9

|2010/2011

|Scotland

|1.7

|34.9

|85.1

|2012/2013

|South Africa

|30.1

|297.5

|2012

|United States of America

|4.5

|102.2

|110

|2014

United States

thumb |upright=1.5 |Among 15 high-income countries, the U.S. has both the highest homicide rate, and the largest number of homicides (chart shows homicide data for 2021 in selected countries).

Much study has been done of the comparative experience and policies of Canada with its southern neighbour the United States, and this is a topic of intense discussion within Canada.

Over the past 25 years, the rates of police-reported violent crime in Canada and the United States have changed. The violent crime rate in the U. S. remains higher than in Canada by 33% in 2023. However, the gap is narrowing because violent crime rates in the U. S. have decreased by 37% since 1998, while Canada’s rate increased by 22% during the same time frame. Major assaults are the main contributor to violent crime in both countries, making up 79% of such incidents in the U.S. and 78% in Canada.