Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jul 2000
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Forum: http://forums.canada.com/~canada
Author: John Harding

STATISTICS MISLEADING

Governments, politicians and others should think twice before patting
themselves on the back over the news the national crime rate has
fallen to its lowest level in 20 years. The crime rate is based on the
number of people charged. It's possible the drop is a reflection of
the dwindling police resources: they can't make as many arrests
because they don't have the manpower.

Leading police officers say it's simple to lower the number and rate
of, for example, drug-related offences. Ten years ago, everyone caught
with a gram of marijuana was likely to be arrested and charged.
Rightly or wrongly (that's a different debate), that is not happening
now. Why would police spend (waste?) valuable time and resources on an
offender with a gram of pot when society has told them there are
other, higher priorities. Therefore, there are a lot fewer minor drug
offence arrests these days. Does that mean the drug crime rate has
fallen? We think not.

On the other side of the coin, people may seem confused over these
national statistics because they read, hear and see so much crime. The
media in Canada is becoming much more competitive and aggressive about
crime stories, and there are way more stories in newspapers and radio
and TV about crime than ever before. So, people may rightly ask, if
the crime rate is down, why do I hear so much more about crime?

There are some other disturbing trends with these national crime rate
statistics. The national stats show the rate of violent crimes is down
2.4% from last year. It's still 5% higher than in 1989 and a whopping
57% higher than in 1979.

Our point is this: we hope these crime rate stats aren't used to
justify the cutting back of police services. We still need more police
officers, regardless of what the stats say.
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MAP posted-by: Derek