Section 2 – Nature and extent of crime

Ontario profile

In order to understand the complexities of undertaking crime prevention in Ontario, it is important to put crime-related statistics into context by providing an overall profile of the jurisdiction. Our province is home to over 13 million individuals, which translates into approximately 1 out of 3 Canadians residing in Ontario. Over 85% of the population lives in urban centres and 90% live in southern Ontario, with the largest concentration of people and cities falling into the ‘Golden Horseshoe’ region along Lake Ontario. The remaining 15% live in rural and/or remote communities ^{footnote 1[1]}. Spatially, over 440 municipalities and 133 First Nation communities span across more than 900,000 square km of land and water^{footnote 2[2]}.

Ontario’s population is as diverse as its geography. About 2.7 million individuals in Ontario self-identify as members of a visible minority group and about 6.8 million individuals belong to one or more of over 200 ethnic groups. Since 2001 this number has increased by 27.5%. Much of this growth is attributed to immigration^{footnote 3[3]}. The population aged 65 and over is expected to double to 3.5 million by the year 2031^{footnote 4[4]}

Roughly 242,000 Aboriginal people (which includes First Nations, Inuit and Métis) reside in Ontario and 105,205 or 43% of these are under 25 years old. Approximately 80% of First Nation people live off reserve and 20% live on reserve in Ontario^{footnote 5[5]}.

Crime rates

According to crime data, between 2007 and 2009, Ontario had one of the lowest violent and non- violent crime rates in Canada^{footnote 6[6]}. Despite the notable decrease in overall crime volume and severity, the perception Ontarians have of crime deserves attention. As 2001 data shows, a significant segment of our society – over 80% - feels that crime in their neighbourhoods is either increasing or remaining the same year over year^{footnote 7[7]}.

Statistics pertaining to the nature and extent of crime in Ontario can be derived from multiple provincial and national sources. In 2011, Statistics Canada released a report based on 2010 data, which analyzed police-reported violent and non-violent crimes. For that year, police-reported crime dropped by 6% from the previous year in Canada. Almost all Criminal Code and federal offences declined in 2010^{footnote 8[8]}.

In addition to these statistics, it is important to account for unreported or undiscovered crime. In order for an incident to be included in police-reported crime statistics a victim must be aware that a crime has occurred and it must be reported to the police. A disruption at any one of these stages can result in the incident not being captured by police-reported crime statistics, resulting in the rate of reported crime being lower than the actual state of crime. This dilemma becomes apparent when we look at the 2004 Statistics Canada General Social Survey which states the unofficial crime rate of 28,000 per 100,000 while the official crime statistics showed a rate of only 8,951 per 100,000 population^{footnote 9[9]}.

The overall rates for offences in Ontario are as follows:

• homicide – 1.4 per 100,000 population
• serious assaults – 114 per 100,000 population
• break and enters – 414 per 100,000 population
• motor vehicle theft – 171 per 100,000 population

Source: Statistics Canada (2010)

Crime trends

• In 2006, over 38,000 incidents of spousal violence were reported to police in Canada and approximately 1/3 of these incidents occurred in Ontario^{footnote 10[10]}. In 2009, of the nearly 19 million Canadians who had a current or former spouse, 1.2 million reported they have been a victim of physical or sexual abuse by their partner in the previous five years^{footnote 11[11]}.
• In 2009, 176 out of 100,000 seniors were the victims of elder violence with the majority of the abusers being an adult child^{footnote 12[12]}.
• Alcohol impairment accounts for almost 25% of all fatalities on Ontario’s roads. In 2005, 174 people were killed and 3,852 were injured in motor vehicle collisions involving a drunk driver^{footnote 13[13]}. In 2010 there was a 6% decrease in the rate of impaired driving incidents over the previous year^{footnote 14[14]}.
• In 2009, police services across Canada reported 1,473 hate-motivated crimes – a 42% increase from 2008. This followed a 35% increase between 2007 and 2008. Ontario accounted for 901 of the hate crime offences committed in 2009. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Guelph, Peterborough and Ottawa reported the highest number of police-reported hate crimes in 2009. Ottawa, Toronto, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo and Montreal accounted for the largest increase in hate crimes between 2008 and 2009^{footnote 15[15]}.
• Cyber crime is a complex and quickly increasing crime trend. Cyber crime includes new crimes (phishing) as well as a variety of traditional crimes (extortion, fraud, intimidation, sexual exploitation) that are carried out on-line using a computer. The Canadian anti-fraud call centre – Phonebusters – received 332 reports of losses of over $12.5 million in 419 scams over the internet in Ontario alone. Further, 24,479 Ontarians reported being victims of identity theft with an estimated total loss of over $46 million^{footnote 16[16]}.
• Bullying is an issue encountered in Ontario schools and communities, with studies showing that children who bully others are 37% more likely than those who do not bully to commit offences as adults^{footnote 17[17]}. In terms of victimization, approximately one in three students in Grades 7 to 12 reports having been bullied at school^{footnote 18[18]}.
• In 2006, 60,616 youth (aged 12-17 years) in Ontario were implicated in a violation of the Criminal Code (excluding traffic) bringing Ontario’s youth crime rate to 5,956 per 100,000 youth. This represents a 1% increase over the previous year^{footnote 19[19]}.
• Knives were the most common weapon students brought to school with 1 in 5 students reporting that they carried a knife to school^{footnote 20[20]}. Further, knives are the most commonly used weapon to commit violent offences, with three in 10 homicides being committed using a knife. Knife-related crime is on the rise in Ontario. According to the Canadian Centre Justice Statistics (CCJS), police reported 23,500 victims of violent crime with instances involving a knife in Canada in 2008. Of these, 7,111 were in Ontario^{footnote 21[21]}.
• Over 2,400 high school students in Toronto carried a gun to school in the 2004/05 academic year. The problems associated with guns and gangs were highlighted by Toronto’s ‘Summer of the Gun’ in 2005, when the gun-related homicide rate doubled to 52 in total, of which 11.4% were gang-related^{footnote 22[22]}.
• Results from the 2002 ‘Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs’ indicate that Ontario has the highest number of youth gangs (approximately 216) and youth gang members (approximately 3,320) of all jurisdictions in Canada. Reports indicate that males compose 97% of the gang member population. Ottawa, Toronto and Thunder Bay are considered the focal points for street gang activity which ranges from drug trafficking to violence^{footnote 24[24]}. Further, First Nation-based gangs represent about 4% of total gang members in Ontario^{footnote 25[25]}.
• The 2009 Report on Organized Crime confirms that organized crime is a major crime issue for Ontario. Contraband tobacco, environmental crime, financial crime (money laundering, fraud), illicit drugs and synthetics, as well as illicit firearms and theft of intellectual property rights are some of the major activities requiring intervention^{footnote 27[27]}. These newer trends build upon existing issues such as: human trafficking, motor vehicle theft, street gangs^{footnote 28[28]} , and illegal immigration and weapons trafficking^{footnote 29[29]}. Due to technological advancements in the past decade, organized crime has become increasingly trans-national, harder to detect and requires the cooperation of multiple jurisdictions^{footnote 30[30]}. Out of the Shadows: An Overview of Organized Crime in Ontario, 2007, points to the fact that there is growing diversity among the groups and individuals engaging in organized crime activity in Ontario. In terms of its composition, research shows that the face of organized crime has morphed to include various ethno-cultural and socio-economic groups as well as both genders^{footnote 31[31]}.
• Aboriginal people continue to be overrepresented in Ontario’s correctional system, as is the case nationally. In 2007, Aboriginal people represented 1.8% of the adult population in Ontario, but accounted for 9% of the remand population and 8.5% of the sentenced population^{footnote 32[32]}.
• The table below illustrates overall charges laid in Ontario by offence type during the period January 2009 to December 2009.