The majority of crimes that happen in our province and country still go unreported to police.
That was the finding of the most recent study by Statistics Canada which asked people, through a telephone survey, whether or not they had been a victim of crime in the 12 months prior to the survey. This type of survey, known as a victimization survey, is done once every five years in Canada and is thought to be a truer measure of crime because it doesn’t rely on individuals actually reporting a crime to police.
What the study found was that 27% of Canadians 15 years of age or older had been the victim of a crime in the year prior to the survey. These would include crimes that were either violent crimes (such as assaults and robberies) or non-violent crimes (including theft and vandalism).
For Manitoba, the numbers were very disturbing. Our province had the highest victimization rate in the entire country. 175 Manitobans per 1000 reported being a victim of a violent crime compared to the national average of 118 per 1,000. As well, 376 Manitobans per 1,000 had been the victim of a non-violent crime, well above the nation wide average or 237 per 1,000.
Those numbers meant that Manitoba led the nation in violent and household crime. It meant that Manitobans were more likely to be a victim of a violent or non-violent crime than any of their fellow Canadians living in other provinces. Along with this comes a very real personal and economic cost.
There is no proper way to measure the emotional toll that being a victim of a crime takes. The loss of personal security and confidence can last for years. The economic cost, in terms of loss of personal property or time lost from work can be staggering.
Just as troubling is the fact that the survey showed that well over half of all crimes committed go unreported to police. There are many reasons that people don’t report crimes. They may not think it’s important enough to report the crime. More and more often, people simply don’t think there is any point in reporting the crime because the police are so busy they may not catch the crook and even if they do the criminal justice system won’t do much about it.
For Manitoba, the survey didn’t contain much good news. You are more likely to become a victim of crime here than anywhere else in Canada and the majority of crimes never even come to the attention of the police. The cost of this victimization is enormous, both in personal and economic terms.
What is clear from the study from the Manitoba perspective is that the NDP strategy on crime, has failed to produce any real results.
