The Safe Return of Offenders to the Community Statistical Overview April 2005

The Safe Return of Offenders to the Community Statistical Overview April 2005 (Canada) (HTML) (PDF)

B1a. Homicide Offences

* Homicides account for less than 1% of all violent crime in Canada and have decreased significantly since 1991 - there were 754 homicides in 1991 versus 548 in 2003.6

Homicide in Canadian and American Cities

Despite having incarceration rates that are 5 to 6 times higher, American cities are much more dangerous than comparable Canadian cities. Seven U.S. and Canadian cities were selected to compare homicide and violent crime rates. Cities were matched for general similarity in size and/or geographical location.

* In all cases, the homicide rates of the American cities are all higher than their Canadian neighbors, and this would generally be true for any sample of larger American versus Canadian cities.
* Between the matched pairs in the study, the difference in homicide rates is usually quite large (e.g., between Chicago - 20.6 per 100,000 - and Toronto - 1.8 per 100,000).

Homicide rates (per 100,000),2003.......Population......Rate
Vancouver...............................................2,126,111.......2.1
Seattle....................................................576,296.........5.9
Calgary..................................................1,023,666.......1.1
Denver...................................................565,905.........11.1
Winnipeg................................................688,746.........2.6
Minneapolis............................................378,602.........12.1
Toronto..................................................5,118,992.......1.8
Chicago..................................................2,898,374.......20.6
Ottawa-Carleton......................................866,621.........1.1
Whashington DC......................................563,384.........44.0
Montreal..................................................3,586,221.......1.6
Philidelphia..............................................1,495,903.......23.3
Halifax.....................................................377,932.........0.8
Norfolk.....................................................242,077.........16.5
Canada....................................................31,629,677......1.7
United States............................................290,809,777.....5.7

Source: Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada. Uniform Crime Reports, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Note: Crime data are based on reports for municipal police forces, not the wider Census Metropolitan Area populations. (p

As a proportion of all crimes reported in the 2003 Uniform Crime Reporting survey, released federal offenders re-admitted with a new conviction were therefore responsible for just over 1 of every 1,000 federal statute offences reported to police in 2003, including:

* 1.3 of every 1,000 violent offences;
* 0.6 of every 1,000 sexual offences;
* 1.0 of every 1,000 drug offences;
* 0.9 of every 1,000 property or other federal statute offences.

As a proportion of all convictions, released federal offenders re-admitted with a new conviction were responsible for about one percent of criminal convictions in Canada.