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John Ivison answered the first question. Statistics Canada does a survey (wait it’s a voluntary survey so it is unreliable, right?) on people’s experience with crime. This survey does indeed back up Mr. Day’s assertion that crime is going unreported. I agree that this is a worrisome statistic.
The problem is that it is very unclear why exactly crime is going unreported. Does it represent a lost faith in the police or the criminal justice system in general? Is it due to an immigrant population that have a natural mistrust of authority? Is it due to increased gang activity and the fear of reprisal? It would take a number of very comprehensive studies to discern the true cause of the decrease in crime reporting.
So if we don’t know the cause then how the hell do we know the solution?
Does increasing the prison population help to prevent crime that is not going reported? I can’t imagine any theoretical argument or empirical evidence that would support a claim that it would. If the Conservative government is really concerned about crime in Canada they should look into the causes and solutions to unreported criminal activity.
*update*
Montreal Gazette is reporting that Mr. Day is misinterpreting the data that was gathered by Statistics Canada:
But Statistics Canada quickly shot down Day's assumption, saying the data cannot be compared to police-reported crime statistics, since they surveyed only eight types of crimes as opposed to the hundreds of crimes investigated by police.
"So, for example, you can't ask somebody: Have you ever been a victim of a homicide?" said Warren Silver, of the agency's centre for justice statistics. "It's just not possible to do. So what (the Statistics Canada research) does do is track some of the types of crimes that people might not report and might report, and some of the reasons why."
4 comments:
Problem is the Conservatives will not go after violent crime; instead they will focus on victimless ones. This regime seems to be more interested in busting potheads than prosecuting violent crimes. The underlying impetus of Harper's anti-crime meme is persecution of pleasure and not punishing violent offenders.
Jymn, that's unfair. Yes, they're going after drugs and the like, but I don't think anyone has ever accused Harper's crew of being soft on rapists or robbers.
Perhaps more than 10% of sexual assaults will be reported if there is a higher probability of incarceration.
When did Stock become the Minister of Justice?
Iceman,
I have a certain amount of sympathy for the comment that the media was asking the wrong Minister. It isn't like the economy or spending cuts aren't important issues.
That is certainly a possibility. In fact a lack of faith in the justice system is one of the possibilities that I mentioned. But we need to know not just guess the reasons before we can make policy.
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