Data on incidents that come to the attention of police are captured and forwarded to the CCJS according to a nationally approved set of common scoring rules and definitions.  The reader should note however, that many factors could influence official crime statistics.  These include:  reporting by the public to the police; reporting by police to the CCJS; and the impact of new intiative such as changes in legislation, policies or enforcement polices.

Year-over-year comparisons should be made with caution as many non-criminally related factors can affect data from one year to another (openings, closures or reorganizations of police departments, redistribution of municipalities serviced among different police departments, significant population increases etc.).

Part of the 2007 increase in crime in St. Johns, NL and Saint John, NB can be attributed to changes in police reporting practices rather than actual increases in criminal activity. This would affect the provincial totals in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The "adult" age group includes those age 18 and over, and the "youth" age group includes offenders under 18. Although the youth crime rates are calculated using the age 12-17 population, there may be a small number of offenders under 12 years of age included in the data.

^a Data is displayed for selected categories under this heading. Therefore the categories may not add to the total.

^b Any increase in disturbing the peace violations may be, in part, attributable to a national data quality initiative undertaken by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to properly account for the types of offences that are aggregated under this offence.

Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCSJ), in cooperation with the policing community, collects police reported crime statistics through the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR). The UCR was developed to measure the incidence of crime in Canadian society and its characteristics. It can represent both the survey instrument itself or the aggregate form of the UCR data.

Incident

The basis for counting reported crime in the UCR Survey. An incident is a set of connected events that usually make up a reported occurrence. The reported incident is used in conjunction with Most Serious Offence (MSO).

Other Criminal Code incidents

Involve other criminal code incidents that are not classified as either violent, property or traffic.

Cleared by Charge

When a police investigation leads to the identification of a suspect, an “information” is laid against that person (i.e., the person is charged).

Most Serious Offence (MSO)

Classifies an incident according to the most serious offence committed during the incident. In categorizing incidents, violent offences always take precedence over non-violent offences. Offences are then sorted according to maximum sentence under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Actual Incidents

When a crime is reported to the police, the incident is recorded as a “reported” incident. Police then conduct a preliminary investigation to determine the validity. Occasionally crimes reported to the police prove to be unfounded. Unfounded incidents are subtracted from the number of incidents to produce the number of “actual incidents.”

Persons Charged

Includes the number of people charged (not the number of charges laid) or recommended for charges by the police. A person who is simultaneously charged with more than one offence is counted according to the most serious incident, even if the offences occurred in more than one incident. In addition, persons may be counted more than once throughout the year; that is, individuals are counted on each occasion they are charged by the police. Note: In some cases a criminal incident may be solved months or even years after it was reported to the police. For this reason it is possible for the number of cases cleared to be different than the total reported actual incidents (Statistics Canada, 2004)

Cleared Otherwise

In some cases police cannot lay an information even if they have identified a suspect and have enough to support the laying of an information. Examples include diplomatic immunity, instances when then the complainant declines to proceed with charges, or cases when the accused dies.

Youth

Refer to those aged 12-17 (inclusive).

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