Violent Offences are counted in terms of the number of victims in the incident.  The basic counting rule is that one victim equals one offence.  The number of violent offences equals the number of victims for violent crimes.  The exception to this is the offence of robbery.  It is included in the group of violent offences for analysis purposes but is counted as a non-violent offence in that one incident of robbery equals one offence regardless of the number of victims.

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.).

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey produces a continuous historical record of crime and traffic statistics reported by every police agency in Canada since 1962.  In 1988, a new version of the survey was created, UCR2, and is since referred to as the "incident-based" survey, in which microdata on characteristics of incidents, victims and accused are captured.  For more information please click here.

Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada.  Users are forbidden to copy the data and redisseminate them, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without the expressed permission of Statistics Canada.  Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada's Regional Offices, it's Web site at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/  and it's toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

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 The violent crime category has been expanded under the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2) to include a number of offences not previously included in the violent crime category, including uttering threats, criminal harassment and forcible confinement. Therefore, total violent crime counts in this table will not match total violent crime counts from the Aggregarte Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (URC).

^b Homicide data are extracted from the homicide survey database. In general, the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) counts any adult and youth charged for the year in which the charge was laid. The homicide totals, which come from The Homicide Survey, count any adult or youth charged with a homicide that occurred in the reference year, regardless of when the charge was laid.

^c Sexual violations against children is a new crime category with only partial data available prior to 2008. As a result, numbers and rates should not be directly compared to data from previous years.

^d New legislation in 2009 regarding assaults on peace officers may be the cause of an increase in reported offenses. Caution should be taken when comparing data to previous years. The introduction of new codes into the UCR Survey resulted in some non-peace officer assaults being coded as peace officer assaults in 2010. Comparisons to 2010 should be made with caution as well.

^e Robbery counts have been revised resulting in an increase in the number of reported robbery incidents. Use caution when comparing these data with prior years.

^f Kidnapping and forcible confinement were previously included under the same reporting code, but as of 2008 they are recorded as two separate codes. This change was only implemented as each police region updated their records management system. For this reason, we should use caution when comparing values between years.

^g For the period from 1998 to 2007 Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey data on Criminal harassment are not available for all respondents. In order to report this violation for police services still reporting to the aggregate Uniform Crime Reporting Survey over this time, a process of imputation was applied to derive counts using the distribution of ‘other ‘Criminal Code offences from existing Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey respondents.

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.

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.

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)

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.?

Homicide

Homicide includes the Criminal Code offences of murder, manslaughter and infantcide.  Two primary criteria must exist for an offence to be considered as a homicide:  1) death of a human being and 2) someone must have caused that death.

First Degree Murder

First degree Murder includes the following:

1.) planned and deliberate murders
2.) murder of a police or custodial officer who is killed in the line of duty in the murder of a prison worker while acting in the course of his work therein.
3.) murder committed in the course of certain criminal acts (hijacking, kidnapping, forceable confinement, or sexual assault offences).
4.) murder committed by a person that has been previously convicted of first or second degree murder.

Manslaughter

Manslaughter is defined as culpable homicide that is not murder, infanticide, or causing death by criminal negligence.

Infanticide

Infanticide is committed when a female person, by willful act or omission, causes the death of her newly-born child (under one year of age), if at that time she had not fully recovered from the effects of childbirth.

Robbery

Robbery included theft with violence, or threats of violence, and theft while armed.

Youth

Refer to those aged 12-17 (inclusive).

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).

Excel Version

When viewing the excel sheets, you may be prompted for a username/password. This is a Microsoft Office 2000 error. To close the prompts, click cancel each time you are prompted. To permanently fix the error, visit the Microsoft site and download the SP1 package.

Download Excel Version

Print Version

include definitions