Community Safety and Crime

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Key Messages:

• Women, young people, Indigenous and ethno-cultural groups feel more unsafe and report more discrimination and harassment.
• The profile of crime and police intervention during COVID 19 has changed: police calls for service have increased 7%, while police-reported crime has declined 16%.
• The landscape of vulnerability has been heightened and shifted, as seen in increased of domestic violence, and increased of feelings of risk for family violence due to social isolation.
• Impacts on the administration of justice - fewer offenders incarcerated with an unprecedented drop in custodial populations recorded.
• Future directions - providing more disaggregated data and trend indicators for justice and community safety to support social and economic recovery.

Perceptions of crime and safety during the pandemic – feelings of being unsafe are more common among certain groups - visible minority participants, young people, women

• More than one-quarter of Black, Korean, and Chinese participants perceived being harassed or attacked based on race, ethnicity, or skin colour sometimes or often – compared to 10% of non-visible minorities.
• Visible minority participants were three times more likely than the rest of the population (18% versus 6%) to perceive increases in this type of harassment or attacks since the start of the pandemic.
• Younger participants, particularly women, were more likely to feel an increase in crime and race-based harassment or attacks in their neighbourhood.
• Young women were more likely to report having contacted or used a victims' service, and less likely to report feeling safe when walking alone after dark in their neighbourhood.

Percent perceiving harassment sometimes or often

Perceptions of crime and safety during the pandemic – greater impact experienced by Indigenous participants

• Among Indigenous participants, 17% believed crime had increased in their neighbourhood since the start of the pandemic, compared to 11% among non-Indigenous participants. There was little gender difference among Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants.
• Indigenous participants (22%) were twice as likely as non-Indigenous participants (11%) to state that harassment or attacks because of race, ethnicity or skin colour happened "often" or "sometimes" in their neighbourhood. Differences between Indigenous men and women participants were small.

Percentage reporting feeling crime in neighbourhood has increased since the start of the pandemic, May 12 to 25, 2020

Safety and well-being during the pandemic

• While countries reported a decline in police-reported crime during the stringent lockdown measures early in the pandemic, many organizations in Canada and internationally raised concerns about increases in domestic violence under these circumstances.
• Web panels and crowdsourcing by Statistics Canada in the early months showed participants were concerned about their own health and well-being and that of others, and about the possibility of violence in the home.
• Many felt, however, that it was very or somewhat likely that neighbours would call the police if they heard or witnessed what seemed like violence in the home – a sign of social cohesion during difficult times.
• Participants also responded to Statistics Canada that the pandemic had negatively impacted their mental health.

Police interventions changed during COVID-19: calls for service increased, while police-reported crime declined

• During the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic, seventeen police services in Canada reported a 16% decrease in selected criminal incidents, when compared to the same period the year before.
• Declines were reported in the number of incidents of shoplifting (-6%), residential breaking and entering (-22%), and motor vehicle theft (-5%), as well as assaults (-11%) and sexual assaults (-27%), including those by a family member.
• In contrast, the number of calls for service increased 7% during the early months of the pandemic, particularly wellness checks (+12%), domestic disturbances (+12%), and mental health-related calls such as a person in an emotional crisis (+11%).

Changing landscape of vulnerability: Impacts on Canadian victim services

• Social isolation, loss of employment and reduced income are all factors known to increase the risk of domestic violence and these conditions have been heightened in recent months.
• Just over half (54%) of responding victim services reported an increase in the number of victims of domestic violence they served between mid-March and early July.
• Most victim services found ways to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to continue serving their clients – such as enhanced cleaning measures, shifting personnel to working from home, or using technology to communicate with clients.

Perceived changes in the number of victims served since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020

Changing landscape of vulnerability – women, children and seniors are vulnerable to family violence during quarantine and social isolation

• According to a web panel survey in March asking Canadians how concerned they were about different situations, 10% of women and 6% of men reported that they were concerned about the possibility of violence in the home.
• Results from a crowdsourcing survey in April echo this finding that women in all age groups were more likely than men to report being very or extremely concerned about the possibility of violence in the home (8.7% vs 6.5%).
• Young women aged 15 to 24, were significantly more likely to report that they were very or extremely anxious about the possibility of violence in the home (12%), relative to men in the same age group (8%).

Impacts of COVID-19 on concerns about violence in the home by age, sex, Canada, April 2020

Changing landscape of vulnerability– Financial stress and victimization during quarantine and social isolation can increase the risk of family violence

• Financial stress can be experienced during time of crisis, particularly among the most vulnerable populations.
• Results from the April 3 crowdsourcing survey indicate that financial stress was associated with heightened concerns of violence in the home.
• About one in six participants (16%) reported anticipating that the pandemic would have a "major impact" on their ability to meet financial obligations. Concern is higher among the immigrant population (20%) than among those born in Canada (12%).
• Of these, about 11% reported that they were "very" or "extremely" concerned about the possibility of violence in the home, compared with 7% among other participants.

Relationship between ability to meet financial obligations and violence in the home, April 2020

Impact of COVID-19 on the administration of justice: court delays and access to justice

Criminal court activity

• Prior to COVID-19, Canadian Criminal Courts were experiencing challenges with timely case processing, resulting in a Supreme Court of Canada decision which set out new timelines for case completion.
• As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, courts across the country were unable to continue operating at normal capacity, resulting in lengthy delays which impact justice for victims and persons accused of committing a crime.
• Statistics Canada is working with the courts to finalize plans on how to produce and release quarterly criminal court data that will be able to provide metrics on the impact of the pandemic and the recovery on court activity and access to justice.

Legal problems faced by Canadians

• The pandemic brought on many legal problems for Canadians. These include, for instance, legal issues related to housing and rental, employment, business contracts, health and compensation, taking care of health and financial issues for a person who was unable to.
• The Canadian Legal Problems Survey is a new household survey, developed in collaboration with Justice Canada, which will measure the legal needs faced by Canadians. The survey includes questions about whether new problems arose as a result of COVID-19, or whether existing problems were worsened or exacerbated by the pandemic.

Impact of COVID-19 on the administration of justice: custodial populations in adult correctional centres in Canada dropped by 16%, an unprecedented decrease

• While balancing public safety concerns, reducing the number of persons held in correctional institutions is seen as a preventive measure to reduce public health risk associated with COVID-19 transmission.
• As of August 6, 2020, there had been 1,496 COVID-19 tests conducted on the federal custodial population with about one-quarter (24%) testing positive.
• In April, 2020 the average daily count of adults in custody was down 16% from February. Historically, monthly changes in counts are rarely more than 1%.
• The average count of adults in federal custody declined by 1%, whereas counts were down by one-quarter (25%) for provincial/territorial custody.

Total adult custodial population by year (2019 and 2020) and month (February, March and April)

Looking forward - Tracking the future of crime and community safety in Canada

• The pandemic has created a unique opportunity to examine variations in crime patterns and trends across Canada as a result of restrictions on movements and stay at home orders, some have referred to this as a perfect Criminological Experiment.
• Information gleaned from examining changes in these patterns can support the development of prevention, enforcement and victim service programming in support of social and economic recovery.

Data collection and analysis activities are planned to address key research questions:

• How will police-reported crime and calls for service change as Canada moves through this pandemic?
• How has COVID-19 affected offenders placed on conditional or early release?
• Has overrepresentation of Indigenous and other vulnerable populations in corrections increased or decreased during the pandemic?
• What is the rate of COVID-19 transmission in correctional institutions?
• Is collecting data on pandemic related court processing delays feasible? If so, has the pandemic contributed to delays?
• Has COVID-19 increased Canadians' legal problems? What has the impact been on Canadians' access to justice (Canadian Legal Problems Survey- collection February 2021)
• How have changes in employment affected crime patterns?