Notes
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The focus in the first section
of the study is on the criminal incident. The age of those accused in the
incident is then used to distinguish between youth crime and adult crime.
It should be noted that this definition of youth crime differs from that used
in most other Statistics Canada studies. While this study uses a definition
for youth crime that focuses on counts of incidents involving youth,
other studies tend to use a definition that focuses on counts of youth
accused of crime.
A small number of these incidents (approximately 2%)
involved an accused who was under the age of 12.
Given this study
analyses neighbourhood characteristics wherein youth commit crime and not
the volume of crime in relation to adults, incidents involving multiple accused
where at least one of the accused is aged 12 to 17 are
considered incidents of youth crime. Incidents that include a mix of adult
and youth represent only a small proportion of the total number of incidents.
See the Juristat article, "Where
and when youth commit police-reported crimes, 2008" (Statistics
Canada Catalogue no. 85-002- X, vol. 30, no. 2), for a more
detailed national-level discussion of the location, time of year, day of the
week and time of day of police-reported youth crimes in Canada.
Other locations include universities
and colleges, other non-commercial buildings and public institutions and buildings.
Data presented in this section may differ
from data on youth crime published in other reports using UCR2 data because
they are based on counts of incidents of crime involving youth, whereas other
reports present data based on the number of youth accused.
The age range of 5 to 17 was
used to determine day-time and night-time population based on the presence
of school-aged children. Youth under the age of 12 cannot be charged
with a criminal offence, although a small proportion (2%) of incidents involved
youth under the age of 12.
The neighbourhood of residence of the
accused youth is discussed in the section of this report entitled, 'Where
do accused youth live?'.
The Toronto Police Service provided the total number of youth accused of a
crime by dissemination area (i.e., neighbourhood) of residence. No actual
addresses for accused youth were provided.
A dissemination area is a small, relatively stable geographic unit composed
of one or more adjacent dissemination blocks. It is the smallest standard
geographic area for which all census data are disseminated. Dissemination
areas cover all the territory of Canada.
The focus in the first section of the study is on the criminal incident; the
age of those accused in the incident is then used to distinguish between youth
crime and adult crime. It should be noted that this definition of youth crime
differs from that used in most other Statistics Canada studies. While this
study uses a definition for youth crime that focuses on counts of incidents
involving youth, other studies tend to use a definition that focuses on counts
of youth accused of crime.
The age range of 5 to 17 was
used to determine day-time and night-time population based on the presence
of school-aged children. Youth under the age of 12 cannot be charged
with a criminal offence, although a small proportion (2%) of incidents involved
youth under the age of 12.