There seems to be a particularly virulent faulty comparison between Canadian and U.S. crime statistics floating around the internet at the moment. Since Ryan Thompson has caught it, and I went to the effort to dig out the links to disprove it (I used bugmenot to post the comment on Ryan's Xanga just to save time, since my usual iatemywafer xanga login has been acting up), I thought I'd post them here too.
The gist of the matter is that Canadian crime statistics count stuff that the U.S. ones do not, namely, the U.S. statistics do not include minor assaults and the Canadian ones do. So, the only workable comparisons are to homicide and robbery rates:
(2004)
U.S. homicide: 5.5/100,000
CA homicide: 2/100,000
CA Robbery rate: 90/100,000
U.S. robbery rate: 137/100000
So, the next time someone tells you that Canada has twice the U.S. crime rate, please, please debunk the myth. I have no great love for Canada, but this statistical false comparison is insane.
The gist of the matter is that Canadian crime statistics count stuff that the U.S. ones do not, namely, the U.S. statistics do not include minor assaults and the Canadian ones do. So, the only workable comparisons are to homicide and robbery rates:
(2004)
U.S. homicide: 5.5/100,000
CA homicide: 2/100,000
CA Robbery rate: 90/100,000
U.S. robbery rate: 137/100000
So, the next time someone tells you that Canada has twice the U.S. crime rate, please, please debunk the myth. I have no great love for Canada, but this statistical false comparison is insane.
posted by Bob at
5:08:00 PM
1 Comments:
What I meant is that I'm not defending Canada as some sort of paradise, espically legally. (Lack of 1st amendment protections, etc). A lot of times when I bring up the cooked statistical comparision, I get accused of defending Canada in general (AdScam and Socialized Medicine) when my opponent can't dispute my argument about crime stats.
I've never met a Canadian that I didn't like. Not to mention my love for Red Green, and CBC programming (Fawlty Towers, etc).
By
Bob, at 12:25 PM
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