Canadian Statistics on Ethnicity and Crime
Crime data are usually collected in two ways. The first is by asking police departments to report incidents, and the second is by surveying the public. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) do not share their collected data on the race of the people they interact with. The Canadian government believes that making data available on the race or ethnicity of those interacting with the police will contribute to racial stereotypes.
Crime and Ethnicity in the Media
Victimization Surveys
Despite the lack of police reporting on the ethnicity of those they interact with, the Canadian government and others have conducted victimization surveys to assess how often ethnic groups feel victimized, and how safe they feel in their communities.
Police Reported Crime
Crime and Ethnicity in the Media
- The Toronto Star (2002, 2008) has conducted its own surveys on ethnicity and crime, but has not made the surveys and survey data publicly available.
- The RCMP have issued an official response (2006) to the work of the Toronto Star, calling into question the statistical analysis, and defending the choice to not disclose ethnic data.
- In the Canadian Review of Policing Research, academics have also weighed in on the issue, calling for increased data disclosure from the police.
Victimization Surveys
Despite the lack of police reporting on the ethnicity of those they interact with, the Canadian government and others have conducted victimization surveys to assess how often ethnic groups feel victimized, and how safe they feel in their communities.
- Julian Tanner and Scot Wortley conducted the the Toronto youth crime & victimization survey (2002) which is available from the University of Toronto Library.
- Statistics Canada statisticians Warren Silver, Karen Mihorean and Andrea Taylor-Butts (2004) authored a Juristat article "Hate Crime in Canada" containing victimization statistics based on the Ethnic Diversity Survey (2002).
- Samuel Perreault and Shannon Brennan of Statistics Canada authored the 2009 "Criminal victimization in Canada", a Juristat publication. "Table 4 Self-reported violent victimization and theft of personal property by selected demographic characteristics, 2009" contains relevant ethnic victimization statistics. The microdata for these statistics were aggregated from the 2009 General Social Survey.
Police Reported Crime
- <odesi> has a collection of Criminal Justice Statistics formatted in Beyond 20/20 tables. Of particular interest is the "Hate crime statistics by type of motivation" table which is based on the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. Table 4 shows the police reported side of hate crime victimization.
Canadian Microdata on Ethnicity and crime
- Ethnic Diversity Survey (2002) data (.txt), SPSS syntax (.sps), SPSS readable (.sav), Codebook (.pdf), and Portable (.por) files are available for download here as a compressed (.zip) file.
- General Social Survey (2009) data (.txt), SPSS syntax (.sps), SPSS readable (.sav), Codebook (.pdf), and Portable (.por) files are available for download here as a compressed (.zip) file.
- Uniform Crime Reporting Survey microdata are not made available as it would be difficult to protect the confidentiality of the respondents.