Social Policy in Ontario

Stockwell Day says we can’t rely on statistics showing a declining crime rate because those figures only measure reported crime. And Stock apparently has unreported figures that show unreported crime is rising (or maybe not):

Treasury Board President Stockwell Day says statistics showing crime in Canada is declining may not be accurate.

Day says the crime rate per 1,000 people has dropped, but adds that more people are not reporting crimes.

He says surveys suggest many people don’t bother calling the police on some crimes.
The numbers are alarming, he says, although he did not elaborate.

Day says this is why the government plans to hike spending for new prisons.

What Stock failed to mention is that the reason we can’t necessarily take those crime statistics at face value is because crime reporting is voluntary, which leads to an array of challenges that can skew the numbers. With the reporting pool self-selecting, some groups may be more likely to report criminal events: the middle-class, for example, or the the family of a murder victim. And those who live in high-crime neighbourhoods, or who are the victim of a minor crime such as j-walking, might not bother to report.

That’s why tomorrow I’m confident Stock will announce the Conservative Party’s new “Get Tough on Unreported Crime” initiative, which will make crime reporting mandatory and threaten stiff fines and/or jail terms for failure to report crime.

That’s why they’re really building all those prisons.
A Liberal blogger and activist from the left coast who now calls Toronto home, Jeff Jedras blogs as A BCer in Toronto.  National Post

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