the new report shows that 2025<\/a> \u201cis the second decrease in as many years, following several years of increases,\u201d said Warren Silver, a Statistics Canada analyst. <\/p>\nBy comparing the conventional crime rate to the crime severity index, StatCan says in a news release, the numbers suggest \u201cthe overall severity of crime declined more than the volume of crime, as there was a steeper percentage decline in the CSI (Crime Severity Index).\u201d<\/p>\n
However, a quick look online or on social media, shows hundreds of videos of violent crimes including assaults, home invasions and violent extortions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe numbers are what the numbers are, but I think it\u2019s what people feel inside that gives them comfort or concern,\u201d said Mark Mendelson, a former Toronto Police homicide detective. <\/p>\n
Mendelson believes the proliferation of violent incidents shared on social media combined with algorithms pushing negative, violent content is in-part skewing public perception. <\/p>\n
\u201cThings like Instagram and Facebook, that\u2019s where a troubling number of people go and get their information from, they view (violence) and they make their assessments based on what\u2019s happening on social media,\u201d Mendelson said. <\/p>\n
The retired detective, added that national per-capita data shared by StatsCan, doesn\u2019t always give a clear picture of what\u2019s taking place in a specific city or community. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the equal number of murders take place in Nunavut, that we\u2019ve seen take place over the course of 36 hours in Toronto. So, it\u2019s not exactly comparing apples to apples,\u201d Mendelson said.<\/p>\n
One crime that did increase in 2025, shoplifting at or under $5,000 spiked, 11 per cent according to StatsCan. <\/p>\n
Crime analysts suggest that could stem from economic pressures, the cost of living, addiction, or simple crimes of opportunity with little fear of repercussions. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe see people loading up hockey bags and liquor stores across Ontario and the country and going out the door,\u201d Mendelson said. <\/p>\n
Though in nearly every other category, crime has dropped, \u201calmost every province and territory saw a decrease except for New Brunswick and Nunavut,\u201d shares Silver, while reviewing the StatsCan data. <\/p>\n
While crime is decreasing in most categories, Silver says a two-year dip in crime stats is too small a sample size for data experts to declare a long-term downward trend for the country. <\/p>\n
Silver says StatsCan will need to see five consecutive years of declining crime stats to confidently state that Canada is trending in a sustained, safer direction. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know if these two years are just a readjustment, even if we do see if crime stats will decrease to pre pandemic numbers before we can get a clearer picture,\u201d Silver said. <\/p>\n
With files from CTV News\u2019 Senior Multi-platform writer Ted Ballantyne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New data shows Canada’s crime severity index has dropped, with fewer serious offences driving the overall decline. Adrian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-819705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}