Tuesday, February 11. 2025

Today's schedule is CDAB

A Block Physical Geography - Today we'll continue our work on the Prince Rupert topographic map from the Canadian Landscape (pages 20 - 23). We'll work on questions 1 & 2 together and then I'll need you to finish questions 3, 4 a & b, 5, 7 a, b, d & e, and 9 a & b. Use Google Earth or Google Maps to help you with this assignment. 

For more on Prince Rupert check out The Northern View

And remember the vids I posted on the blog yesterday...they can help too

For the last question about heartland and hinterland check out the following links on core and periphery (same concept) at:

Core and Periphery, Two Types That Make the World

Core and Periphery

B Block Criminology - Today you have your first quiz in the course. You may use your note sheets that I gave you on crime theories. There are 18 multiple selection questions, 12 true/false questions, 1 short answer question (with 9 choices for you to answer), and a bonus drawing question. You have half the class to do the quiz. 

After, Since 1962, Statistics Canada has collected information on all criminal incidents reported by Canadian police services through its annual Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey. In addition to the now UCR2, Statistics Canada also collects information on victims of crime through the General Social Survey (GSS) on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization), which is conducted every five years. Unlike the UCR, the GSS on Victimization collects data on self-reported experiences with crime which include incidents that may or may not have been brought to the attention of the police. These complementary surveys are the primary sources of data on crime and victimization in Canada.

So what about trends? Highlights of the Stats Can Report show:

The volume and severity of police-reported crime in Canada, as measured by the Crime Severity Index (CSI), increased for the third consecutive year - up 2% in 2023 - an upward trend that began in 2015. 

The CSI is one of several measures of crime in Canada. It looks at both the volume and the severity of crime, while the conventional crime rate measures only the volume of crime. In 2023, the police-reported crime rate increased 3% from a year earlier to 5,843 incidents per 100,000 population. While the Violent CSI was essentially unchanged in 2023 primarily because of a decline in lower-volume but more serious crimes—such as homicide—there was a 4% increase in the rate, or total volume, of violent crime, including higher rates of crimes such as assault, robbery and extortion. It is the rise in the reported rate of child pornography which is the largest contributor to the change in overall Crime Severity Index in 2023

The Violent CSI remained virtually unchanged (+0.4%) in 2023, following a 13% cumulative increase over the previous two years. Compared with 2022, the Violent CSI recorded lower rates of homicide (-14%) and sexual violations against children (-10%) in 2023. The Violent CSI also recorded higher rates of extortion (+35%), robbery (+4%) and assault committed with a weapon or causing bodily harm (+7%).

The Non-violent CSI—which includes, for example, property offences and drug offences - rose 3% in 2023, following a 5% increase in 2022. A significant contributor to the 2023 increase was a higher rate of police-reported child pornography (+52%). Increased reporting of child pornography was partially the result of more cases - current and historical - being forwarded to local police services by specialized provincial Internet child exploitation police units and the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre. Other types of non-violent crime also increased in 2023, including fraud (+12%), shoplifting ($5,000 or under; +18%), and motor vehicle theft (+5%). In contrast, breaking and entering dropped 5% from 2022, continuing a general downward trend in this crime since the 1990s.

In terms of homicide, Police reported 778 homicides in 2023, 104 fewer than a year earlier. The homicide rate declined 14%, from 2.27 homicides per 100,000 population in 2022 to 1.94 in 2023. The homicide rate dropped below 2 homicides per 100,000 people for the first time since 2019. The drop in homicides was the primary reason for the Violent CSI being lower than it otherwise would have been and accounted for half of its decreasing portion. The national decrease in 2023 was largely the result of fewer homicides throughout much of the country, including British Columbia (-32 homicides), Ontario (-30 homicides), Manitoba (-15 homicides), Saskatchewan (-14 homicides), Quebec (-10 homicides), New Brunswick (-6 homicides), Nova Scotia (-5 homicides) and Alberta (-4 homicides). However, in 2023, there were more homicides reported in Newfoundland and Labrador (+5 homicides), Prince Edward Island (+1 homicide) and in all three territories: Yukon (+2 homicides), the Northwest Territories (+3 homicides) and Nunavut (+1 homicide).

The homicide rate for Indigenous people was over six times higher than for the non-Indigenous population (9.31 versus 1.46 homicides per 100,000 population). Since 2014—the first year for which complete information regarding Indigenous identity was reported for victims of homicide—Indigenous people have been overrepresented as victims of homicide.

What about Courtenay (municipal - city) stats? 

In 2023, Courtenay's CSI was 138.3, that's down 1% from 2022. Violent crime was down 19.6% while non-violent crime was up 6.1% (Of note, the highest CSI in BC with a population over 25K people was Langley @ 241.1, then Prince George @ 233.1, followed by Penticton @ 180.4. The lowest was North Van @ 37.3 then Port Moody @ 41.2 followed by Saanich @ 43.8

Today's Fit...