Because I promised more info on Canadian vs US crime statistics, a couple of links I find interesting follow. But I commend your attention more to the piece by David Frum linked at the end of this post.
1- A Comparison of Violent and Firearm Crime Rates in the Canadian Prairie Provinces and Four U.S. Border States, 1961-2003 by the Economics Division, Parliamentary Information and Research Service.
2- Statistics Canada’s analysis of the comparability of crime rates in the two countries. Feasibility Study on Crime Comparisons Between Canada and the United States.
The main event is David Frum’s Reaping what we sow in today’s National Post.
Frum provides a nice segue by citing more comparative crime statistics, but the importance of the article lies in its examination of the reasons for Canada’s increasing crime rates. That it reinforces the points in my last two posts (here and here) does nothing to dissuade me of its value:
… a Canadian criminal is 80% less likely to go to jail than his American counterpart.
Putting police on the streets works. Yet Canada employs 25% fewer police officers per capita than the United States.
Enforcing laws against vagrancy, prostitution and drug dealing works. Yet Canada is either decriminalizing or tolerating all three. The right kinds of gun laws work too: for example, extending the sentence of any criminal who commits any crime — down to jaywalking — while in possession of a gun.
…It is not guns from across the border that threaten Canadians. It is the weak and cynical policies of home-grown politicians, and especially the Chretien/Martin Liberals. The $2-billion wasted on the gun registry could have paid for more cops, more prisons, more of everything that would protect the lives and security of Canadians.
Read the whole thing.
Links fixed, 5-Jan, 10:08AM