Crime Rates in Canada’s Northern Regions Remain Stubbornly High Compared to South

Crime rates in Canada’s provincial north and in the territories have remained consistently high compared to the South, according to Statistics Canada.

A youth carrying a hockey stick walks past a boarded-up house in Attawapiskat, Ont., Nov. 29, 2011. Crime rates in Canada’s provincial north and in the territories have remained consistently high compared to the South, according to Statistics Canada. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

A new analysis of crime in Canada’s provincial north and in the territories has found that the crime rates for the territories was seven times higher comparatively than southern Canada in 2013.

Statistics Canada also found that crime rates were twice as high in the northern regions of the provinces than in the southern parts.

The agency says that while there has been little information available on police-reported crime in the northern regions of the provinces, the higher level in the territories has been consistent.

“It has always been this way since we began reporting it in 1962,” says Ron Melchers, a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa.

What looks like higher crime rates is actually often greater decrees of marginalization and fewer resources.

— Kim Pate, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies