Statistics Canada numbers show more serious crime in Yorkton is up for the second straight year.
The recently released the crime severity index (CSI) statistics for 2016, and it saw Yorkton increase by 10 per cent, going from 135.14 to 149.47.
The majority of that increase was due to a jump in violent crime, which increased 34.70 per cent, going from 143.35 to 193.09. Non-violent crime remained steady, with a one per cent increase, from 131.88 to 133.28.
This is the second straight year of CSI increases in the city.
But what exactly is the CSI? And what does the increase mean to local citizens?
To calculate the actual Crime Severity Index, the number of police-reported incidents for each offence is multiplied by the weight for that offence. All weighted offences are then added together and divided by the corresponding population total, which won’t mean a lot to the average resident.
So to make the Index easier to interpret, the Index is standardized to “100” for Canada (a system that is similar to the Consumer Price Index), using 2006 as a base year.
From that base people can gauge how the crime rate in Yorkton compares year-over-year, and in the most general terms how the numbers compare to other communities across Canada. The higher the CSI, the more crime there is in a community.
But Yorkton is a small community, so it does not take a big jump in actual numbers to send the CSI higher.
Local RCMP detachment Staff Sgt Jeff Simpson alluded to that element in an interview with Yorkton This Week citing the main reason behind the large jump in the city was a murder in 2016. Since there were no murders in 2015, it had a significant impact on the city’s violent crime numbers.
“Serious crimes at the higher end of the spectrum really skew the numbers... That one homicide really carries a lot of weight in the index,” he offered.
But the issue locally is not isolated to a single murder. There have also been increases in aggravated assaults, sexual assaults and robberies, all three of which are a driver of the violent crime increase.
These are crime areas a community should be most concerned about. A murder, heinous as it may be, is still thankfully a rare and isolated incident. Assaults and robberies are by nature far too common, and according to the numbers increasing.
And that leaves the critical question, not how we deal with the actual crimes, but rather how we identify the reasons behind the increase?
Simpson has some theories as to why Yorkton has seen a crime increase in the past couple of years. He suggested as a growing city currently is something of an economic downturn crime rates tend to go up.
Simpson also noted government may play a role in the sense the province is still cutting back on services.
“When people find themselves in positions where there is maybe a loss of jobs or something like that, mixed with substance abuse, addictions problems or whatever the case is, typically the crime rate sees a positive increase. Property crime, even persons crime as relationships get strained.”
The underlying message there is that people with good jobs which allow for stable living conditions for families are critical if crime rates are to be reduced.
Simpson says that the way to combat crime is to work within the community to deal with the root causes of the crime in the city, and that means focusing on good jobs, safe homes, good education, affordable recreation and all the other integrated factors to a strong community for all.
