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British Columbia’s crime rate rose in 2022, matching a pre-pandemic trend that lulled during the pandemic.
Last year, crime rose in all of the province’s four main metropolitan areas: Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna and the Fraser Valley.
The uptick in crime across the province — driven largely by acts of fraud and violent incidents — corresponds to a relatively short-term national trend, according to the 2022 Police-Reported Crime Report from Statistics Canada on July 27.
Canada has seen overall crime drop over the past three decades; however, since 2015, the Crime Severity Index (CSI) began trending higher, with a more rapid ascent of the Violent Crime Severity Index.
“The first year of the pandemic was marked by a decline in the overall volume and severity of police-reported crime, notably while lockdown restrictions were first implemented, driven by less non-violent crime. Before this drop, the CSI had been rising for five consecutive years beginning in 2015 (19 per cent over five years),” stated the report.
Across Canada, the index rose from 74.9 to 78.1, the second highest mark in 10 years, after a 79.9 index in 2019, which followed an all-time low of 66.9 in 2014. The Violent CSI rose to 97.7, the highest it has been since 2007 and in stark contrast to the low of 70.7 in 2014.
In B.C., the index reached 100.4, which is still lower than the 104.3 seen in 2019 but higher than the 96.9 rating in 2021. Violent CSI, however, reached a rating of 100.8 in B.C., the highest score since 2010 and far higher than the low of 73.5 achieved in 2016.
Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd crunched the numbers and told Glacier Media that “while it is nonetheless worrying to see a bit of an uptick, put in perspective we are much better off than in, say, 1977.”
In 1998, B.C.’s index was 166.9 and the violent index was 132.5. Canada’s was 118.8 and 97.8, respectively.
Youth crime also rose across Canada in 2022, to a rating of 50.2, up from 41.6 in 2021 but far from the 77.4 rating in 2012. Contributing most to this recent uptick was violent crime committed by youth, as the Violent CSI for youth rose from 64.9 in 2021 to 82.8 last year, a record change and highest the index has been since 2010.
In B.C., the youth crime index hit 31.2 in 2022, in close range of the historic low of 28.1 achieved in 2021.
Kelowna’s CSI reached 128, the highest since 2008; Abbotsford-Mission climbed to 85.3, the highest since 2019; Vancouver jumped up to 92.4, also the highest since 2019; and Victoria reached 75, in range of the past three years (73-76).
In Canada, the Violent CSI rose five per cent in 2022, as police reported 874 homicides, 78 more than the year before. B.C. recorded 30 more homicides in 2022 than in 2021. And, violent firearm offences increased for an eighth straight year, the report stated. Finally, sexual assaults rose three per cent, to 90 incidents per 100,000 people — a rate that has increased every year since 2014, except for 2020; Such high rates have not been seen since 1995.
Boyd says crime rates are trending down overall as demographics is a big factor, noting males age 15-29 accounted for 18 per cent of the population in 1977, when homicides were at their all-time peak in the country.
Those young men account for 80-90 per cent of crime and “historically that’s been the case in every era of human history,” said Boyd.
Accounting for the largest contribution to the CSI is fraud, which has nearly doubled in the past decade — a trend Boyd says must be watched closely.
“What I would highlight is the increase in fraud and cybercrime, the changing nature of property crime. There is no drastic change in car theft, auto crime or break and enters, but the big change is every day in our lives we get emails and phone calls from people attempting to defraud us. The people who run these organizations can send these messages to an infinite number of people and as a consequence some vulnerable people will step up and take the loss,” said Boyd.
"That’s the burgeoning area of property crime," said Boyd, adding that the rates are likely much higher as these crimes are under-reported by individuals and banks, who are often exacerbated by the odds of recovering their losses.
The report stated in 2022, the rate of police-reported fraud (which includes general fraud, identity theft and identity fraud) was 78 per cent higher than a decade earlier. Compared with 2021, fraud increased four per cent, to 459 incidents per 100,000 population in 2022
“Aside from two years of stability in 2020 and 2021, [fraud] has generally been on the rise since 2011,” the report stated.
And, the rate of extortion (obtaining property through coercion) was five times higher in 2022 than in 2012, rising from five to 25 incidents per 100,000 population, statistics show.
Boyd said fraud can have much greater impact on society than homicide, “from failed marriages to suicide to the inability to retire,” however those convicted, “spend little time in jail.”
“You can understand why we react the way we do to homicide but placed against the kind of losses a $300-million fraud can create, the effect Is much greater,” said Boyd.
The B.C. municipality that realized the sharpest decline in criminal incidents was Lytton, with a 76 per cent drop after much of the town burned to the ground in 2021. However, since CSI weighs population Lytton’s index nevertheless rose by 22 per cent.
Seeing the greatest percentage increases in their CSI were: Kimberley (107), Oliver (101) and Mission (77), whereas Falkland (56), Hope (52) and Clinton (47) saw the largest declines.
But Kimberley still only has a total CSI of 30.
Other notable or large municipalities with a low CSI include: District of North Vancouver (36), West Vancouver (57) and Delta (60).
Notable or large municipalities that exceeded the provincial average of 100.4 were: Langley (229), Prince George (207), Richmond (180) and Victoria (157.7).
