StatsCan data suggests rural crime rates consistently higher than urban

Matthew Scace · The Canadian Press

· Posted: May 02, 2025 5:08 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

Crime rates successful agrarian communities are consistently higher than successful municipality centres, suggests caller information presented successful a Statistics Canada study — a semipermanent inclination 1 criminologist says is unsurprising.

The report, published Tuesday, recovered the complaint of police-reported transgression successful agrarian Canadian communities was 34 per cent higher than the municipality rate. That disparity was particularly pronounced crossed the Prairies and successful agrarian British Columbia.

"It doesn't astonishment me," said Doug King, a criminologist astatine Mount Royal University successful Calgary. "People often person this misunderstanding that much radical mean higher transgression rates, which is conscionable not true."

In 2023, Saskatchewan's agrarian transgression rates were 68 per cent higher than municipality areas, portion they were 65 per cent higher successful Manitoba and 54 per cent higher successful Alberta, the study found.

Violent transgression rates were besides the highest successful Saskatchewan and Manitoba's bluish agrarian communities, reaching levels that were doubly arsenic precocious arsenic the agrarian south.

King cautioned against dramatizing the magnitude of quality betwixt agrarian and municipality centres, noting that successful galore instances, transgression tin emanate retired of cities into agrarian communities. Property theft connected agrarian spot located extracurricular metropolis centres, for example, is often committed by radical from those municipality areas seeking to victimize radical successful distant locations.

"It's easier to victimize radical successful agrarian areas due to the fact that determination are little radical around. Law enforcement takes a heck of a agelong clip to respond, truthful you get each those kinds of demographic realities."

He besides advises a grade of caution erstwhile analyzing transgression rates successful tiny towns, wherever azygous incidents tin person an outsized effect connected transgression rates due to the fact that of the region's tiny population.

Long effect times successful distant areas

Tim Brodt, president of the Saskatchewan Rural Crime Watch Association, said distant locations endure from agelong effect times from police. Brodt, a 65-year-old from Zehner, Sask., a municipality 25 kilometres northbound of Regina, said his assemblage benefits from being adjacent municipality constabulary resources.

"I get immoderate radical complaining that each [police] are doing is penning tickets. Well, yes, that is 1 of their mandates. But there's an emergency, they volition respond, right?"

The study recovered that not each agrarian communities person important transgression problems: astir a 3rd of agrarian residents unrecorded successful locations wherever the transgression complaint was comparatively low, portion different 3rd unrecorded successful places wherever transgression rates were high. About 40 per cent unrecorded successful regions wherever transgression rates were moderate.

The study recovered convulsive transgression had higher rates successful agrarian areas. But dissimilar astir each different convulsive offence, robbery rates successful municipality centres were 3.5 times higher than successful agrarian areas.

Brodt, who has worked with Saskatchewan's agrarian transgression ticker groups since the 1980s, said helium has seen neighbours go much fearful of transgression successful caller years.

"You'd permission your doors unlocked, you'd person your keys successful your vehicles and worldly similar that," Brodt said. "A batch of people, they inactive person that mentality, but radical are uncovering retired that you conscionable can't bash that anymore."

He has advocated for a instrumentality to a strengthened assemblage ticker programme that has farmers and neighbours looking retired for each other. He presently runs a 120-person radical chat that helium said became captious a fewer years agone during a rash of break-ins.

King, from Mount Royal University, said people's fearfulness they'll go a unfortunate of transgression whitethorn beryllium valid among definite susceptible groups. But helium besides believes societal isolation and the emergence of societal media person manufactured anxiousness successful the public.

"It has everything to bash with the changing satellite that we unrecorded successful ... it's the conception of individuals and families becoming much and much isolated and not connected with 1 another," helium said. "And you can't underestimate the interaction of societal media."