Crime severity index scores for remote Northern Manitoba communities show just how different they are from the province’s and the country’s larger urban centres, especially in terms of violent crime severity.
The top-ranked city of more than 10,000 people in terms of violent crime severity in the country in 2015 was North Battleford, Sask. with a score of 348.18, making it the only city in that category with a violent crime severity index of greater than 300. By contrast, Leaf Rapids had a violent crime severity index score of 1,001.25 in 2015 and the violent crime severity index score was 1,711.18 in Shamattawa, having risen nearly 41 per cent (495.21points) from 2014, when it was 1,215.97. The overall crime severity index in Shamattawa in 2015 was 760.02 and the non-violent crime severity index was 412.34. Those scores dwarf those of North Battleford, which was also ranked first among Canadian cities of 10,000 people or more in those categories for 2015, with an overall crime severity index of 320.94 and a non-violent crime severity index of 310.37, which were both the only index scores in the country greater than 300 in that population category.
Chemawawin Cree Nation’s crime severity index score dropped 11.5 per cent from 2014 to 481.21 in 2015 and its violent crime severity index score decreased about 40 per cent to 600.15. The non-violent crime severity index score there in 2015 was 436.94, up almost 16 per cent from 2014.
In Nelson House in 2015, the overall crime severity index was 483.93, the violent crime severity index was 864.70 and the non-violent crime severity index was 344.37, all of those values representing increases of more than 20 per cent from 2014.
Crime severity index scores were also up from the previous year, though only by single digit percentages, in Noway House, which had a crime severity index of 443.75, a non-violent crime severity index of 585.44 and a non-violent crime severity index of 391.27.
In Cross Lake, the violent crime severity index rose 66.66 per cent from 2014 to 2015, when it was 862.24. The overall crime severity index there was 444.08 in 2015, up almost 34 per cent from 2014 and the non-violent crime severity index score was 290.99, up a little over 10 per cent from the previous year.
The violent crime severity index in God’s Lake Narrows rose 103.57 per cent from 2014 to 818.87 in 2015, while the overall crime severity index was 382.98, up 48.87 per cent from 2014, and the non-violent crime severity index score was 223.58, up about 10 per cent from the previous year.
Oxford House also saw a large increase in the violent crime severity index in 2015, with its score of 708.99 up 74 per cent from 2014 and the overall crime severity index up 20 per cent to 387.42, while the non-violent crime severity index score dropped 6.41 per cent to 269.61.
The overall crime severity index in Leaf Rapids was up 22 per cent in 2015, with a score of 761.66, while the town’s non-violent crime severity index score was 672.92, up 40 per cent from 2014.
The crime severity index is calculated by assigning crimes different weights based on seriousness as measured by each crime’s incarceration rate and the average prison sentence courts mete out for each crime. The weighted offences are then added up and divided by population. The CSI is standardized to a base of 100 which is derived from the index values for the year 2006.
