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Exploring Criminal Justice in Prince Edward Island* Rick Ruddell, University of Regina

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Exploring Criminal Justice in Prince Edward Island* Rick Ruddell, University of Regina Exploring Criminal Justice in Prince Edward Island* Rick Ruddell, University of Regina This supplement to Exploring Criminal Justice in Canada provides additional content about crime and the responses of the police, courts, and corrections that is specific to Prince Edward Island, including issues related to urban and rural crime, and the crime-related challenges that are distinctive to the prov- ince. In addition, there are examples of miscarriages of justice and issues related to managing crime and responding to victimization, including the changes in seriousness of crime between 2014 and 2018, and the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on crime and the justice system. Altogether, these cases, events, and information specific to the Island enable readers to better understand the provincial context that can’t be covered in a textbook that focuses on the entire nation. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: of homicide in the provinces as well as levels of CRIME AT A GLANCE crime in the largest cities in Atlantic Canada Of the 10 provinces, Prince Edward Island (PEI) (information for Sydney in 2018 is missing) and is well below the national average in terms of the youth crime. Figure 1 shows the homicide rate per Crime Severity Index (CSI), which is an indicator 100,000 residents for 2018; and there were no mur- of the volume and seriousness of crime. In 2018 ders in the province that year. Of the nine larg- the CSI for PEI was 53.7, which was the lowest in est cities in Atlantic Canada, Figure 2 shows that the nation—the national average was 75—and less there were no homicides at all in Charlottetown, than one-half of the CSI in Saskatchewan (139.2) Summerside, Cape Breton, or Corner Brook. One (Moreau, 2019). Like the rest of Canada, rates of has to be fairly careful in reading too much into violent and property crime offences per 100,000 these results, especially in less populated towns residents reported to the police in PEI are lower and cities, as adding even one homicide offence today than rates in the 1970s. Information from might make places with a low population appear the General Social Survey (GSS), however, shows very dangerous. that PEI residents reported levels of violent vic- The National Inquiry into Missing and Mur- timization (including physical and sexual assaults dered Indigenous Women and Girls initiated in and robbery) in 2014 that were higher than the 2016 has brought renewed attention to the issue of average rate for the entire nation (Perreault, 2015, violence towards women. According to the Chief p. 31). We are awaiting the results of the 2019 GSS Public Health Officer of Canada (2016) more than on victimization—which should be published by 200 men and women are victims of family violence 2021—to see whether that trend continues. every day and a woman is killed by a family mem- While Exploring Criminal Justice described ber every four days. With respect to family vio- the interprovincial differences in the CSI, the fol- lence, risks of victimization increase for women, lowing seven figures show differences in the rates Indigenous women, people with disabilities, and *The ten provincial summaries follow a common template and although the examples presented in this supplement differ from the other nine, some of the content is very similar or will have identical text. 9780199033812_PE.indd 1 07/21/20 01:28 PM 2 Exploring Criminal Justice in Prince Edward Island 4.5 4.1 700 655 4.0 592 600 3.5 2.9 500 3.0 400 400 368 2.5 328 307 330 324 1.9 1.9 300 277 2.0 1.7 1.8 243 1.5 1.2 200 1 1.0 100 0.5 0.4 0 0 0.0 NL PE NS NB QC ON MB SK AB BC NL PE NS NB QC ON MB SK AB BC Provinces Canada Rate = 322 Provinces Canada Rate = 1.8 FIGURE 3 Victims of Police-Reported Intimate FIGURE 1 Provincial Homicide Rates (per Partner Violence per 100,000 Residents, 2018 100,000 residents), 2018 Source: Adapted from Burczycka (2019) Source: Adapted from Statistics Canada (2020a) Table 35-10-0177-01 those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, abused by their spouse during the preceding 5 or questioning (Chief Public Health Officer of years.” Figure 3 shows that acts of intimate part- Canada, 2016, p. 6). Self-report surveys such as ner violence (IPV), which are assaults committed the GSS show that most cases of family violence by current or former spouses or intimate partners, are never reported to the police. Burczycka (2016, are close to the national average in 2018. p. 3) analyzed the 2014 GSS results and reported The problem of family violence—which in- that “4 per cent of Canadians in the provinces with cludes any violent offence directed at a family a current or former spouse or common-law part- member, including intimate partners, children ner reported having been physically or sexually and one’s elderly parents—is gaining more atten- tion due to the physical and psychological impacts 9 8 of violence on all family members. The Premier’s 8 Action Committee on Family Violence Prevention 7 (hereafter: Premier’s Committee, 2020) reported 6 there were 183 reports of violence to the RCMP 5 and 162 to the Charlottetown Police Service. Of 4 those reports, one half of the incidents reported 3 to the RCMP resulted in criminal charges whereas 2 1.6 1.4 1.6 only 12 per cent of the incidents reported to the 1 0.5 Charlottetown Police Services resulted in crimi- 0 0 0 0 0 nal charges. This leads us to question what factors lead to those different outcomes? Halifax St John’s As noted in Exploring Criminal Justice, sexual FrederictonSaint John Corner Brook SummersideCape Breton Charlottetown offences are among the least reported crimes. The Moncton (Codiac) 2014 GSS shows that only about 5 per cent of all Homicide Rate Canada Homicide Ave. = 1.8 sexual offences are actually reported to the police (see Perreault, 2015, p. 3), and only a fraction of FIGURE 2 Homicide Rates, Largest Cities in Atlantic Canada, 2018 those cases result in convictions. Moreau (2019, p. Source: Adapted from Statistics Canada (2020b) Table 35-10-0178-01 47) reports the rate of sexual assaults reported to 9780199033812_PE.indd 2 07/21/20 01:28 PM Exploring Criminal Justice in Prince Edward Island 3 the police in PEI is below the national average (71 600 532 per 100,000 PEI residents compared with 78 of- 500 fences per 100,000 Canadian residents). Although 417 crime statistics show that PEI has rates of sexual 400 violence below the national average, we do not 287 300 282 know the true number of these offences.Figure 4 251 239 248 241 shows the results of a Canadian Centre for Justice 200 166 Statistics survey, conducted in 2018, that shows 99 the violent victimization of women, and 2.8 per 100 cent of PEI respondents said they had been phys- 0 ically or sexually victimized in the previous year, NL PE NS NB QC ON MB SK AB BC which was less than the national average of 4.3 per Provinces Canada Rate = 190 cent (Cotter & Savage, 2019). Islanders can feel positive about having the FIGURE 5 Provincial Impaired Driving Rate (per lowest CSI in the nation, and between 2008 and 100,000 residents), 2018 2018 there was a 22 per cent decrease in the over- Source: Adapted from Statistics Canada (2020a) Table 35-10-0177-01 all CSI in PEI (Moreau, 2019, p. 51). From 2017 to 2018 there was a 17 per cent increase in the possible explanation is the higher proportion of overall CSI and a 20 per cent increase in the vio- people living in the rural areas of these provinces. lent CSI. That one year change was due to an in- Compared with urban areas, Perreault (2019, pp. crease in the number of break and enter crimes, 20-1) found that rates of impaired driving in rural sexual assaults, and theft offences. Figure 5 shows, Canada are about two and a half times higher, im- however, the rates of impaired driving offences paired driving causing bodily injury offences are for the provinces, and despite having the lowest three times greater, and impaired driving causing CSI, PEI has the second highest rates of impaired death is seven times higher. There are a number driving in the country. A review of this figure of possible reasons for those results, including shows that impaired driving offences in Atlantic higher rates of vehicle ownership in rural Canada Canada are all higher than the national average: and a lack of public transportation in these places. What factors would explain this pattern? One Figure 6, which presents the total crime rates for the largest cities in Atlantic Canada for 2018, 6 indicates some variation in the amount of crime 5.3 occurring in these places, although almost all 5 4.7 4.8 4.8 4.5 4.3 4.4 these places were higher than the average of 5,363 4 offences per 100,000 residents for Prince Edward 3.1 Island. The crime rates per 100,000 residents in 2.8 3 2.5 Charlottetown were the third lowest in the region, while Summerside had the highest crime rate. 2 One question that criminologists like to ask is why 1 crime differs so much between these places. Are crime rates in Summerside really almost twice as 0 NL PE NS NB QC ON MB SK AB BC high as Charlottetown, or are the people in Sum- merside more likely to report crimes to the police Provinces Canada Ave.
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