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Exploring Criminal Justice in Alberta* Rick Ruddell, University of Regina, and John Winterdyk, Mount Royal University 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 Alberta, including issues related to urban and rural crime, and a report card for the province’s justice system. Several noteworthy criminal jus- tice cases that drew international attention are also described, including the wrongful conviction of Con- nie Oakes in 2011 that was only resolved in 2019. Last, a short description of managing the challenges of antisocial behaviour and crime in Fort McMurray, Canada’s largest boomtown, is also provided. Alto- gether, these cases, events, and information specific to the province of Alberta enable readers to better understand the provincial context that can’t be covered in a textbook that focuses on the entire nation. ALBERTA: CRIME AT A GLANCE Figure 1 shows the homicide rate per 100,000 res- idents for 2018. The Alberta rate of 1.9 is slightly Like the other two Prairie Provinces, crime rates higher than the national average of 1.8 per 100,000 and rates of self-reported victimization in Alberta residents, and much less than those for Saskatch- are higher than the national average. Similar to ewan and Manitoba, and was the lowest rate since the rest of Canada, rates of crime reported to the 1996 (Roy & Marcellus, 2019). When we look at police have been dropping since the 1990s and the trends, the homicide rate has fluctuated, in- the rate of offences per 100,000 residents reported creasing after 2011, peaking in 2017, and has since to the police in Alberta is lower today than rates been decreasing. That decrease did not occur in in the 1970s. Perreault (2015, p. 7) found the pro- all Alberta communities and in 2016 the Royal portion of Albertans reported being the victims Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported that of violent crimes dropped by 51 per cent between the number of rural homicides had almost dou- 2004 and 2014, which was the greatest decrease in bled between 2014 and 2015. The number of rural the nation. We are awaiting the results of the 2019 homicides seems to have stabilized since then, al- General Social Survey on victimization to see if though there is considerable concern about crime this positive finding has continued and those re- in rural Alberta, a subject we tackle in the next sults should be published by the Canadian Centre section of this supplement. for Justice Statistics by 2021. As noted in Exploring Criminal Justice, some While Exploring Criminal Justice described the populations are more vulnerable to being mur- interprovincial differences in the Crime Severity dered, and a review of 2018 homicide statistics Index (CSI), which is a measure of the volume and shows that Indigenous men and women in Al- seriousness of crime, the following figures show berta are killed at a higher rate than their non- differences in homicide and intimate partner vio- Indigenous counterparts. The murder rate for lence (IPV), as well as rates of non-violent offences, non- Indigenous Albertans is 1.25 per 100,000 and reported crime rates in Alberta’s largest cities. while the rate for Indigenous Alberta peoples is *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_AB.indd 1 07/21/20 11:10 AM 2 Exploring Criminal Justice in Alberta 4.5 the issue of IPV in a report for Maclean’s and 4.1 4.0 she says that the responses of the justice sys- 3.5 tem were set up to fail women given “a lack of data, inconsistent record-keeping, systemic dis- 3.0 2.9 connects, lack of accountability and failure of 2.5 political will.” 1.9 1.9 2.0 1.7 1.8 How serious is the family violence problem in 1.5 1.2 Alberta? The findings of self-report surveys show 1 1.0 that most incidents of family violence are never 0.5 0.4 reported to the police. Figure 2 shows that acts 0 0.0 of intimate partner violence reported to the po- NL PE NS NB QC ON MB SK AB BC lice in Alberta is the third highest in the nation. Provinces Canada Rate = 1.8 The risks of family violence may increase during times of economic hardships as unemployment FIGURE 1 Provincial Homicide Rates (per 100,000 and poverty place additional stresses on families residents), 2018 (Golden, Perreira, & Durrance, 2013). As a result, Source: Adapted from Statistics Canada (2020a) Table: 35-10-0177-01 the downturn in the Alberta economy that started in 2020 combined with the COVID-19 pandemic 10.3 per 100,000 residents. In other words, an In- (see Boseveld, 2020) might result in even higher digenous person is about eight times more likely to rates of family violence. be murdered than a non-Indigenous Alberta resi- In order to decrease the number of intimate dent (Roy & Marcellus, 2019). Indigenous women partner homicides the provincial government in Alberta are at higher risk and are about 13 times established the Alberta Family Violence Death more likely to be homicide victims than non-In- Review Committee in 2013, and that group re- digenous Alberta women. Indigenous peoples are, views the circumstances of these deaths. Between however, more likely to accused of a homicide of- 2008 and 2018 there were an average of 17 of these fence in Alberta and in 2018 they were 15 times murders every year, and this is shown in Figure 3. more likely to be accused of murder than a non-In- Although the numbers typically vary every year, digenous person (Roy & Marcellus, 2019, p. 30). Violence Toward Women 700 655 The report on the National Inquiry into Missing 592 and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 600 which was released in 2019, has brought atten- 500 400 tion to the issue of violence towards all women. 400 368 The Chief Public Health Officer of Canada (2016) 328 307 330 324 has called family violence a serious public health 300 243 277 issue and he reports that more than 200 men and 200 women are victimized every day and every four 100 days in Canada a woman is killed by a family 0 member. In terms of family violence, the risks NL PE NS NB QC ON MB SK AB BC of victimization increase for women, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and those who Provinces Canada Rate = 322 identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or ques- FIGURE 2 Victims of Police-Reported Intimate Part- tioning (Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, ner Violence, 2018 2016, p. 6). Kingston (2019, para. 9) examined Source: Adapted from Burczycka (2019) 9780199033812_AB.indd 2 07/21/20 11:10 AM Exploring Criminal Justice in Alberta 3 about one-half of these murders are single homi- (81 and 78 offences per 100,000 residents, respec- cides (e.g., where a husband kills his wife), and tively). Those results are similar with Perreault’s about one-quarter are murder-suicides; the rest (2015, p. 31) findings from the 2014 GSS, which involve more than one homicide. About 90 per also shows that Alberta is above the national av- cent of these murders were perpetrated by males in erage (25 and 22 offences per 1,000 residents aged 2018 and they were generally aged 20 to 29 years- 15 years and older, respectively). Although crime old and were involved in a relationship with the statistics show that Alberta has rates of sexual vio- women they murdered (Family Violence Death lence somewhat higher than the national average, Review Committee, 2019). Readers interested in we lack a full understanding of the true number of family violence can review their case reviews, these offences or what happens in court to the per- which are short reports that describe these inci- sons accused of these crimes (e.g., are they con- dents and include recommendations on reducing victed, and what types of sentences do they receive these crimes. These case reviews are available at: if they are found guilty?). https://www.alberta.ca/family-violence-death- review-committee.aspx. Crime Severity in Alberta There is also increased attention being paid to Almost all the provinces had a slightly higher CSI the issue of sexual violence since the start of the in 2018 than in 2017. Moreau (2019, p. 51) reports #Me Too movement in 2016 and 2017. As noted that the overall CSI for the entire nation increased in Exploring Criminal Justice sexual offences are by 2 per cent and the violent CSI rose by 1 per among the least reported crimes. Perreault (2015, cent in that year. In Alberta, there was no change p. 3) analyzed the results of the 2014 General So- in the overall CSI between 2008 and 2018, and a cial Survey (GSS) and estimated that as few as 5 1 per cent reduction in the violent CSI between per cent of all sexual offences are reported to the 2017 and 2018; a topic we address below. Figure 4 police (and only a fraction of those cases resulted presents the crime rates for the 10 largest Alberta in convictions). Rotenberg and Cotter (2018) cities for 2018, and this comparison shows that found that the number of sexual assaults reported there is considerable variation in the amount of to the police increased by 24 per cent after the #Me Too went viral on social media in October 2017, although the increase in Alberta (7 per cent) 18,000 16,973 16,000 14,958 was much less than the national average.

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