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Violent Crime 11 Property Crime 13 Drug-Related Offences 14 Crime Involving More Than One Offender 16 Catalogue no. 85-561-M — No. 011 ISSN: 1707-5203 ISBN: 978-0-662-48800-2 Research Paper Crime and Justice Research Paper Series Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime By Samuel Perreault, Josée Savoie and Frédéric Bédard, Statistics Canada Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0T6 Telephone: 1-800-387-2231 Fax: 1-613-951-6615 Statistics Statistique Canada Canada How to obtain more information For information about this product or the wide range of services and data available from Statistics Canada, visit our website at www.statcan.ca or contact us by e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday: Statistics Canada National Contact Centre Toll-free telephone (Canada and the United States): Inquiries line 1-800-263-1136 National telecommunications device for the hearing impaired 1-800-363-7629 Fax line 1-877-287-4369 Depository Services Program inquiries line 1-800-635-7943 Depository Services Program fax line 1-800-565-7757 Local or international calls: Inquiries line 1-613-951-8116 Fax line 1-613-951-0581 Information to access the product This product, catalogue no. 85-561-M, is available for free in electronic format. To obtain a single issue, visit our website at www.statcan.ca and select “Publications.” Standards of service to the public Statistics Canada is committed to serving its clients in a prompt, reliable and courteous manner. To this end, the Agency has developed standards of service which its employees observe in serving its clients. To obtain a copy of these service standards, please contact Statistics Canada toll free at 1-800-263-1136. The service standards are also published on www.statcan.ca under “About us” > “Providing services to Canadians.” Crime and Justice Research Paper Series Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime by Samuel Perreault, Josée Savoie and Frédéric Bédard, Statistics Canada Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada © Minister of Industry, 2008 All rights reserved. The content of this electronic publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, and by any means, without further permission from Statistics Canada, subject to the following conditions: that it be done solely for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review or newspaper summary, and/or for non-commercial purposes; and that Statistics Canada be fully acknowledged as follows: Source (or “Adapted from”, if appropriate): Statistics Canada, year of publication, name of product, catalogue number, volume and issue numbers, reference period and page(s). Otherwise, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, by any means—electronic, mechanical or photocopy—or for any purposes without prior written permission of Licensing Services, Client Services Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0T6. June 2008 Catalogue no. 85-561-M No. 011 Frequency: Occasional ISSN 1707-5203 ISBN 978-0-662-48800-2 Ottawa Cette publication est disponible en français (no 85-561-M no 011 au catalogue) Statistics Canada Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime Acknowledgements The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) produced this research paper with the financial assistance of the National Crime Prevention Centre at Public Safety Canada. It wishes to express its deep appreciation to Montréal’s police service and urban planning unit for their assistance in conducting this study. The author wishes to thank Colleen Thompson, Danielle Baum, Judith Côté and Suzane Tremblay for their work in editing and preparing the document. Note of appreciation Canada owes the success of its statistical system to a long-standing partnership between Statistics Canada, the citizens of Canada, its businesses, governments and other institutions. Accurate and timely statistical information could not be produced without their continued cooperation and goodwill. 4 Catalogue no. 85-561-M No. 011 Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime Table of contents Acknowledgements 4 Abstract 6 Introduction 7 Youth crime trends in Montréal 8 Spatial distribution of youth crime in Montréal 10 Violent crime 11 Property crime 13 Drug-related offences 14 Crime involving more than one offender 16 Multivariate analysis 17 Methodology 20 Data 20 Definitions 20 Bibliography 22 Endnotes 24 Cumulative index 25 Catalogue no. 85-561-M No. 011 5 Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime Abstract This study explores the geographic distribution of youth crime on the Island of Montréal. The analysis is based on police-reported crime data from the Incident- based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, 2001 Census data, land-use data from the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal and 2002-2003 school attendance data from the ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport du Québec. A previous study on the geographic distribution of crime on the Island of Montréal (Savoie, Bédard, Collins; 2006) found that crime was not evenly distributed on the island, but somewhat concentrated in a limited number of hot spots. The results of this analysis show that, when youth crime is considered separately, crime is distributed over many small hot spots across the entire island. The multivariate analysis showed that neighbourhood socio-economic characteristics alone could predict only a small proportion of youth crime in Montréal. However, factors such as the presence of a secondary school, commercial zoning and education have a minor impact on both violent crime and property crime. These findings are consistent with those of other studies on youth crime (Jacob, 2006; LaGrange, 1999). Some recent studies (Dupéré et al., 2007; Hay et al., 2006; Simons et al., 2005) suggest that for young people, the influence of some neighbourhood characteristics have an influence primarily through their interaction with family or individual factors. In a survey of self-reported youth delinquency in Toronto, Savoie (2007) noted that some individual and family characteristics were significant risk factors for delinquency among young people. Collecting data on victimization and self-reported delinquency at the neighbourhood-level might be particularly useful for the analysis of youth crime. 6 Catalogue no. 85-561-M No. 011 Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime Introduction Following the research paper entitled “Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal” (Savoie, Bédard and Colins, 2006), this report is the second phase of the spatial analysis of police-reported crime data for Montréal. This study, funded by the National Crime Prevention Centre of Public Safety Canada, focuses in particular on the spatial distribution of youth crime. The maps presented in this study provide a visual overview of the places where youth crime is concentrated and of its associated characteristics; hence it may prove to be an important tool in developing strategies to prevent and combat crime among young people. Previous spatial analyses of police-reported crime in other cities conducted by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (Fitzgerald et al., 2004; Wallace et al., 2006; Savoie et al., 2006; Savoie, 2008) showed that crime was not distributed evenly in a municipality. In addition, the rate of police-reported crime in neighbourhoods was shown to be associated with various socio-economic, demographic and land-use factors. This report provides a picture of the major trends in youth crime in Montréal. It analyzes the spatial distribution of youth crime and the neighbourhood factors that affect this distribution. In addition, the results obtained for youth crime are compared with Savoie’s (2006) observations concerning total crime on the Island of Montréal. Readers wanting detailed information on the methodologies used must refer to the report: Neighbourhood characteristics and the distribution of crime on the Island of Montréal (Savoie et al., 2006). Catalogue no. 85-561-M No. 011 7 Neighbourhood Characteristics and the Distribution of Crime on the Island of Montréal: Additional Analysis on Youth Crime Youth crime trends in Montréal1,2 Montréal has a lower youth crime rate than the Canadian average and the Quebec average. In fact, the Montréal census metropolitan area (CMA),3 which includes Montréal and its suburbs, has a lower youth delinquency rate than any other CMA in Canada except the City of Québec CMA. Nevertheless, between 1996 and 2006 the trends in youth crime on the Island of Montréal remained similar to those observed for the province of Quebec and for Canada as a whole: a general downward trend attributable to a sharp decline in property crime (Chart 1). Violent and drug-related incidents were up slightly, in particular because of an increase in level 1 and 2 assaults and cannabis possession, but their number has been falling since the early 2000s. Chart 1 Crime rate trend on the Island of Montréal, 1996 to 2006 rate per 100,000 population rate per 100,000 population 7,000 7,000 6,000 6,000 Total 5,000 5,000 4,000 4,000 3,000 3,000 Property crimes 2,000 2,000 Violent crimes 1,000 1,000 Drug-related offences 0 0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, UCR2.2. On the other hand, the proportion of apprechended adolescents who were formally charged was higher in Montréal than in Quebec or Canada as a whole, especially for drug-related incidents (Chart 2). In 2006, for example, 70% of the young people apprehended in Montréal in connection with drug-related incidents were formally charged, compared with 31% for the province of Quebec.
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