Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?!

Stephen Harper recently outlined his government's crime package.  It's about what you'd expect: mandatory minimums, getting tough on drugs, with a good dose of moral panic/fear-mongering thrown in for good measure.

Did I just accuse him of moral panic?  Why yes, yes indeed.  To quote:

"Speaking at a conference of the Canadian Professional Police Association, Mr. Harper said a rise in violent crime is threatening Canada's reputation as a safe and peaceful country."

I know they say it's "lies, damned lies, and statistics," but Mr. Harper probably should hope no one checks with StatsCan about that point.  The 2005 stats aren't out yet, but the 2000-2004 ones are online, and they show that violent crime decreased in 2004, for at least the fifth year in a row.  Granted, the murder rate is up 0.3 per 100,000 from 2003 (when it was the lowest in 35 years), but nearly all other indicators (including total violent crimes, and excepting only the aforementioned homicides and "other crimes of violence") are down from 2003 — when the rates themselves were down 11% from 1993.

Property crimes are also down (2.2% from 2000).  Granted, the total incidents of Criminal Code offences are up from 2000, pushed by "Other Criminal Code offences" (up 19.7%, and classified as offences that are not violent crimes, property crimes, or traffic violations), as also are "Federal statutes" (up 3%, caused by an increase in drug-related charges), and traffic offences (up 1.5%), but those violent crimes?  Still following their continual downwards trend.

So remember: a drop of almost 4% (3.9%, to be exact) over 4 years is equal to an increase.  It's the new math!  Up is down!  Black is white!  Left is right!  Violent crimes are on the rise!

Oh, and the other charts are quite interesting as well.  For some reason this one particularly intrigues me.