Statistics Canada Report on Trends in Reporting Criminal Victimization to Police

Statistics Canada today published a report on Trends in reporting criminal victimization to police, 1999 to 2009.

Among the main highlights:

"Reporting criminal victimization to police was generally highest for incidents of break and enter, or theft of a motor vehicle or parts, while police were rarely made aware of spousal violence incidents and sexual assaults, according to data from the 2009 General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization."

"About one in three self-reported victimization incidents came to the attention of police in 2009. Break and enter (54%), as well as theft of motor vehicles or parts (50%) had the highest rates of reporting to police. The proportion of incidents reported to the police climbs to 90%, when considering only completed thefts of a motor vehicle, that is excluding attempts and thefts of motor vehicle parts."

"Police, however, were seldom called for sexual assaults committed by someone other than a spouse, making it the offence with the highest level of underreporting. Almost 90% of sexual assaults by a non-spousal perpetrator were never reported to police. Underreporting was most pronounced for unwanted sexual touching, with 93% of incidents going unreported."