Crime Specialization across the Canadian Provinces

Abstract

For many years, the Canadian provinces have exhibited a pattern where crime rates increase from east to west. Despite this regional pattern of crime being of long standing, there has been little research that attempts to explain it. This present article approaches the problem by calling the pattern itself into question. Using an alternative measure of crime, the location quotient, it is shown that western Canada does not simply have higher levels of all crime in Canada. Rather, while a given individual is more likely to be a victim of a crime in the western provinces, not all crimes are disproportionately higher in the west. It is found that different provinces have different tendencies in relation to particular kinds of crime, and this implies that focusing only on the level of criminal activity may be misleading.