Summary: Declining Homicide Rates In Canada
Significant Contributions #3
Discussion Group 18, week 12
SOC*2760 Homicide
Miranda Dunsmuir (070988)
Post One
Authored by: Miranda Dunsmuir
Authored on: Apr 4, 2013 8:26 PM
Subject: Declining Homicide Rates in Canada
The homicide rates in Canada have been steadily dropping over the past decades, namely, a trend has been noted since the 1990‘s. Although there is a rapidly fluctuating population that can sometimes alter homicide statistics, an overall trend has been significantly noted.There have been various reasons suggested for why these rates are steadily dropping. I will start this post by giving a few statistics on the declining homicide …show more content…
I liked that you mentioned the decreasing amount of hate crime and racism. I don’t think I have seen that in a post thus far, although there has been mention of the further development of equality in Canada. I would like to expand on your point about hate crimes and murders. According to the Davies text, a hate crime is defined as a crime that is motivated by, “hatred, bias, or prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation of another individual or group of individuals.” According to statistics Canada the amount of violent hate crimes have dropped in the recent years, and although this may not significantly affect the declining homicide statistics, it still does have an impact. I mentioned in my last post that the Ouimet reading highlights the fact that while our population is aging, the most crime prone group, being teenagers and young adults, is becoming smaller. This group peaked and dropped in the 80’s. I believe that this might have something to do with the decline in hate crimes. As time goes on and our citizens become more cultured and accepting (seen with women and with different races), our rates of homicide have been dropping. This means, that although homicide is still being committed, the targets are not the same. It is interesting to note that, even with an increasing number of immigrants coming into Canada, the number of hate crimes are dropping …show more content…
Crime is not uniform, nor are the individuals living within each society. We need to find ways to reduce crime that reaches not only a specific demographic, but the population at large. Can you think of any policies that may be difficult to implement because it can have two different outcomes?
-Miranda Dunsmuir
Davies, Kim (2008). “The Murder Book: Examining Homicide”. Pearson Education Inc, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Miron, Jeffrey. “Violence and the U.S. Prohibitions of Drugs and Alcohol.” The National Bureau of Economic Research. Massachusetts (1999), Online http://www.nber.org/papers/w6950.pdf?new_window=1
Serran, G., Firestone, P. “Intimate Partner Homicide: A review of the male proprietariness and the self-defense theories.” Aggression and Violent Behavior. (2004). Vol. 9, pp.1-15.
Discussion Group 18, week 12
SOC*2760 Homicide
Miranda Dunsmuir (070988)
Post One
Authored by: Miranda Dunsmuir
Authored on: Apr 4, 2013 8:26 PM
Subject: Declining Homicide Rates in Canada
The homicide rates in Canada have been steadily dropping over the past decades, namely, a trend has been noted since the 1990‘s. Although there is a rapidly fluctuating population that can sometimes alter homicide statistics, an overall trend has been significantly noted.There have been various reasons suggested for why these rates are steadily dropping. I will start this post by giving a few statistics on the declining homicide …show more content…
I liked that you mentioned the decreasing amount of hate crime and racism. I don’t think I have seen that in a post thus far, although there has been mention of the further development of equality in Canada. I would like to expand on your point about hate crimes and murders. According to the Davies text, a hate crime is defined as a crime that is motivated by, “hatred, bias, or prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation of another individual or group of individuals.” According to statistics Canada the amount of violent hate crimes have dropped in the recent years, and although this may not significantly affect the declining homicide statistics, it still does have an impact. I mentioned in my last post that the Ouimet reading highlights the fact that while our population is aging, the most crime prone group, being teenagers and young adults, is becoming smaller. This group peaked and dropped in the 80’s. I believe that this might have something to do with the decline in hate crimes. As time goes on and our citizens become more cultured and accepting (seen with women and with different races), our rates of homicide have been dropping. This means, that although homicide is still being committed, the targets are not the same. It is interesting to note that, even with an increasing number of immigrants coming into Canada, the number of hate crimes are dropping …show more content…
Crime is not uniform, nor are the individuals living within each society. We need to find ways to reduce crime that reaches not only a specific demographic, but the population at large. Can you think of any policies that may be difficult to implement because it can have two different outcomes?
-Miranda Dunsmuir
Davies, Kim (2008). “The Murder Book: Examining Homicide”. Pearson Education Inc, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Miron, Jeffrey. “Violence and the U.S. Prohibitions of Drugs and Alcohol.” The National Bureau of Economic Research. Massachusetts (1999), Online http://www.nber.org/papers/w6950.pdf?new_window=1
Serran, G., Firestone, P. “Intimate Partner Homicide: A review of the male proprietariness and the self-defense theories.” Aggression and Violent Behavior. (2004). Vol. 9, pp.1-15.