SAFETY

Just how safe is Toronto?

While overall violent crime is declining, reported sexual assaults and stabbings are going up:

> The rate of violent crime declined 3% in the Region and 1.8% in the city between 2013 and 2014 (from 1,005 to 987 violent crimes per 100,000 persons in the city).

> There were 57 homicides last year (the same rate as in 2013).

> Reported sexual assaults increased in Toronto in 2014, to 66.8 per 100,000 persons, up 12.5% over 2013, and higher than the provincial (55.7) and national (58.5) averages.

> Incidents of stabbings in Toronto jumped dramatically in 2014. There were 815 stabbings, a 36% increase from the 599 the previous year.

The Region’s youth crime rate continues to decrease:

> The youth crime rate decreased 44.9% between 2004 and 2013.

> It stands at 1,496 per 100,000 youth charged; that rate is 48% lower than the national average (2,447) and 24.4% lower than the provincial average (1,912).

How safe are members of minority and vulnerable populations?

The police practice of “carding” is under review:

> “Carding” is the police practice of stopping people arbitrarily and questioning them, recording personal information, and entering it into an investigative database.

> An investigation into race, policing, and crime found that 25% of those carded in 2013 were black (while fewer than 10% of Torontonians are black). A black person was 17 times more likely than a white person to be carded in the downtown core.

On any given night, approximately 2,000 homeless youth in Toronto are vulnerable to being trafficked:

> Toronto is a known “principle destination” or “transit point” for human trafficking in Canada.

> People under 24 comprise about a third of Canada’s homeless (about 65,000 individuals), and are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population.