Crime In Rural Areas Up In 2022 Due To Jump In Violent Offences

While the overall crime index has taken a minor drop in Moose Jaw the same cannot be said about the areas around the city patrolled by the RCMP.

Led by a jump in violent crime and a minor increase in non-violaent crime overall crime is up in areas under the responsibility of Moose Jaw’s RCMP detachment.

In 2022 the Crime Severity Index (CSI) was 57.24 compared to 55.49 in 2021. An increase of 3.15 percent.

It is still a far cry 2020 when the CSI jumped to 81.39 or 40.98 percent from 2019.

OVERALL CRIME SEVERITY INDEX NUMBERS FOR RURAL AREAS PATROLLED BY THE MOOSE JAW RCMP DETACHMENT FROM 2017 TO 2022 - COURTESY STATISTICS CANADA

That’s the findings from Statistics Canada as they have released the Crime Severity Index (CSI) numbers for 2022.

The CSI’s are indexes where crimes are given weighted numbers based upon their severity. It works on the premise that not all crimes are equal in their severity.

The CSI takes into account both of volume and the severity of crimes.

For instance a person who steals your shovel under a system simply counting the number of crimes would be equal to the criminal then using the shovel to beat a neighbour with it.

Under the CSI reporting system both crimes are not equal and are given different weights.

As in Moose Jaw the Violent Crime Severity Index (VCSI) in rural areas is up by 13.81 percent in 2022 versus 2021.

It needs to be noted percentage wise there was a decrease in the VCSI in 2020 from 2019 of 20.39 percent.

VIOLENT CRIME SEVERITY INDEX NUMBERS FOR RURAL AREAS PATROLLED BY THE MOOSE JAW RCMP DETACHMENT FROM 2017 TO 2022 - COURTESY STATISTICS CANADA

Although it went up in 2022 versus 2021 the Non Violent Crime Index (NVCI) the rise was negligible.

The NVCSI rose from 61.17 in 2021 to 61.29 in 2022 or an increase of 0.20 percent.

VIOLENT CRIME SEVERITY INDEX NUMBERS FOR RURAL AREAS SERVICED BY THE MOOSE JAW RCMP RURAL DERACHMENY FROM 2017 TO 2022 - COURTESY STATISTICS CANADA

It needs to be noted that over the six year period of 2017 - 2023 the highest crime severity index for both non-violent and violent offences was in 2020 when there was a massive increase in crime.