Map of the Week: Violent crime by census tract
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| IAN WILLMS/TORONTO STAR |
Regular readers of this blog will have seen several iterations of words to the effect that a map is being produced because improved tools have made it possible.
When Statistics Canada published a file last year of 2006 crime rates for Toronto broken down by 531 census tracts, it wasn't possible to map it on line, and I more or less forgot about it until this week until I found it in an ideas spreadsheet. (Yes, I have an ideas spreadsheet - doesn't everybody?)
The data is from 2006, but very finely textured. I can only imagine the work involved. The authors explain:
Incidents that were located on the boundaries of many census tracts were divided in that number of census tracts. For example, an incident located on the boundary of 3 census tracts was counted as 0,333 incidents in each of the 3 census tracts.
As far as I can tell, the researchers ended up mapping 26,022 violent crimes. Property crimes were dealt with separately, and will be the subject of a different map.
Also, there was an attempt to relate crime rates to both residents and visitors in an area. One problem with our neighbourhood-based crime maps is that they divide the number of reported crimes in a neighbourhood by the number of residents. I suspect that this overstates the crime rate as experienced by residents in neighbourhoods with many outsiders, like those downtown. It's never been clear to me what to do about the problem other than to flag it for the reader.
Here is a top 20 list:
| 1 | 5350032 | Carlton/Dundas/Jarvis/Parliament |
| 2 | 5350312.05 | SE of Jane/Finch |
| 3 | 5350033 | Queen/Dundas/Jarvis/Parliament |
| 4 | 5350316.05 | NE of Jane/Finch |
| 5 | 5350207 | Off Kipling N of Lake Shore |
| 6 | 5350039 | Queen/Dundas/Spadina/Bathurst |
| 7 | 5350080.02 | Danforth W of Victoria Park to Main |
| 8 | 5350003 | SW Parkdale |
| 9 | 5350248.02 | Martin Grove/Albion Road/Kipling/West Humber |
| 10 | 5350312.02 | SE of Driftwood/Finch |
| 11 | 5350292 | Sheppard/Highbury/Jane/401 |
| 12 | 5350018 | DVP/Eastern/Carlaw/Queen |
| 13 | 5350031 | Gerrard/DVP/Dundas/Parliament |
| 14 | 5350173 | NE of Jane/Eglinton |
| 15 | 5350358.03 | Along Kingston Rd SE of Lawrence |
| 16 | 5350312.04 | SW of Jane/Finch |
| 17 | 5350341.03 | NE of Danforth/Victoria Park |
| 18 | 5350069 | Bain/Pape/DVP/Gerrard (includes Don Jail) |
| 19 | 5350097.01 | NW of Bloor/Dufferin |
| 20 | 5350337 | SW of Midland/Kingston Rd |
A string of neighbourhoods with high violent crime rates stretches south from Jane and Steeles more or less along Black Creek and the railway tracks south to Parkdale.
A large area centred more or less at Lawrence and Bayview has fairly low violent crime rates:
Another area with high violent crime rates starts in the east downtown and stretches east toward and past Victoria Park, with several areas of lower rates.
In an e-mail back-and-forth this week, Statistics Canada explained that the violent crimes tracked were:
Homicides: murders, manslaughters, infanticide
Attempted murders
Assaults
Sexual assaults, sexual offences (invitation to sex. touching, luring via computer, etc.)
Robberies
Criminal negligence causing bodily harm
Firearm offences: use of, discharge, pointing
Forcible confinements, kidnappings, abductions
Criminal harassment, uttering threats, threatening or harassing phone calls
Other violent violations: trafficking in persons, arson causing disregard for human life, intimidation, hostage-taking, incest, voyeurism, etc.
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