Data Update 2
Lead
Canada has seen a considerable drop in violent crimes from 2006-2010. Most notably, major provinces like British Columbia have seen a decrease of over 10% in just four years.
Excel Workbook Link & Explanation
This Excel workbook contains raw data on all violent crimes, reported and committed in Canadian provinces from 2006-2010. For my research, I have included a small slice indicating the percent change from the year 2006 to the year 2010. The results are based on actual incidents committed over the last four years.
Original Dataset Link
The original dataset was collected from CANSIM: Canadian socioeconomic database from Statistics Canada. The full breadth of this data allows you to view all incident-based crime statistics and is detailed by the violation from 1998-2016. For the purpose of this assignment, I've utilized the add/remove data tab to confine my data to violent criminal code violations from 2006-2010.
News Story and Brief Summary
An article, written in 2011 by National Post stated that "According to Statistics Canada, every province reported a decrease in violent crime except Newfoundland and Labrador". My data shows a steady decrease in many major Canadian provinces like British Columbia. In terms of violent crimes, which is what my data is focused on, the National Post reported that "There were fewer homicides, attempted murders, serious assaults, and robberies across Canada in 2010, according to a Statistics Canada report." This article uses the falling crime rate to clarify that, although statistics show that violent crime related offenses are down in most provinces it's important for the NDP to continue to fund crime prevention programs, youth-related programs, and front-line police officers for longterm, linear results. What this article is trying to convey is that despite the continuous drop in crime, the outdated Conservative party continues to spend upwards of over a billion dollars annually on the federal prison system. "NDP Public Safety critic Jasbir Sandhu said, the Conservative crime agenda is an outdated American model and a huge cost to taxpayers." In conclusion, this article uses CANSIM data on criminal violations to indicate to the public that despite crime being down considerably, Steven Harper and the Conservative party feel it's just to use an excess amount of taxpayers money to fund federal prisons in Canada.
The lead works extremely well and overall summarizes the main findings of your data. I also felt that, although politically, the summary of the news story helped explain that the a lot of the drop was contributed to crime prevention programs and that the funding to those programs should continue in order to continue to decrease violent crime. Overall, a really solid way to analyze the data and find the story needing to tell.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to learn that overall (Newfoundland and Labrador aside) Canada's violent crime rates are steadily decreasing. I personally think that the reason why I am slightly surprised has a lot to do with the role that the media plays in reporting crime. It is too bad that the data is not available from 2010-2016 to see if the trend continues.
ReplyDeleteYou have a good and interesting lead. This is an interesting topic and the article which you selected does a good job of examining the reasons behind the reduced crime rate. It would be interesting to see how this compares to current crime rates.
ReplyDeleteI like that your lead correlates really well with your article. I also like that your slice of data is concise and to the point, demonstrating the percentage decreases over the four years you decided to examine.
ReplyDeleteYeah, your slice isn't all that helpful. It really just comes across as a bunch of random numbers, because there's nothing else there to put them into context. Including the column of the names of the countries, as well as the '06 and '10 columns, would have made it much clearer.
ReplyDeleteI was not aware that Canada had seen a drop in violent crimes from 2006-2010. It would be interesting to see if violent crimes continued to decrease through out Canada or if they increased after 2010.
ReplyDeleteAisha: You've chosen a serious topic, found some solid data, and summarized it concisely. You're on the right track. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI think your lead is quite strong and highlights the important information right away. You also did a good job of breaking down everything that you discovered through your research and explaining the support article you found.
ReplyDelete