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BC Crime Statistics - Project Findings


Drug Offences
Many crimes are committed by those who are under the influence of drugs, with a large number of offences involving property crimes. There are a few significant hot spots for non-cannabis drug offences in BC, with Northern Health, Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health authorities all reporting the highest rates of non-cannabis drug offences above 500 per 100,000 population.

Violent Crimes
Violent offences are commonly alcohol related and the rates of violent crime are much higher than those of property crimes or non-cannabis drug offences in BC. The areas in and around Vancouver in the Vancouver Coastal Health authority and New Westminster in the Fraser Health authority have some of the highest rates of violent offences with figures greater than 5 per 1,000 population.

Property Crimes
Property crime is often related to illicit drug use, and many of these types of crimes are committed to obtain money to purchase drugs.

Component Details

Dr. Scott MacdonaldDr. Scott Macdonald
Assistant Director, Center for Addictions Research of BC
Associate Professor, School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria
Phone: (250) 472-5933

Dr. Macdonald, formerly of the London office of the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, is a recognized expert in epidemiological research methods and substance use, and will help support a research program using population health, epidemiology and survey research methods to advance knowledge of the epidemiology of and consequences of alcohol, tobacco and drug use and abuse across the lifespan. On August 1, 2005, an Assistant Director of Research, Dr. Scott Macdonald, joined the Centre for Addictions Research of BC. Dr. Macdonald is a faculty member in the School of Health Information Science at UVic.

Component Summary

The BC Crime Statistics component of the BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project seeks to map out crimes involving alcohol and other drugs across different regions of BC as well as to monitor trends over time. The AOD Monitoring Project collects and organizes multiple streams of data related to risky substance use and associated harms in BC. This project is paving the way for developing a comprehensive national system to collect and compare substance-related trends and harms across the country.