Crime severity index dipped in Manitoba last year, StatsCan says

The volume and severity of police-reported crime in Manitoba decreased nearly four per cent in 2024 from the previous year, with a slightly larger drop specifically in Winnipeg, according to Statistics Canada.

The agency released its annual crime severity index Tuesday, which measures changes in the level of all Criminal Code violations from year to year, including both violent (assaults, homicides and robberies) and non-violent crimes (property and drug offences).

The overall change in Manitoba (-3.75 per cent) and Winnipeg (-4.28 per cent) is on par with that of Canada as a whole (-4.08 per cent).

However, the changes nationally for violent and non-violent crimes were quite different.

Nationally, the change was driven by a large drop in non-violent crime of six per cent, whereas the agency said violent crime decreased just one per cent.

In Manitoba, there was a decline of five per cent for non-violent crime and 2.25 per cent for violent crime.

But for Winnipeg, the change in violent crimes was actually more significant. It fell by five per cent, while the non-violent index went down four per cent.

It was the second consecutive annual drop in the index for Winnipeg, after a dramatic increase of nearly 20 per cent in 2022, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Michael Weinrath, a criminal justice professor at the University of Winnipeg, said any drop in crime stats is a positive development, but Manitoba and Saskatchewan still tend to lead the country when it comes to serious and violent crimes.

"We've seen an overall increase in crime over the last few years," Weinrath said

Crime rates both in Manitoba and the rest of Canada are still higher than they were a decade ago, he said.

"We see, you know, trends going up and down," he said. "Although that data is promising … it remains to be seen whether this will be, you know, a positive downward trend."

Homicides, shoplifting cases up

The homicide rate in Manitoba increased from 2023 to 2024, while it fell nationally. Statistics Canada said the number of homicides in Manitoba went up, from 75 to 94, a jump of 19 homicides for a 25 per cent increase.

Nationally, the numbers went down by eight (796 to 788). The rate went from 1.99 homicides per 100,000 people to 1.91, a nearly four per cent decrease. Winnipeg's homicide rate fell slightly, with 43 deaths recorded in the city compared to 46 in 2023, Statistics Canada said.

A rise in shoplifting was the largest offsetting contribution to the change in the national index in 2024, the federal agency said. Incidents of shoplifting of $5,000 or under were up for a fourth year in a row nationally, with the rate going up by 13.64 per cent in 2024.

In Winnipeg, the rate was up 36.48 per cent, with 8,562 incidents recorded in the city. It's the third straight year the city has recorded an increase of more than 36 per cent, following a massive drop during the pandemic.

There were 10,619 police-reported shoplifting incidents in the province as a whole in 2024.

"It's something that, you know, we'd like to see, I think, more done about," Weinrath said. "And so whether that's police being persistent, you know, in going after … people who do these things over and over again, or …whether, you know, we try to put more resources into mental health and drug addiction."

Youth crime index

In Manitoba, the index for youth crimes declined nearly 10 per cent, with violent crimes dropping more than 11 per cent and non-violent crimes falling by five per cent.

Nationally, the decline was just over three per cent, with violent crimes dropping four per cent and non-violent ones by 1.5 per cent.

Those numbers aren't broken down for Winnipeg.

Data for specific crimes such as breaking and entering, child pornography, motor vehicle theft, sexual assault, extortion, robbery, hate crime, attempted murder, aggravated assault and more can be searched through Statistics Canada's CSI tables.

Homicide data is further broken down into spousal, gang-related, gender, Indigenous identity and the methods used.