Lee Newton

Crime Scene

I heard earlier this evening that two days ago a family of four was found dead in their home not 15km from where I live. It turned out to be a murder suicide, and the regular news outlets are rolling out their usual coverage. These stories always sound the same to me. An “excellent family” with a “caring father” where “nothing was amiss”. That crap always gets to me. How many of us are familiar with the intimate inner details of the domestic environments of our neighbors anyway? Do we need the sound bites from Betty and Stan who live down the street? I don’t.

My frustration with main stream media aside, the news kinda took my off guard! I mean I know I live in the big city now, and I do a pretty good job of not paying attention to the news, but stories of murder have a way of filtering down through water cooler gossip and the like. I was casting back in my memory and I can remember maybe three other murders since I moved here two years ago. Two of those were also pretty close to where I live, one the killing of a cop, the other a late night stabbing on the subway I take to work every day. I can’t remember hearing of any multiple murders like this one since arriving in Toronto.

This got me to wondering just what the murder rates are in Toronto. I know from J’s cousin in Nova Scotia who’s recently become a police officer, there’s plenty of violence that never gets reported. I’ve heard stories that’ve opened my eyes to just what the cities we live in are really like outside the bubble wrap most of us are fortunate enough to live within. Even so, I was pretty surprised to learn what the murder rates in Toronto were like in 2007. Rosemary Gartner, a criminologist quoted in this National Post article, says before the “Year of the Gun” in 2005, murder rates in Toronto had been a steady 60 killings a year for roughly two decades. Since that fateful year, rates have been on the rise.

It breaks down like this, 82 murders in 2007 works out to roughly 3 murders every two weeks. Every two weeks! I confess I’m guilty of thinking most murders are criminal vs criminal, but I was also shocked to learn 80% of victims tend to know their killer. I assume this knowledge to be intimate or familial. So 1 in 73,000 people give or take become murderers in the GTA every year. Even though 3 murders every two weeks sounds pretty distressing, I think I can continue feeling pretty safe living in the T-dot.