The Crime Severity Index measures the seriousness of police-reported crime in Canada from 1998 to 2014. Each criminal offence is weighted based on sentences given, covering Criminal Code violations, drug offences, and Federal Statutes. The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics collects this data through the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, which provides a continuous historical record since 1962.
Use Cases
- Analyze national and provincial crime severity trends based on weighted offence data
- Compare police-reported crime characteristics across provinces based on UCR survey data
- Evaluate the impact of legislative initiatives on crime seriousness based on historical records
- Model resource distribution for police departments based on incident and clearance statistics
Strengths
- Data covers a 17-year time series from 1998 to 2014
- Based on the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, which has a continuous historical record since 1962
- Includes microdata on incident characteristics from the UCR2 'incident-based' survey introduced in 1988
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
- Last updated 2026-04-17 14:48:58.783139; freshness should be verified
Provenance
- Source
- Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS)
- Collection Method
- Police-reported crime statistics collected through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey
- Time Range
- 1998 to 2014
- Geography
- Canada and provinces