|
|
| Canadian Taxi Driver Homicides, 1917-2007 |
|
|
2B. Year and Decade
Contents
The charts and tables in this section illustrate apparent trends in taxi driver homicides between 1917 and 2007. Unfortunately, taxi driver homicides in Canada have been tracked only since 1991 (see Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics). Homicide data for other provinces is spotty (see Data Sources). As a result, identification of homicides prior to 1991 has for the most part relied on the hit-and-miss discovery of individual cases in newspaper reports and other documents. Our figures for the number of attacks prior to 1991 are therefore undoubtedly incomplete.
1. Taxi Driver Homicides by Decade
Chart 2B-1 and Table 2B-2 show the number of homicides (total and Category A by decade:
The decade 1991-2000 is the first decade for which the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics reported data on taxi driver homicides. The immediately preceding decades (1981-1990 and 1971-1980)show homicide levels almost as high as that for 1991-2000. But the pre-1991 decades reflect data based on cases that were discovered through media reports and other sources. It is unlikely that all homicides for these decades have been discovered, so the actual numbers are probably higher than the table indicates.
2. Taxi Driver Homicides: Ten-Year Totals
Chart 2B-3 shows rolling ten-year totals for homicides (total and Category A. The chart smooths out the annual fluctuations and seems reveal an underlying trend.
If chart 2B-3 is is valid, taxi driver homicides apparently leveled off at 25 for the three decades from 1994-2003, 1995-2004 and 1996-2007 -- down from a high of 43 homicides for the period 1984-1993 -- and seem to have dropped again for the decade 1997-2007. In light of the lack of comprehensive data prior to 1991, the peak in homicides for the decade 1945-1954, approaching the 1994-2007 levels, seems strange considering that Canada's population was so much smaller then. Perhaps the higher rate for homicides is partly due to fewer competing opportunities for crime at a time when convenience stores and other late-night targets did not exist. Chart 2B-3 comprises a total of 164 victims. Each dot represents a ten-year total of homicides, or as many as 43 deaths. It is worth keeping in mind that each of these unassuming little dots therefore represents a small world of heartbreak and anguish. Table 2B-4 below provides the numbers used to create Chart 2B-3.
The Annual columns show the total number of homicides ("All") and the number of Category A homicides ("A") for each year from 1917 to 2007. The 10-Year columns show the same information for the previous ten years.
3. Worst Years for Homicides
Table 2B-5 shows, in descending order, the number of homicides (total and Category A) by year:
|
