Amigos,
Infelizmente as estatisticas mostram que, para criancas e jovens, a cidade de Gatineau lidera o ranking de crimes e violencia em todo o Québec.
Vejam a matéria do jornal Ottawa Citizen de hoje (8 de abril de 2010).
Jean Roberth Souza
For youth, Ottawa safer than Gatineau, study finds
Rate of crimes against children also among highest in Quebec
BY DAVE ROGERS, THE OTTAWA CITIZENAPRIL 8, 2010
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/youth+Ottawa+safer+than+Gatineau+study+finds/2775746/story.html
Children and youth in Gatineau are 50 per cent more likely to be crime victims than young people in Ottawa, according to a Statistics Canada study of violent crime.
But both communities pale in comparison to the rate in Saint John, N.B., which reported 2,075 child crime victims per 100,000 people, the highest in Canada.
The newly released study by Lucie Ogrodnik of the Canadian Centre For Justice Statistics showed there were 1,032 incidents of violent crime and sexual assault involving children and youths under 18 per 100,000 people in Gatineau in 2008.
That compares to 673 victims of crime per 100,000 people in Ottawa.
In 2008, more than 75,000 Canadian children and youths were crime victims, according to the study. That means that 1,111 out of every 100,000 people were victims of violence.
The rate of crime against children in Gatineau was among the highest in Quebec.
Montreal reported a rate of 928 crimes per 100,000 people, Trois-Rivières 938 and Sherbrooke 760 crimes per 100,000. Only Saguenay reported a higher rate of 1,141 child victims for every 100,000 people.
The crimes reported included physical assault, sexual assault, homicide, attempted homicide, robbery, extortion, criminal harassment, uttering threats, forcible confinement, kidnapping and abduction. The next study of crime statistics involving child victims is to be published in July.
The study showed that Ottawa was among the safest cities for children in Canada. Gatineau was slightly better than the national average. Guelph had 656 youthful crime victims per 100,000 people, the lowest rate in Canada.
Lucie Ogrodnik said more Gatineau children than Ottawa youngsters may be listed as crime victims because the reporting rate could be higher on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River.
"In places like Gatineau, people may be more aware that these things need to be reported to the police," Ogrodnik said. "Or this may be an example of increased victimization and increased crime reporting.
"We know from victimization surveys that young people just don't report any kind of criminal activity to the police. Children who are younger than 10 just don't realize that they should be reporting offences to the police."
Ogrodnik said it is difficult to conclude that Gatineau children are more likely to be crime victims because of different income levels or their parents' unemployment.
"We have tried to look at whether there are links between levels of income or education and victimization and there don't seem to be any," Ogrodnik said. "People can become victims no matter which walk of life they come from.
"There could be some gang-related activity that was happening in Gatineau in 2008 that didn't occur in Ottawa. We are not quite sure."
Ogrodnik said physical assault was the most common crime committed against children followed by sexual assault. She said that the people committing the assaults were usually family members, friends or acquaintances.
Males between 15 and 17 were the most frequent victims of robbery, another common crime against children. Ogrodnik said the people committing the robberies were typically other teenagers or young adults 18 to 24.
The study listed 41,926 physical assaults, 13,641 sexual assaults, 8,713 cases of uttering threats, 6,845 robberies, 59 homicides and 57 attempted homicides involving children and youths across Canada in 2008.
Jacques Dionne, a Université du Québec en Outaouais psychologist who has 40 years of experience with adolescents, said only part of the difference in crime rates against children can be explained by different attitudes toward crime in the two cities.
"In the Outaouais region, the reporting of crime to the Director of Youth Protection (the Quebec equivalent of the Children's Aid Society) is among the highest in the province," Dionne said. "More people are likely to report child abuse than in other parts of Quebec.
"It is clear that part of the difference is related to poverty. Economic conditions are worse in Gatineau than in Sherbrooke or Quebec City. Some people here have good incomes because they are federal or provincial civil servants, but others are living on welfare."
The rate of crime against children in Gatineau is partly related to unemployment, lack of education and the stress that families feel, Dionne said.
This may explain why relatively affluent and well-educated Ottawa appears to be one of the safer cities for children in the country.
Dionne said the Statistics Canada study on violence against children and youths is based on police reports and does not provide an interpretation of differing crime rates. He said more studies are need to determine why the rates of violence against children differ across Canada.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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