P.E.I. sees massive drop in youth crime in 2020

Statistic Canada's Crime Severity Index showed a big decrease on P.E.I. last year, and an even bigger drop for youth.

The indexes, based on police reports of crime, were released Tuesday.

The declines on P.E.I. reflect a national trend, and one that has also been noted internationally and connected to the pandemic.

The overall index had been climbing on P.E.I. and in Canada, while the youth index had been largely flat.

The overall index rose from 45.89 in 2017 to 64.33 in 2019, but fell back to 57.24 in 2020.

The youth index, steady at about 30 since 2016, fell to 18.26 in 2020, a drop of 42 per cent. For most of this century, from 2000 to 2014, the index was above 50.

Breakdowns by incident in the Statistics Canada report showed a large decrease in property crimes, with the rate down 20 per cent.

An international study published in Nature: Human Behaviour found drops in crime rates that were connected to lockdowns, but found the effect lasted only two to five weeks, even if the lockdown was extended.

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