OTTAWA (Reuters) - [size=-1]Canada's murder rate dropped to 30-year low last year, and is less than one-third of that in the United States, according to official figures released on Wednesday. [/size]
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Statistics Canada said the murder rate -- 1.73 victims per 100,000 people -- was down 7 percent from 2003, continuing a trend that's been going on for three decades.
By contrast, preliminary figures released two weeks ago showed the U.S. murder rate rose 1.3 percent to 5.6 victims per 100,000, holding at levels similar to those in the late 1960s.
"The (Canadian) homicide rate has generally been declining since the mid-1970s," Statistics Canada said in its daily bulletin. Last year police reported 548 murders, 34 fewer than in 2002.
Canada, which tends to pride itself on being a less violent country than its southern neighbor, has much more restrictive gun control laws than those in many individual U.S. states.
But even so, just under one-third of the murders were committed with a firearm, a similar level to that in previous years, Statscan said. Twenty-six percent of the murders were stabbings, 22 percent were beatings and 12 percent strangulation or suffocation.
The rate was lower than the 1.93 victims per 100,000 people recorded in England and Wales but slightly higher than the figures for France and Australia.
Canadian police said one in every seven homicides in 2003 involved organized crime or street gangs, while only 14 percent of victims were murdered by strangers.
"Consistent with earlier years, two out of every three adults accused of homicide in 2003 had a criminal record. Most had been previously convicted of a violent offense," said Statistics Canada.
Last years' numbers could be skewed by the fact that most of the female victims of an alleged serial killer in the western province of British Columbia were counted in the 2002 figures, when a man was arrested and the women's status changed from "missing."
The new data showed there were 33 fewer murders in British Columbia in 2003 than in 2002, while the number of murdered women across Canada fell by 50.
Pig farmer Robert Pickton is facing trial for 22 murders, and is still under investigation in connection with the disappearance of more than 60 women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside over the past decade
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Statistics Canada said the murder rate -- 1.73 victims per 100,000 people -- was down 7 percent from 2003, continuing a trend that's been going on for three decades.
By contrast, preliminary figures released two weeks ago showed the U.S. murder rate rose 1.3 percent to 5.6 victims per 100,000, holding at levels similar to those in the late 1960s.
"The (Canadian) homicide rate has generally been declining since the mid-1970s," Statistics Canada said in its daily bulletin. Last year police reported 548 murders, 34 fewer than in 2002.
Canada, which tends to pride itself on being a less violent country than its southern neighbor, has much more restrictive gun control laws than those in many individual U.S. states.
But even so, just under one-third of the murders were committed with a firearm, a similar level to that in previous years, Statscan said. Twenty-six percent of the murders were stabbings, 22 percent were beatings and 12 percent strangulation or suffocation.
The rate was lower than the 1.93 victims per 100,000 people recorded in England and Wales but slightly higher than the figures for France and Australia.
Canadian police said one in every seven homicides in 2003 involved organized crime or street gangs, while only 14 percent of victims were murdered by strangers.
"Consistent with earlier years, two out of every three adults accused of homicide in 2003 had a criminal record. Most had been previously convicted of a violent offense," said Statistics Canada.
Last years' numbers could be skewed by the fact that most of the female victims of an alleged serial killer in the western province of British Columbia were counted in the 2002 figures, when a man was arrested and the women's status changed from "missing."
The new data showed there were 33 fewer murders in British Columbia in 2003 than in 2002, while the number of murdered women across Canada fell by 50.
Pig farmer Robert Pickton is facing trial for 22 murders, and is still under investigation in connection with the disappearance of more than 60 women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside over the past decade
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