|
Post by Nashville Predators on Mar 13, 2008 21:47:50 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by FincanSJGM on Mar 13, 2008 22:31:55 GMT -5
Its no surprise with Edmonton up there. While Edmonton has never been a crime free city (far from it) it has only gotten worse with the Oil boom. Edmonton and Calgary have experienced different aspects of this. Calgary has the Oil headquarters, sales etc its mostly business. Most of the Oil though is in the North and a lot of these people live in Edmonton/have moved to Edmonton from other provinces/live out of town but use Edmonton as a gateway.
The Population of this city is growing like crazy. It is also very young, and over-represented in the males aged 18-24 and 25-30 which statistically are two of the 3 age groups that are most prone to crime, and in particular violent crime (including the 1st most prone in 18-25 year olds). There is a huge disparity between the male and female populations in this age group in Edmonton (some estimates are 4-1 males outnumber females in Edmonton, but that seems high). On top of the that, the people that are being attracted to Edmonton/Northern Alberta are for the most part blue collar and uneducated who are again more prone to crime and violent crime. Add to that all the money floating around and increasing drug use and you will have a high crime rate. I dont go out at all here unless I am with a lot of friends.
Add it all up and you have an overpopulation of young sexually unfulfilled uneducated roughneck males with lots of cash to burn, many who dont know what to do with this money and they are doped and liquored up far too often.
Then there is the disparity between the haves and have nots in Alberta. There is a lot of media attention given to the boom and its benefits, but it definitely has a dark side. The cost of living has skyrocketed and there has been a resulting increase in homelessness (both visitble and invisible has skyrocketed) so there are more people just struggling to get by who might turn to other means for income. Its well known that poverty breeds crime and the underpriveledged class in Edmonton is growing, despite the rapid increase in the average standard of living over the last 5 years. Blue collar males might have more, but what about single moms and the boys that they are raising, where do they turn? Often gangs (which is also a growing phenomenon in Edmonton).
This relates to the increased drug use and drug trade in the last few years (there has always been druges but there is more now---> even the crack is "dirtier" in that its all meth, how sad is that that having more crack would be preferable)
All of this together leads to higher crime rates. There are other factors too but I just need to say that they dont call it Stabmonton for nothing.
|
|
|
Post by B-Hawks on Mar 14, 2008 13:21:29 GMT -5
The way they did it is flawed.. you can't do it off per capita.. numbers get skewed.. how Toronto ends up so far down is wrong. I'd rather walk on the majority of the streets of the city ahead of it at night than TO.
|
|