Hamilton Police reports decrease in youth crime in 2021

A Hamilton Police Service (HPS) report has revealed crime involving youths continues to decline in the city, mirroring a trend across Canada over the past decade.

The 2021 Youth Services Annual Report marked an overall decrease of 13.8 per cent in crime among those aged 12 through 17 year over year, the fourth annual decline over as many years.

“I’d like to think that some of that has to do with some of the engagement we’ve done with some of our community partners like the YMCA and the John Howard Society,” Deputy Chief Ryan Diodati told HPS board members on Tuesday.

Diodati said provincial grants, tied to just under $1.5 million, have been secured to further enhance youth engagement in 2022, which includes additional an anti-human trafficking youth worker and court support worker.

Overall in 2021, 781 youths were connected to offences last year, compared to the 907 reported in 2020. However, more than half of the those, 449, did not face charges for infractions. The 332 who did, represented a 9.2 per cent decrease in that metric compared to the 366 charged in 2020.

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Youth-involved crime across the country also dropped in 2021, down 23 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

Males continue to be the biggest offenders in Hamilton accounting for 73.5 per cent of the 332 youths charged.

Youth drug offences decreased by 17.7 per cent and property crimes slipped to 15.6 per cent.

Violent Crimes are up among youth, 2.3 per cent with 352 tied to incidents. In 2020, 344 youths were involved in violent crimes.

Of the 352 that involved youth, 135 were charged while 61.6 per cent received an extrajudicial measure – no further action, warning, caution or diversion.

Level one assaults that cause little to no physical harm to victims are the most frequent offence with 115 youth involved during 2021. Just over 77 per cent or 89 accused of that did not face charges. Of 94 Hamilton public school calls for service, 57 were tied to level one youth assaults.

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Crimes in the disputes and disturbances category saw the largest drop, 68.1 per cent compared to 2021. There were 44 individuals connected with those offences in 2020 compared to 14 in 2021. None of the 14 youth faced charges.

Possession of stolen property over $5,000 had largest year over year increase, 100 per cent, moving from 10 to 20 cases. Most of the charges, 14, were issued to males while just four were directed at females.