Drug Related Crime in Inner City Winnipeg

According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba had the second highest provincial crime rate in 2006.  The largest portion of that crime occurred within the inner city of Winnipeg.  Various studies have shown that higher rates of crime in Winnipeg’s inner city communities, as well as in other major Canadian inner cities are consistently linked with a short list of contributing factors.  While different studies argue about the order of importance of these factors, they usually include a combination of high rates of poverty, male joblessness, physical environmental deterioration, and low levels of educational attainment.  Studies also conclude that the amount of vacant lots, and commercial land, and residential mobility within a community correlates to the level of crime that it experiences. 

The topic of inner city crime is a vast, and complex issue to tackle.  It is one that requires the attention, and action of many different players such as, police officers, politicians, local residents, and city planners to name a few. For the purpose of this article, I will discuss how drug and alcohol abuse by inner city residents increases the levels of both property, and violent crimes.        

It is difficult to say if people abuse drugs and/or alcohol because they live in an unhealthy environment, or if they live in an unhealthy environment because they abuse drugs and/or alcohol.  Unfortunately I have not come across any reliable research to support one statement over the other.  Either way, it is known that addicts contribute a large amount to the overall crime rate of the inner city.  They often commit crimes within their own community, usually out of convenience, or against people they know.              

Addicts perpetrate criminal activity for two main reasons: to get money for drugs, or because they are on drugs and are not thinking clearly.  Many of the inner city Winnipeg residents interviewed for Steven Kohm’s study on inner city crime and income assistance payments, expressed heighten levels of fear for a few days after a cheque payment.  Those interviewed perceived that everyone in the community knew when government cheques were received, hence making them a target for crime.  One female participant remarked “if you don’t totally isolate yourself every time the cheques come out, the people who spend it all on crack and stuff like that, right away they just attach to anybody who doesn’t, ’cause they figure that’s where the money is”.             

Another reason why addicts turn to crime is because they usually have difficulty attaining employment.  Not just because their addiction may interfere, but because few people are willing to hire them.  The marginalization of addicts from mainstream society also makes it more difficult to get decent housing.  By living in poor conditions such as Main Street residential Hotels, surrounded by an extremely high proportion of people in a similar situation can make it much more difficult to find stability, and may cause individuals and communities to spiral further downwards.             

If one lives in an unstable community, and has a limited access to legal forms of income, it is easy to understand how addicts can get involved in crime.  In Winnipeg’s inner city some of the most common crimes involving drugs include selling drugs, prostitution, car theft, and break and enters.  In Patrik Manzoni’s 2007 study about drug use and crime, he shows that the frequency, and types of crimes committed was related to the type of drugs that were most commonly used.  For example, in Quebec City, where they have a relatively low crime rate, the most commonly used hard drugs are prescription opioids and cocaine.  The use and frequency of use of these drugs tends to be less costly then the use of other drugs such as heroin, meaning the user doesn’t need to have as much money to support their habit.  Main drug use in Winnipeg involves cocaine, and methamphetamines, which are also cheaper drugs.  What may partially explain the difference in drug related crimes between the two cities is that Quebec City addicts are more likely to have permanent housing (74.7%), and access to legal income (52.4%), than addicts in Winnipeg, and places like Vancouver, where only 26% of addicts have permanent housing, and only 14.3% have some form of legal income.

While it is beyond the scope of this article to provide solutions to Winnipegs drug related, inner city crime rate, it can be comfortably concluded that there are a lot of research holes that need to be filled on the topic.  It would be useful to have more research regarding the similarities, and differences between Canadian cities.  If this information was provided in more depth, it would be easier to see, and adapt strategies that have been proven successful in other cities. 

Bibliography             

Kolm, S. A., Routine activities, opportunities and crime in the inner city: Investigating the link between monthly income assistance payments and crime in Winnipeg. January 29, 2007, Available: http://ius.uwinnipeg.ca/WIRA/wira_research.htm            

 Manzoni, P. et. al. (2007). Local drug-crime dynamics in a Canadian multi-site sample of untreated opioid users. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 49(3), 341-373. Retrieved January 29, 2007, from EBSCOHost Full Text database.