Why is crime in Surrey so high?

For someone who has moved to Surrey (and BC) recently I just find it odd that the crime rate is so high in GVA and more so in Surrey.

Have a look at this http://www.macleans.ca/worst-cities/

or http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/11692/tbl/csivalue-igcvaleurs-2011-eng.htm

 

Some areas of Vancouver are like that too. Quite often, police close down entire city blocks in certain areas, chasing, hunting down criminals.

eg - Kingsway, Downtown Eastside/East Hastings, Southeast Marine.

Seems wherever you get low rent districts with few restrictions on reference checks, they often have problems with domestic violence, guns, drugs & criminals congregate there because they're not accepted anywhere else.

 

Mostly brown people live in surrey.

 

... interesting. i got hit with WAY more crime in vancouver than i ever did living in surrey. or any other place for that matter. in fact, i've been hit with major crime originating from vancouver when i don't even live there ...

 

Yeah I was talking to a guy who works in an alarm security company and he tells me these stats are not always correct e.g. he mentions property crime is high in burnaby but it isn't reported. So maybe Surrey looks worse than it really is?

And from the little I know .. mostly brown people don't get involved in major crime (of course there are exceptions).

 

Working class families and new refugees settle south of the Fraser because Vancouver/Burnaby/Richmond is too expensive. Surrey's affordability which means on average lower income and lower levels of education. Higher rates of poverty means more crime.

The region is also growing rapidly so existing social/medical infrastructure and law enforcement probably has difficulty keeping up compared to VPD which is well funded. You'll notice that a lot of the resources that exist for the poor, mentally ill and addicts are concentrated in the DTES in Vancouver. People outside of the Downtown Eastside have more difficulty accessing help. A lot of addicts and criminals that I've worked with can't take time off work to commute to Vancouver and some of them don't like going to the DTES because it's triggering for them.

Mental health and addiction support is huge. Less funding towards mental health leads to more crime.