CityNews Exclusive: One quarter of Toronto residents believe their personal safety is at risk

By News Staff

One quarter of Toronto voters agree their personal safety is at risk in Toronto, an exclusive CityNews poll found, and that’s a small increase from a year ago.

The poll, which was conducted by Forum Research between August 8 and 10 among a randomly selected sample of 864 Toronto voters, found that 24 per cent of us don’t feel safe. In April of 2015, that number was 21 per cent.

However, two-thirds (or 67 per cent of us), do not agree, and a further nine per cent have no opinion about their personal safety.

“We have all read the news and counted the stabbings and shootings, so it is not surprising that Torontonians think violent crime is on the increase, whether that is the case or not,” said Lorne Bozinoff, the founder and president of Forum Research.

Broken down by age, the people who feel most at risk are those 45 to 54 years old (33 per cent), those who are the least wealthy (38 per cent), those that live in Scarborough (29 per cent), mothers of children under 18 (35 per cent), the least educated (33 per cent) and Doug Ford voters (40 per cent).

In the same survey, Toronto residents were also asked if they had ever been the victim of violent crime. Fewer than a fifth of Toronto voters, or 17 per cent of us, have been violent crime victims, such as a mugging or assault or robbery at gunpoint.

This is relatively stable since last year -– in April of 2015, that number was 15 per cent; and even going back four years ago: In April of 2012, the number was 18 per cent.

Those who have experienced violent crime are likely to be the least wealthy (23 per cent), the least educated (28 per cent), those who commute by bicycle (23 per cent) and Olivia Chow voters (22 per cent).

While 17 per cent of Toronto residents have been the victim of a violent crime, according to the Forum Poll, the data collected by Statistics Canada shows a different picture for the nation as whole.

There were 2.2. million incidents of violent victimization, which includes sexual assault, robbery and physical assault, in 2014. That’s 76 violent incidents per 1,000 people aged 15 years and older, or 7.6 per cent.

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