The interactive map below digs a little deeper into how prominent child pornography possession is in Ontario’s largest cities. The illustration compares the rates per 100,000 people of child porn violations between each urban centre in 2016. Notably, Toronto (the largest city) has the lowest rate at 3.48, while Guelph has the highest, at 23.43. Guelph Police Service’s Annual Report for 2016 states that cases of child pornography increased from 2015. This is newsworthy because it may hint at some sort of criminal anomaly within Ontario cities, or may allude to the Guelph Police Service’s efficiency in tracking child porn offenders – though these speculations are not conclusive, by any means. In 2015, the federal government also introduced the Tougher Penalties for Child Predators Act, which increased the mandatory minimum penalties for crimes, which could lead to an increase in the number of incidents captured in the data for Guelph and other Ontario cities.
Child Pornography Violations: Rates per 100,000 persons in Ontario’s largest urban centres, 2016
Source: Statistics Canada – CANSIM 252-0077
Guelph has the highest rate of child pornography incidents per 100,000 people, compared with the rates in Ontario’s other large urban centres. Source: Statistics Canada. CANSIM 252-0077.