Increases in crime rates and the Crime Severity Index (CSI) have been observed across various communities in British Columbia, many in Northwest, B.C., according to Statistics Canada.

Some key factors contributing to these increases include breaking and entering, distribution of child pornography, mischief, fraud, assault, and drug trafficking. The CSI for Prince Rupert saw a significant increase from 175.65 to 189.5, while Kitimat and Terrace also experienced smaller, but notable increases in their CSIs.

Specific crimes driving these increases vary by location, such as murder in Prince Rupert and a case of conspiracy to commit murder in Smithers. Overall, crime is rising everywhere, with smaller communities being more affected due to their smaller populations, making changes more noticeable, according to a crime analyst with Statistics Canada, Warren Silver.

"The Crime Severity Index tells us not only about the volume of crime, but also how serious that crime is and whether the seriousness is going up or not," Silver said. "So we use weights to assign different weights to different types of crime based on criminal code sections. If you're only looking at volume, the one that you have 100 bicycle thefts would look like there's more crime, there's a higher crime rate there because there's more incidents. However, we know that a homicide is so much more serious than bicycle thefts. So the Crime Severity Index or the CSI takes into account both the severity and the volume."

Although municipal council in the region have been lobbying the federal Government for reforms to the bail system and the criminal code, so far those calls have gone largely unanswered.

Listen to the full episode below.