Supplement to Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment related to Profiles of Victims of Gang Violence: Analysis of a BC Cohort

Date: December 2022

Program manager: Director, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics
Director General, Heath Justice and Special Surveys

Reference to Personal Information Bank (PIB)

Personal information collected through the Profiles of Victims of Gang Violence: Analysis of a BC Cohort project is described in Statistics Canada's "Statistical Infrastructure Services" Class of Personal Information. The Class of Personal Information refers to records related to statistical infrastructure services (e.g., development of concepts, support for data collection and dissemination activities, provision of advice and technical assistance) offered on a cost-recovery basis to meet the needs of external clients such as other federal government departments.

"Statistical Infrastructure Services" Class of Personal Information (Record number: StatCan SOP 610) is published on the Statistics Canada website under the latest Information about Programs and Information Holdings chapter.

Description of statistical activity

Under the authority of the Statistics ActFootnote1, Statistics Canada has entered into an agreement with British Columbia's integrated anti-gang police force, Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia (CFSEU-BC) to study the effects of gang-related violence within the province of British Columbia. This study will require the submission of personal information from CFSEU-BC that will be used in conjunction with existing Statistics Canada databases, to produce a de-identified and aggregated report, as well as other possible de-identified and aggregated publications. No personal identifiable information from Statistics Canada's databases will be shared with CFSEU-BC or included in any products resulting from the study. The personal information received by CFSEU-BC will be used strictly for this activity. All identifiers will be destroyed as soon as the study is complete, and no identifiable personal information received from CFSEU BC will be retained by Statistics Canada as a result of this study.

This project has been requested by the CFSEU-BC who maintain a gang-related victim repository that includes data for individuals across the province who are the victims of a suspected or confirmed gang-related homicide or attempt homicide. The CFSEU-BC seeks to further understand the profiles of the victims and their trajectories through the justice and other social systems, which will require linkage of the CFSEU-BC cohort to other social data sources held by Statistics Canada.

The CFSEU-BC will be providing Statistics Canada with an extract of Police Records Information Management Environment (PRIME) and Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) data via Statistics Canada's secure data acquisition process, a process that includes but is not limited to the use of the encrypted Electronic File Transfer (EFT) service to place the data on secure Statistics Canada servers which are monitored by active security groups.  The PRIME data will detail information concerning the victims of gang-related homicide and attempted homicide in British Columbia between 2006 and 2020, specifically the events surrounding the incidents of homicide or attempted homicide. This data will contain names; dates of birth; race; and last known address or minimum postal code. The CPIC data will detail the criminal convictions, criminal charges, outstanding warrants and charges, and records of discharge of the victims. The PRIME and CPIC data may contain data on minors.

In order for Statistics Canada to conduct the required analysis, data will be linked to other Statistics Canada datasets through the Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE)Footnote2, including the following datasets:

  • the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS)
  • the Census of Population 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016;
  • the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD)
  • the Employment Insurance Status Vector (EISV)
  • the Integrated Criminal Court (ICCS)
  • the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB)
  • the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS)
  • the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS)
  • the Registered Apprenticeship System (RAIS)
  • the T1 Personal Master File (T1FF)
  • the T4 Summary and T4 Supplementary files (T4Summ and T4Supp)

This will enable the determination of contact between the victim and the criminal justice system, health care system, and employment and social assistance services. A linkage to the Vital Statistics (Deaths) file in the SDLE will be used to validate the linkage of victims of homicide.

Statistics Canada's microdata linkageFootnote3 and related statistical activities were assessed for privacy in the Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE) Privacy Impact AssessmentFootnote4 and Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact AssessmentFootnote5.

Statistics Canada will share the subsequent analysis with the CFSEU-BC in the form of aggregated results and any conclusions drawn compiled into a report, which may be further published in a volume of JuristatFootnote6. Any analysis released outside of Statistics Canada will be fully anonymized and non-confidential, without any direct personal identifiers, which prevents the possibility of identifying individuals. Data used for this project will not be made available in the Research Data Centres nor anywhere outside of Statistics Canada and will be destroyed following the conclusion of the project. 

The personal information elements, method of collection, legal authority for collection, relevant PIB, storage location/system, and purpose of collection are listed in Appendix 1 - Personal Information Elements Table.

Reason for supplement

While the Generic Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) addresses most of the privacy and security risks related to statistical activities conducted by Statistics Canada, this supplement is being carried out due to the sensitive nature of data surrounding victimization. The supplement also emphasizes that none of the data or resulting analysis will be used for administrative, investigative, or operational uses. As is the case with all PIAs, Statistics Canada's privacy framework ensures that elements of privacy protection and privacy controls are documented and applied.

Necessity and Proportionality

The use of personal information for the activity can be justified against Statistics Canada's Necessity and Proportionality Framework:

  1. Necessity: Research has demonstrated that individuals involved in gangs engage in antisocialFootnote7 and often violent behavioursFootnote8. In addition to individual adverse health risks for those involved in gangs, including substance abuse, gun carrying, arrest, illicit drug sales, familial hardship, high-risk sexual behaviour, nonfatal intentional injury, and homicide, gangs and their criminal behaviours have a detrimental effect on communities and public safetyFootnote9. British Columbia has observed negative impacts that gangs and gang activity have on the community, such as violence related to drugs, firearms, illegal gaming, and other criminal activity. In fact, the CFSEU-BC data details the more than 500 homicides and attempted homicides with a gang nexus across British Columbia between January 2006 and December 2020, demonstrating the frequency and severity of gang-related violence across the province. These occurrences have impacted more than 30 jurisdictions across the province, and have even occurred within institutions, such as correctional facilities.

    Through this analysis, Statistics Canada aims to provide information that will allow an in-depth understanding of victims of gang-related violence (homicide and attempted homicide) and explore longitudinal trajectories and life histories that have led to individuals becoming victims of gang-related violence. For this reason, the data originating from the CFSEU-BC and, in particular, personal indicators, are needed for linking to administrative data within Statistics Canada's Social Data Linkage Environment (SDLE). Microdata linkage works best using personal indicators such as names, date of birth, and addresses as these most accurately identify the same individuals from different data sources. Without the personal identifiers, an accurate linkage of this administrative data, and therefore this analysis, would not be possible.

    The variables to be included in the linkage and analysis, as well as the rationale for including the various databases/variables, can be found in Appendix 1.

    While data on race is particularly sensitive and could potentially lead to stereotyping and result in harm to certain vulnerable groups, it is being included as a variable to ensure that the life courses of individuals of differing racial backgrounds are captured as accurately as possible, which is in line with Statistics Canada's efforts to perform analysis using disaggregated dataFootnote10. Statistics Canada's Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) has years of experience with sensitively and carefully producing reports on gang-related individuals, including Indigenous and other racialized groups, and will ensure that the information is presented in a manner which does not stigmatize particular groups.

    The ability to link information on the same individual through their income, education, immigration, health, and other data across various human services and across the individual's lifespan, prior to becoming a gang victim, is integral to the ability to identify risk factors for gang involvement and victimization.

    This project will help Statistics Canada meet its statistical mandate by providing statistical information and analysis about Canada's social structure to develop and evaluate public policies and programs and to improve public and private decision-making for the benefit of all Canadians. Specifically, this data-driven effort will enhance CFSEU-BC's ability to develop an informed, community-based program that could be funded through Public Safety's Youth Gang Prevention Fund (YGPF) or Crime Prevention Action Fund (CPAF), as well as provincial funding streams. These programs, if successful, could then be applied across the country.

    Further, this project promotes sound statistical standards and practices by improving statistical methods and systems through joint research studies and projects.

  2. Effectiveness - Working assumptions: With the personal identifiers from the CFSEU-BC datasets, Statistics Canada will be in a unique position to be able to map the life events of the victims of gang-related homicide and gang-related assisted homicide through the administrative data holdings contained within the SDLE. High quality personal indicators, such as names and dates of birth, are required to ensure that the linkage can be done as accurately as possible.

    The linked data will provide an in-depth understanding of the victims of gang-related violence, including their trajectories and life history to the point of becoming a victim of violence. Integrating these additional administrative data with the victim records will allow Statistics Canada researchers to examine how victims have interacted with different government entities such as the criminal justice system, health care system, and employment and social assistance services, etc., along their life course. More specifically, cluster analysisFootnote11 of the linked data will allow for the identification of key risk factors associated with the likelihood of joining gangs, coming into contact with police, courts, and corrections, as well as becoming a victim of gang-related violence. Survival analysisFootnote12 will then be used to estimate the strength of the relationships between risk factors and victimization, which would then allow for an exploration of which interventions would have the most impact. Examples of the linked variables to be analyzed can be found in the appendix.

    With this better understanding stemming from the aggregated analysis, the CFSEU-BC hope to inform better allocation of resources for gang prevention initiatives. The analysis performed for this project will provide policy- and program-relevant results by helping to show which background factors are most strongly associated with gang involvement and gang violence, and this could help shape programs designed to address the identified risk factors.

  3. Proportionality: The sample size to be used for this project is relatively small and it is not expected for every member of the sample to be found in each data source, meaning that the pool of linked observations will be even smaller. Any data, despite the sensitivity, which might lead to a linkage is therefore crucial to achieve the goal of this project. All personal information being collected about each affected individual via the CFSEU-BC, despite the sensitivity of any of the elements of personal information, is crucial to this collection to ensure the highest possible quality of linkage and analysis can be performed, resulting in strong and actionable conclusions. The data to be used in this project have already been collected, thus eliminating the need of any additional burden on the victims. The files and variables used represent only those needed to produce high quality aggregated analytical information.

    In the preparation of this project, consultations have been held with the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS), the Data Ethics Committee (DEC), the Office of Privacy Management and Information Coordination (OPMIC), and SDLE at Statistics Canada, as well as the CFSEU-BC, to ensure that only that data which is necessary is included in this project.

    While the data being used for this project are sensitive, their analysis will allow the CFSEU-BC to enhance prevention and intervention efforts for at-risk individuals by informing policy and helping programs aimed at preventing British Columbians from entering into a criminal lifestyle. As mentioned above, these efforts aim to protect the lives and wellbeing of those at risk.

  4. Alternatives: The PRIME and CPIC data being provided by the CFSEU-BC are records that are only available from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in British Columbia. There is no alternative source for this data currently available to Statistics Canada other than contacting each of the regional RCMP detachments individually. Collecting this information directly from the victims would create an increased and undue burden on the victims and is not possible in all cases.

Mitigation factors

Information that will be provided by the CFSEU-BC for this analysis includes:

  • names
  • date of birth
  • race
  • last known address or minimum postal code
  • criminal convictions
  • criminal charges
  • outstanding warrants and charges
  • records of discharge

These data are sensitive as they concern the victims of gang-related homicide and gang-related assisted homicide, and may include data on minors.

The overall risk of harm to the survey respondents has been deemed manageable with existing Statistics Canada safeguards that are described in Statistics Canada's Generic Privacy Impact Assessment, of which the following is of particular importance for this project: upon receipt of the files, personal identifiers will be separated from the other data and replaced with an anonymized linkage key. The personal identifiers will be stored securely and separately from the analytical file and will be available only to the project team at Statistics Canada on a need-to-know basis.

It should be noted that no investigative file information will be disclosed by the CFSEU-BC to Statistics Canada, and Statistics Canada will not be providing any identifiers to the CFSEU-BC. The data will only be used for research purposes (i.e., analysis and the development of aggregate reports for publication), and will not be used for administrative, investigative, or operational purposes.

Conclusion

This assessment concludes that, with the existing Statistics Canada safeguards, any remaining risks are such that Statistics Canada is prepared to accept and manage the risk.

References

  • Adams Jennifer J, Pizarro Jesenia M. "Patterns of Specialization and Escalation in the Criminal Careers of Gang and Non-Gang Homicide Offenders." Criminal Justice and Behaviour 41, no. 2 (2013): 237-255.
  • Babchishin, K.M., Keown, L-A., & Mularczyk, K.P. Economic outcomes of Canadian federal offenders. Public Safety Canada, 2021.
  • Boyce Jillian, Te Sun, Brennan Shannon. Economic profiles of offenders in Saskatchewan. Juristat, Statistics Canada, 2018.
  • C., Pyrooz David. "From Colors and Guns to Caps and Gowns? The Effects of Gang Membership on Educational Attainment." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 51, no. 1 (2014): 56-87.
  • Felson RB, Staff J. "Committing Economic Crime for Drug Money." Crime and Delinquency 63, no. 4 (2017): 375-390.
  • Ibrahim, Dyna. Violent victimization, discrimination and perceptions of safety: An immigrant perspective, Canada, 2014. Juristat, Statistics Canada, 2018.
  • May JP, Hemenway D, Hall A. "Do criminals go to the hospital when they are shot?" Injury Prevention 8 (2002): 236-238.

Acronyms used:

CCJCSS
Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics
CISWS
Centre for Income and Socioeconomics Well-being Statistics
CLMI
Centre for Labour Market Information
CPHD
Centre for Population Health Data
CCES
Canadian Centre for Education Statistics
DSS
Diversity and Sociocultural Statistics
COD
Census Operations Division
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