Whitehorse violent crime has some residents on edge

Whitehorse RCMP say there's been a spike in incidents of violent crime in the city over the past year, with several unsolved murders, stabbings and a drive-by shooting topping the list.

For Carol Boschman, that revelation hardly comes as a surprise.

Boschman, a board member for Whitehorse's Second Opinion Society, was the victim of a random act of violence last fall.

She was punched several times and thrown to the ground by a man in the city's Riverdale neighbourhood.

"He slapped me twice on my left side... and once, then on the right hand side," she says. "And each time it was harder, but I just stood there. I was so shocked, so surprised that this would happen.

"He then grabbed me by the shoulders, twisted me around, and threw me to the ground, and he rode off on his bicycle.

"But, before he threw me to the ground, he said: 'Get out of here. We don't need Yukoners like you.'"

Boschman's assailant was never caught.

'We have to be careful when we look at statistics'

Stories like Boschman's have become more common in the past year, according to Peter Clark, Chief Superintendent of RCMP "M" Division. However, he says random attacks are, by their very nature, difficult to predict.

"When we have these fairly unpredictable instances of violence or reported crimes, we need to look at them not only to solve the immediate offence and find out what happened but to look at what caused it and try to prevent that."

Clark acknowledges that there's been a spike in violent crime in the Yukon capital over the past year, sending it even higher than the most recently reported figures: according to the latest Statistics Canada data available, in 2012, the Yukon had the third highest crime rate in the country.

"I think we have to be careful when we look at statistics," says Clark, "because statistics relate to reported crime.

"So as the public becomes more aware of crime, and they're more concerned about it, there's a chance that they'll report more to us, and we encourage that. Whether or not the crime rate is going up and the actual safety of the community is changing, I don't think so."

That's little solace for Boschman, who was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after her attack, and required dental work and a visit to victim services, which "helped a lot."

But, Clark says that despite the randomness of violent crime and what appears to be a spike, he's not concerned about the overall state of the city.

"I think we've got a very safe community and a very healthy community that responds very well when there are problems," he says.