New Court Statistics from Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada today released 2 new sets of figures: Adult criminal court statistics for 2005/2006 and Youth court statistics for the same period.

In terms of adult criminal court statistics:

• cases involving multiple charges represented 60% of the adult caseload in 2005/2006, compared with 51% a decade earlier;
• fewer cases are being disposed of in adult criminal court each year, in light of the increased case complexity and duration, as well as a long-term downward trend in police-reported crime statistics;
• 25% involved crimes against the person, and an additional 24% involved crimes against property, the two largest shares. Administration of justice offences involved 17%, and Criminal Code traffic offences, 14%. The remaining 20% involved other Criminal Code and federal statute offences

When it comes to youth court statistics:

• fewer young people aged 12 to 17 are showing up in courtrooms, and fewer are being sent to custody, since the enactment of the Youth Criminal Justice Act in April 2003; the caseload has declined 26% since 2002 - the Act aims to keep the less serious offences out of youth courts;
• half of the reduction in the youth court caseload was the result of fewer youth appearing in court for property crimes such as theft, breaking and entering, fraud and possession of stolen property; however, property crime cases still accounted for 38% of youth court caseload