Statistics Canada Report on Women and the Criminal Justice System

Statistics Canada has released a report on Women in Canada: The criminal justice system.

According to the report, the involvement of women and female youth in the criminal justice system has largely been as victims of crime rather than as offenders. While females accounted for about one-half of all victims of violent crime reported to police authorities in 2009, they represented a minority of offenders.

The report is part of the 6th edition of Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report

Among the highlights:

• In 2009, females reported about 1.6 million incidents of violent crime (that is, physical assault, sexual assault or robbery)
• The most common offence perpetrated against women was common assault, which accounted for nearly half of all police-reported incidents
• Rates of homicide have declined substantially over the past 30 years, particularly for females. Much of this decrease can be attributed to a drop in homicides committed by spouses. In 2009, rates of spousal homicide against women were one-third of the levels in 1979. Even so, women were more than twice as likely as men to be killed by a spouse in 2009
• In 2009, females accounted for approximately one-quarter of youth accused and slightly more than one-fifth of adults accused by police of having committed a Criminal Code offence
• Females are most likely to commit acts of violence against their spouses or other intimate partners, followed by an acquaintance, a stranger or other family member
• While charging for property crime has seen a steady decline, the rate at which women have been charged with violent offences has increased over the past 30 years
• In 2008/2009, adult females represented 6% of admissions to federal custody and 12% of admissions to provincial and territorial custody. This was up slightly from 5% and 10% of admissions, respectively, in 1999/2000