Adult Criminal Court Statistics in Canada, 2010/2011

Last week, Statistics Canada published an article in its publication Juristat entitled Adult criminal court statistics in Canada, 2010/2011:

" ... this Juristat article presents information on the characteristics of criminal court cases involving adults (18 years and older). More specifically, it examines the number and types of cases completed in adult criminal courts, the decisions made in relation to these cases and the sentences imposed upon those found guilty. In addition, this article looks briefly at the length of time taken to complete adult criminal court cases and the factors that influence timeliness."

"It is important to note that the data presented in this article represent approximately 95% of the caseload completed in Canadian adult criminal courts. In 2010/2011, information from superior courts in Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as municipal courts in Quebec (which accounted for about one-quarter of all Criminal Code charges in that province) was unavailable."

Among the highlights:

• Adult criminal courts in Canada completed nearly 403,000 cases in 2010/2011, involving about 1.2 million charges. The caseload was virtually the same as the previous year following three consecutive annual increases
• In 2010/2011, 77% of all cases completed involved property, administration of justice, traffic or other non-violent Criminal Code offences, or federal statute offences such as drug offences. Violent offences accounted for the remaining 23%
• Among completed cases, the most commonly occurring offences were impaired driving, which represented 12% of the total, theft (11%), common assault (9%), failure to comply with a court order (9%), and breach of probation (8%)
• While those aged 18 to 24 represented 12% of the adult population in Canada, this age group accounted for 30% of all those accused in adult criminal court
• The most common type of sentence imposed in adult criminal courts was probation, handed down in 45% of all guilty cases. The median length of probation in 2010/2011 was 365 days in nearly every province and territory. In 2010/2011, one-third (33%) of guilty adult criminal court cases resulted in a sentence to custody, which has generally been the case for the past decade. Sentences to custody were most often imposed by courts in Prince Edward Island (63%) and least often in Nunavut (23%).The majority (86%) of custodial sentences were for a term of six months or less