Crime and justice

Description:

This paper discusses in detail issues dealing with the technical aspects of designing and conducting surveys. It is intended for an audience of survey methodologists.

Police records collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program are the leading source of national crime statistics. Recently, audits to correct UCR records have raised concerns as to how to handle the errors discovered in these files. Concerns centre around the methodology used to detect errors and the procedures used to correct errors once they have been discovered. This paper explores these concerns, focusing on sampling methodology, establishment of a statistical-adjustment factor, and alternative solutions. The paper distinguishes the difference between sample adjustment and sample estimates of an agency's data, and recommends sample adjustment as the most accurate way of dealing with errors.

Description:

This paper discusses in detail issues dealing with the technical aspects of designing and conducting surveys. It is intended for an audience of survey methodologists.

In order to compensate for unreported, missing, unreasonable, or unusable data, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program conducts data estimations and imputations using a variety of statistical methods. This paper illustrates how offence and arrest data are estimated using a variety of different approaches. The paper also points out the strengths and the shortcomings of each approach.

Description:

This report presents a description of the organization and operation of provincial and territorial maintenance enforcement programs. It describes the relevant provincial legislation, highlights latest developments, provides a general description of each program, describes how each manages cases, intake/withdrawal procedures, tracing, monitoring, payment processing and enforcement practices. As such, the reader will be able to identify the variations and similarities between the various programs. All of the maintenance enforcement programs rely upon several federal acts to collect, trace and enforce support payments. Therefore, a review of the relevant federal legislation is presented first, followed by a description of each provincial and territorial maintenance enforcement program.

Description:

This report is an examination of the annual police-reported crime in Canada. Data are presented within the context of both short and long term trends. The analysis focuses on trends in violent crime, property crime, other Criminal Code offences, impaired driving offences, drug offences and youth crime. Crime rates are examined at the national and provincial/territorial levels, as well as for major metropolitan areas. The trend in Canada's crime rate is put into perspective by comparing it with crime trends in some other industrialized countries. This is an annual periodical of great interest to those who work within the criminal justice system or anyone who is interested in crime in Canada.

Description:

Using data from the Homicide Survey and a combination of other statistical data sources this Juristat will examine spousal homicide trends over the period 1974-2000. In 1991 changes were made to the Homicide Survey providing more detailed breakdowns of the relationship between victims and offenders permitting comparisons of married, common-law, separated and divorced couples as well as boyfriends and girlfriends. This allows trends in other intimate partner homicides (e.g. boyfriends and girlfriends) to be examined from 1991-2000. These trends in spousal homicide will be assessed within the context of other factors, including improvements to women’s economic and social well-being (e.g. average annual income, delayed marriage and child-rearing), growth in the availability of emergency services for battered women, trends in spousal victims’ use of social services, trends in reporting spousal violence to the police, and the evolution of charging and prosecution policies.

Description:

The 1999 General Social Survey was the first attempt by Statistics Canada to measure spousal violence in a comprehensive way on a traditional victimization survey. Both women and men were asked a module of 10 questions concerning violence by their current or previous spouses and common-law partners. The nature of the violence under study ranged in severity from threats to sexual assault and concerned acts that happened in the 12-month and 5-year periods preceding the survey interview.

Description:

Persons aged 65 years and older constitute one of the fastest growing segments of the Canadian population. In 2000, there were an estimated 3.8 million older men and women representing 13% of the country's total population, up from 9% just 20 years earlier. Declining fertility rates and increased longevity, due primarily to improved health care, have contributed to this rapid growth. And as the baby-boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1965) begins to reach the age of 65 early in the next decade, the absolute number of older adults, as well as their share of the total population, is expected to grow even more quickly. Indeed, by 2021, population projections estimate that older Canadians will number close to 6.7 million or about one-fifth of the total population (George et al. 2001).

Description:

Over the past two decades, the negative consequences of child maltreatment have been extensively studied. Sexual and physical assault, emotional abuse and neglect can have a tremendous impact on the lives of victims and lead to physical health complications, long-term mental health issues, and problems with relationships or social functioning (Latimer 1998). Increasingly, exposure to spousal violence is being recognized as harmful and as putting children at risk for long-term negative effects.

Description:

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics conducted a special study on conditional sentencing in 2001 to improve the level and quality of information available on this disposition and to assess the influence of the new sanction on correctional services caseloads. The purpose of this bulletin is to provide a preliminary examination of the results of the special study, as well as the most current data from the Adult Correctional Services Survey and the Adult Criminal Court Survey.

Description:

This bulletin examines 'home invasions'. Recent high-profile incidents of 'home invasion' have received significant exposure in the media, particularly those where the elderly have been targeted. The impact of 'home invasions' extends beyond the violence of the crime itself to a long-term loss of the victim's sense of safety at home.

Description:

The International Youth Survey (IYS) is the Canadian portion of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) which examines the behaviour and misbehaviour of students in grades 7 to 9 in about 30 European countries, United States and Canada. The National Crime Prevention Centre of the federal department of Public Safety sponsored the Canadian survey. The city of Toronto was chosen as the most suitable city where Statistics Canada could conduct the survey and on which the analysis of results would focus.

The survey needed to be representative of each of the three grades (7 to 9) and at the grade level, of both sexes. In April 2006, about 3,200 students in 176 schools completed the IYS.

Description: This table contains 16 series, with data for years 1998 - 2004 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and is no longer being released. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 item: Canada); Estimates (2 items: Number of shelters; Percentage of shelters); Type of shelter (8 items: Total shelters; Transition home; Second stage housing; Safe home network; ...).

Description: This table contains 72 series, with data for years 1998 - 2000 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and is no longer being released. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 item: Canada); Type of resident (3 items: Resident;Non-resident;Ex-resident); Estimates (2 items: Number of shelters;Percent); Type of in-house service (12 items: Individual counselling;Group counselling/support;Programs for child witnesses or victims of abuse;Culturally sensitive services for Aboriginal children; ...).

Description: This table contains 48 series, with data for years 1998 - 2000 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and is no longer being released. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 item: Canada); Estimates (2 items: Women;Percent); Reason for admission (24 items: Total admissions;Abusive situations;Physical abuse;Sexual abuse; ...).

Description: This table contains 45 series, with data for years 1998 - 2000 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and is no longer being released. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (15 items: Canada; Newfoundland and Labrador; Prince Edward Island; Nova Scotia; ...); Admissions (3 items: Total admissions; Women; Children).

Description: This table contains 62 series, with data for years 1998 - 2000 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and is no longer being released. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 item: Canada); Estimates (4 items: Number of women; Percentage of women; Number of children; Percentage of children); Characteristics (27 items: Total women admitted due to abuse; Age 15-24;Age 25-34;Age 35-44; ...).

Description:

In 2004, as part of its General Social Survey program, Statistics Canada conducted a survey on victimization and public perceptions of crime and the justice system. It was the fourth time that the General Social Survey (GSS) had examined victimization - previous surveys were conducted in 1988, 1993, and 1999. The target population was Canadians aged 15 years and older living in the ten provinces.

This survey also included a test collection of telephone survey data in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. This document contains data tables for these territories produced from the sample of this test collection.

Description:

This report presents indicators to measure the workload and performance of the criminal justice system, as well as indictors on a number of socio-demographic and economic factors that can be associated with crime and victimization. In this report, workload and volume measures centre on the work of the police, courts, corrections, diversion programs and victim services and changes over time. Examples of workload and volume indicators examined in this report include: the number of criminal incidents known to police; the number of people serviced by alternative measures, mediation, dispute resolution and diversion programs; the number of cases dealt with in court; average counts in corrections institutions, and; the number of persons assisted by victim service agencies. Performance indicators are organized according to the following five general goals of the criminal justice system: 1) Public order, safety and national security through prevention and intervention; 2) Offender accountability, reintegration and rehabilitation; 3) Public trust, confidence and respect for the justice system; 4) Social equity and access to the justice system for all citizens, and; 5) Victim needs served. Examples of performance indicators examined in this report are: the overall cost of administering the sectors of the criminal justice system; the type and length of sentences ordered in court; public satisfaction with the police, the courts, and the correctional and parole systems; the number of applications for legal aid, and; the number of services for victims of crime. The various socio-demographic and economic indicators included in this report are presented in order to present statistical information on the factors that can be associated with crime. These 'context of crime indicators are organized into three broad categories: Community and society, Family, and Individual. Examples of such indicators examined in this report are: the age and sex distributions of the population; income levels and labour force participation; levels of social engagement; levels of gang activity; family structures; levels of child support; levels of education; the rate of literacy, and; the rate of alcohol and drug abuse among the adult and youth population.

Description:

These on-line data tables provide information pertaining to services provided by governmental agencies responsible for adult corrections in each of the provincial, territorial and federal sectors. Statistical data are presented on caseload characteristics (e.g. number of admissions to correctional facilities and community supervision, age and sex of offenders, offences for which the offender is admitted to a correctional facility and probation, sentence length, time served, etc.), average counts of offenders in correctional facilities and community supervision, and resources and expenditures relating to both custodial and community supervision services. Data presented in this report cover the three most recent fiscal years.

Description:

Cycle 18 of the GSS is the fourth cycle (after cycles 3, 8 and 13) to collect information on the nature and extent of criminal victimization in Canada. Content from Cycle 13 on senior abuse and public perception of alternatives to imprisonment was not repeated. New topics of interest were added including stalking, use of restraining orders and social disorder. Other subjects common to all four cycles include perceptions of crime, police and courts; crime prevention precautions; and accident and crime incident reports.

The target population of the GSS is all individuals aged 15 and over living in a private household in one of the ten provinces.

Description: This Juristat article examines the nature and prevalence of firearm-related violent crime in Canada. Recent trends in firearm-related violent crime are presented at the national, provincial/territorial and census metropolitan area levels as well as for urban and rural regions.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: As the sixteenth goal outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Canada and other UN member states have committed to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels by 2030. This 2024 infographic provides an overview of indicators underlying the sixteenth Sustainable Development Goal in support of peace, justice and strong institutions, and the statistics and data sources used to monitor and report on this goal in Canada.

Description: This article presents results from the Survey of Sexual Misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. Namely, the prevalence of general sexualized behaviour in the workplace; discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity; personal experiences of discrimination or sexualized behaviour; the prevalence of sexual assault; and knowledge of policies on sexual misconduct and perceptions of responses to sexual misconduct are examined. Where possible, results are analyzed by gender, environmental command, type of service, age, and rank.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: This article presents results from the first Survey of Sexual Misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. Namely, the prevalence of general sexualized behaviour in the workplace; discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity; personal experiences of discrimination or sexualized behaviour; the prevalence of sexual assault; and knowledge of policies on sexual misconduct and perceptions of responses to sexual misconduct are examined. Where possible, results are analyzed by sex, environmental command, type of service, age, rank, and number of years of service.

Description: Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation or harbouring of a person and includes controlling or influencing their movements with the goal of exploiting, or facilitating the exploitation of, a person. Using data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey, this Juristat Bulletin—Quick Fact examines trends in police-reported incidents of human trafficking in Canada and further highlights victim and accused characteristics. Court outcomes of cases related to human trafficking are also examined using data from the Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS).

Description: This publication features short, informative articles focusing on specific justice-related issues. For more in-depth articles on justice in Canada, see also Juristat, Catalogue no. 85-002-X.

Description: Using police-reported data from the 2022 Homicide Survey, this infographic is a visual representation of some of these data. Findings include results at the national, provincial and territorial levels. Also included are findings related to the characteristics of victims as well as the prevalence of gang-related and firearm-related homicides.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: The purpose of the Police Administration Survey (PAS) is to collect statistics on public policing personnel and expenditures from municipal, provincial and federal police services in Canada. The information collected is used by federal and provincial policy makers, individual police services as well as officials responsible for police budgets. The data are also used by the media for the purpose of providing information to the general public.

Description: The Uniform Crime Reporting Survey was designed to measure the incidence of crime in Canadian society and its characteristics. The information is used by federal and provincial policy makers as well as public and private researchers.

Description: The purpose of the Adult Correctional Services (ACS) survey is to provide important indicators as to the nature and characteristics in correctional case-flow that are of use to agencies responsible for the delivery of these services, the media and the public. The survey collects annual data on the delivery of adult correctional services from both the provincial/territorial and federal correctional systems.

Description: The survey provides the justice community, academics and the public with information on revenues, expenditures, personnel, and caseload statistics associated with the delivery and administration of legal aid in Canada.

Description: The objective of the Youth Court Survey (YCS) is to develop and maintain a database of statistical information on appearances, charges, and cases in youth courts.

Description: The objective of this survey is to provide information on the human resources and costs associated with the operation of Canadian courts.

Description: The objective of the Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS) is to develop and maintain a national database of statistical information on appearances, charges, and cases in youth courts and adult criminal courts. The survey is intended to be a census of pending and completed federal statute charges heard in provincial-territorial and superior courts in Canada. Appeal courts, federal courts (e.g., Tax Court of Canada) and the Supreme Court of Canada are not covered by the survey.

Description: The Corrections Key Indicator Report for Adults and Youth monitors trends in correctional populations and provides a basis for calculating incarceration rates based on the Canadian population. This survey describes average counts of adults and youth under custody and under community supervision, who are under the responsibility of provincial/territorial correctional services.

Description: This survey collects detailed data on homicide in Canada. The survey has collected police-reported data on the characteristics of all murder incidents, victims and accused persons since 1961 and all homicides (including murder, manslaughter and infanticide) since 1974.

Description: The primary objective of this survey is to provide information on the human resources and costs associated with the delivery of criminal prosecutions services in Canada.