Crime and justice

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:

Bulletins are short documents that provide information or statistics on important justice related topics. The articles cover current issues in justice such as impaired driving, youth and crime, intermittent sentencing, criminal harassment, etc.

Description:

The 2000 International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) provides comparable international information on the nature and extent of crime. Respondents supply detailed information on 11 types of crime, including when, where and how often offences occurred over the previous five years; whether offences were reported to the police; and whether victimization experiences were considered serious. Participants give their opinions on public safety, policing and sentencing.

This Juristat presents an overview of the findings of the 2000 ICVS and makes comparisons with previous survey cycles from 1989, 1992 and 1996. The majority of the analysis focuses on data from the following 13 of 17 participants: Canada, Australia, Belgium, England and Wales, Finland, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Sweden and the United States. Canada was one of the 17 industrialized countries that participated in 2000 and is one of five industrialized countries to have participated in all four cycles of the survey.

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:

In January 1999, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) received a commitment of four years funding from the federal government's Policy Research Initiative (PRI) to conduct a study on hate crime in Canada. The purpose of the overall study is to enhance our understanding of hate crime and to assess the feasibility of collecting police-reported hate crime statistics in Canada. In 2001, the CCJS released a report entitled "Hate crime in Canada: an overview of issues and data sources", catalogue no. 85-551-XIE.

This report helped to address some questions regarding the nature and magnitude of hate crimes in Canada, although certain data gaps were identified. As a result, it was determined that a pilot survey should be conducted with police departments that collect hate crime statistics. In order to determine specific information needs for the pilot survey, consultations were held with a number of academics; members of various non-governmental and community organizations; and federal and provincial departments responsible for the administration of justice, as well as police departments.

The information contained in this report provides a summary of the consultations that were held between September 2001 and March 2002.

Description:

The Juristat publication, "Pilot analysis of recidivism among convicted youth and young adults, 1999/00," summarizes trends from the provincial/territorial courts across Canada that provided data to the Adult Criminal Court Survey (ACCS) and the Youth Court Survey (YCS). This report attempts to gauge the prevalence of recidivism in young adults by examining the conviction histories of young adults convicted in Canadian criminal courts in 1999-2000. It also examines the transition from youth to adult offending, including patterns of re-offending, differences in conviction histories by age of onset and the impact of conviction history on court sentencing.

Description:

This Juristat presents and analyzes information on young offender admissions to custody and community services, with breakdowns by custody (remand, secure, and open) and probation, and key case characteristics such as age, sex, Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal status, and most serious offence. In addition, it includes data pertaining to releases from remand, secure custody, and open custody by sex and time served. These breakdowns are presented and analyzed at the national and provincial/territorial level.

Alternative measures refer to formalized programs across Canada through which persons who would otherwise proceed to court are dealt with via non-judicial sanctions. An analysis on alternative measures includes data pertaining to the participation and agreement by the youth to enter these community-based alternatives. The key case characteristics of this survey are similar to those collected by the Youth Custody and Community Services survey.

The Youth Key Indicators describe average daily counts (caseload), which measure the volume of offenders held in custody or on probation on an average day. This information also provides an examination of youth incarceration and probation rates in Canada.

Data summarized in this Juristat are primarily drawn from three perspectives: 1) The Youth Custody and Community Services (YCCS) survey. The scope of the survey is to collect and analyze information on the application of dispositions under the Young Offenders Act from provincial and territorial agencies responsible for youth corrections and programs. 2) The Alternative Measures survey, which collects and analyzes data on the number of agreements achieved and completed. And, 3) The Youth Key Indicator Report that measures the average counts of youth in custody (remand, secure and open) and on probation.

Description:

Recognizing that there is the need for better information and statistics on organized crime, and for methodologies to measure its impact on Canadians, the federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for Justice have endorsed a plan to begin addressing Canada's data gap in the area of organized crime.

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics was contracted by the Solicitor General of Canada to investigate the feasibility of collecting quantitative data on organized crime. This report highlights the lessons learned during consultations with selected police intelligence units and it presents a number of options for data collection.

Description:

This annual report is an examination of homicide in Canada. Detailed information is presented on the characteristics of homicide incidents (murder, manslaughter and infanticide), and, within the context of both short and long-term trends, the victims and accused. Geographical patterns of homicide are examined at the national and provincial/territorial levels, as well as for major metropolitan areas. Other key themes include international comparisons of homicide, gang-related homicides, firearm-related homicides, youth homicide and family (including spousal) homicides. The data are intended to respond to the needs of those who work in the criminal justice system, as well as to inform researchers, policy analysts, academics, the media and the public on the nature and extent of homicide in Canada.

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 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: The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (CIMD) is an area-based index which uses Census of Population microdata to measure four key dimensions of deprivation at the dissemination area (DA)-level: residential instability, economic dependency, situational vulnerability and ethno-cultural composition.

The CIMD allows for an understanding of inequalities in various measures of health and social well-being. While it is a geographically-based index of deprivation and marginalization, it can also be used as a proxy for an individual. The CIMD has the potential to be widely used by researchers on a variety of topics related to socio-economic research. Other uses for the index may include: policy planning and evaluation, or resource allocation.

Description:

The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (CIMD) is an area-based index which uses Census of Population microdata to measure four key dimensions of deprivation at the dissemination area (DA)-level: residential instability, economic dependency, situational vulnerability and ethno-cultural composition. The CIMD allows for an understanding of inequalities in various measures of health and social well-being. While it is a geographically-based index of deprivation and marginalization, it can also be used as a proxy for an individual. The CIMD has the potential to be widely used by researchers on a variety of topics related to socio-economic research. Other uses for the index may include: policy planning and evaluation, or resource allocation.

Description:

The User Guide for the Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (CIMD) outlines uses for the index, as well as it provides a brief description of the methodology behind the development of the index. This User Guide also provides instructions on how to use the index, and lists considerations when using the CIMD data.

Description:

This objective of this report is to present the status of national data on Aboriginal people who come into contact with the criminal justice system as offenders and victims. The report examines the current and potential collection of an individual's Aboriginal identity through various justice-related surveys at Statistics Canada, the challenges within these surveys to collect these data and provides some insight into the quality of these data. The data and sources are examined within the context of information needs for the justice and social policy sectors, and in relation to the preferred method of measuring Aboriginal Identity at Statistics Canada. Data sources examined include the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, the Homicide Survey, the Integrated Criminal Courts Survey, the Adult Corrections Survey, the Youth Custody and Community Services Survey, the Youth Alternative Measures Survey, the Transition Home Survey, the Victim Services Survey and the General Social Survey on Victimization. Finally, the report briefly describes efforts by other countries to improve justice-related information on their indigenous populations.

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 publication describes the structure and administration of provincial/territorial legal aid services in Canada. It also includes information on legislation, organization, coverage, eligibility, duty counsel and tariffs.

Description:

This publication includes a list of federal and provincial courts across the country. The purpose of this directory is to identify all courts (permanent and most frequently visited circuit points) in Canada by type, level, and location.

Description: The purpose of this survey is to collect education related financial data on all reform and correctional institutions in Canada. These data are used to supplement data collected from the Provincial Public Accounts on provincial expenditures on education.

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.