Table 6
Court outcomes for possessing or accessing child pornography cases, pre- and post-2005 mandatory minimum penalty (MMP) legislation

Table 6
Court outcomes for possessing or accessing child pornography cases, pre- and post-2005 mandatory minimum penalty (MMP) legislation
Table summary
This table displays the results of Court outcomes for possessing or accessing child pornography cases. The information is grouped by Court outcomes of completed court cases (appearing as row headers), Summary cases, Indictable cases, Pre-2005 and Post-2005, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Court outcomes of completed court cases Summary cases Indictable cases
Pre-2005Table 6 Note 1 Post-2005Table 6 Note 2 Pre-2005Table 6 Note 1 Post-2005Table 6 Note 2
number percent number percent number percent number percent
Total cases, by decision 184 100 358 100 254 100 437 100
Acquitted 3 2 4 1 0 0 3 1
Stay of proceeding 13 7 27 8 8 3 27 6
Withdrawn, dismissed, discharged 33 18 18 5 20 8 28 6
Other decision 1 1 3 1 0 0 1 0
Guilty 134 73 306 85 226 89 378 86
Total guilty cases, by sentence and custody length 134 100 306 100 226 100 378 100
Conditional sentence 44 33 5 2 111 52 13 4
Probation 49 37 17 6 38 18 11 3
Other non-custodial sentences 12 9 3 1 1 0 2 1
CustodyTable 6 Note 3 27 20 262 91 62 29 315 92
Less than 14 days 5 4 37 13 6 3 13 4
14 to 44 days 3 2 111 39 5 2 24 7
45 to 89 days 7 5 28 10 6 3 57 17
90 days to less than 6 months 5 4 54 19 11 5 83 24
6 months to less than 1 year 6 5 23 8 24 11 90 26
1 year to less than 2 years 0 0 6 2 4 2 29 9
2 years or longer 0 0 1 0 2 1 19 6
Unknown custody length 1 1 2 1 4 2 0 0
Note 1

Pre-2005 selected cases: Date of offence and case completed between April 1, 2000 and the enactment of the 2005 MMPs (November 1, 2005).

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Note 2

Post-2005 selected cases: Date of offence and case completed between November 1, 2005 and June 3, 2011.

Return to note 2 referrer

Note 3

Custodial sentence lengths reflect the amount of time remaining to be served on a custodial sentence after credit has been awarded for time spent in pre-sentence custody. However, in some jurisdictions, the length of custody information represents the total length of custody imposed by the court. Therefore, some cases falling into the category below the minimum sentence may still meet the mandatory minimum requirement. Percentages exclude cases where sentence type was not reported.

Return to note 3 referrer

Note: Includes child pornography offences of possessing (s. 163.1 (4)) and of accessing (s. 163.1 (4.1)) child pornography. MMPs introduced in 2005 were 14 days for summary and 45 days for indictable offences. A case is one or more charges against an accused person or company that were processed by the courts at the same time and received a final decision. Cases that involve more than one charge are represented by the most serious offence. Case length is elapsed time between the first court appearance to the date of decision. See "Methodology and data quality" for a description of case selection for the definition of time periods pre- and post- 2005 legislation. Excludes 27% of selected cases where type of proceeding (summary or indictable) was not reported. Cases selected from adult criminal courts cases where case completion is between April 1, 2000 and March 31, 2015 for ten jurisdictions (excluding Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) based on survey coverage. Data exclude information from superior courts in Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and Saskatchewan as well as municipal courts in Quebec due to the unavailability of data.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Integrated Criminal Court Survey.
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