Table 2
Case decision outcomes for sexual assaults charged by police that went to adult or youth court, by selected incident characteristics, Canada, 2009 to 2014

Table 2
Case decision outcomes for sexual assaults charged by police that went to adult or youth court, by selected incident characteristics, Canada, 2009 to 2014
Table summary
This table displays the results of Case decision outcomes for sexual assaults charged by police that went to adult or youth court. The information is grouped by Selected incident characteristics (appearing as row headers), Total, Guilty, Stayed, withdrawn, dismissed or discharged and Acquitted, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Selected incident characteristics Total GuiltyTable 2 Note 1 Stayed, withdrawn, dismissed or dischargedTable 2 Note 2 AcquittedTable 2 Note 3
number number percent number percent number percent
Total sexual assaultsTable 2 Note 4 15,804 8,742 55 6,118 39 811 5
Sexual assault level 1 13,032 6,695 51 5,456 42 758 6
Sexual assault level 2 311 180 58 122 39 6 2
Sexual assault level 3 138 72 52 56 41 6 4
Total physical assaultsTable 2 Note 4 310,379 182,056 59 122,182 39 4,474 1
Physical assault level 1 188,728 95,209 50 89,483 47 2,895 2
Physical assault level 2 66,711 40,884 61 24,268 36 1,207 2
Physical assault level 3 5,976 4,140 69 1,604 27 170 3
Incident characteristics
LocationTable 2 Note 5
Private property 8,951 4,721 53 3,633 41 526 6
Open area 1,892 997 53 768 41 104 5
Commercial area 1,165 513 44 572 49 69 6
School 407 178 44 208 51 18 4
Other 794 390 49 343 43 42 5
Unknown 272 148 54 110 40 11 4
Population density regionTable 2 Note 6
Census metropolitan area (CMA) 7,335 3,501 48 3,362 46 396 5
Outside of CMA 6,146 3,446 56 2,272 37 374 6
ProvinceTable 2 Note 7
Newfoundland and Labrador 276 143 52 117 42 13 5
Nova Scotia 493 260 53 170 34 58 12
New Brunswick 338 232 69 70 21 30 9
Ontario 6,026 2,931 49 2,745 46 297 5
Manitoba 1,017 539 53 445 44 30 3
Saskatchewan 955 554 58 358 37 37 4
Alberta 2,210 1,033 47 989 45 153 7
British Columbia 1,814 1,028 57 641 35 134 7
Yukon 99 68 69 27 27 3 3
Northwest Territories 138 84 61 44 32 9 7
Nunavut 115 75 65 28 24 6 5
Weapon presence during sexual assaultTable 2 Note 8
Weapon present 625 345 55 261 42 11 2
Only physical force 12,299 6,311 51 5,146 42 725 6
Unknown 557 291 52 227 41 34 6
Delay in reporting to policeTable 2 Note 9
Reported same day as incident occurred 8,184 4,559 56 3,158 39 384 5
Reported at least one day after 5,179 2,322 45 2,430 47 381 7
Reported more than week after 2,347 1,002 43 1,142 49 180 8
Reported more than one year after 503 215 43 248 49 32 6
Long-term incidentsTable 2 Note 10
Isolated incident 10,211 5,353 52 4,202 41 567 6
Occurred over a one week period or longer 1,990 981 49 869 44 114 6
Incomplete information on incident fileTable 2 Note 11
No unknowns 8,713 4,456 51 3,673 42 506 6
At least one unknown 3,663 1,763 48 1,626 44 236 6
Two or more unknowns 687 318 46 320 47 44 6
Accused characteristics
Accused sexTable 2 Note 12
Male accused 13,341 6,884 52 5,563 42 767 6
Female accused 140 63 45 71 51 3 2
Accused age groupsTable 2 Note 13
Youth (12 to 17 years of age) 1,910 1,122 59 663 35 107 6
Adults (18 and older) 11,568 5,825 50 4,968 43 663 6
18 to 24 2,531 1,421 56 992 39 102 4
25 to 34 3,002 1,567 52 1,244 41 164 5
35 to 44 2,589 1,243 48 1,138 44 193 7
45 to 54 1,967 932 47 910 46 106 5
55 to 89 1,479 662 45 684 46 98 7
Victim characteristicsTable 2 Note 14
Victim sexTable 2 Note 15
Male victim 906 491 54 359 40 40 4
Female victim 11,446 5,720 50 4,926 43 701 6
Victim age groupsTable 2 Note 16
Child (13 and younger) 2,460 1,498 61 797 32 133 5
Older than child (14 and older) 9,880 4,704 48 4,485 45 608 6
Youth (12 to 17) 3,685 2,004 54 1,405 38 248 7
Adult (18 and older) 7,123 3,262 46 3,383 47 414 6
18 to 24 2,837 1,298 46 1,332 47 187 7
25 to 34 2,079 939 45 1,012 49 114 5
35 to 44 1,206 549 46 577 48 71 6
45 to 54 670 323 48 309 46 27 4
55 to 89 331 153 46 153 46 15 5
Physical injury to victimTable 2 Note 17
Minor or major 3,432 1,812 53 1,415 41 164 5
No injury 7,811 3,877 50 3,357 43 506 6
Unknown 1,133 530 47 527 47 72 6
Victim and accused relationship characteristicsTable 2 Note 18
Relationship of victim to accusedTable 2 Note 19
Stranger 2,083 1,080 52 872 42 105 5
Known to victim 10,293 5,139 50 4,427 43 637 6
Intimate partner 2,363 1,183 50 1,085 46 79 3
Parent 626 312 50 265 42 41 7
Other family 1,551 940 61 508 33 89 6
Casual acquaintance 3,564 1,713 48 1,568 44 256 7
Group type (age-based)
Pedophile-perpetrated sexual assaultsTable 2 Note 20 1,693 983 58 590 35 101 6
Pedophile stranger 145 85 59 48 33 5 3
Pedophile known to victim 1,548 898 58 542 35 96 6
Pedophile parent 333 164 49 143 43 21 6
Pedophile other family 491 309 63 148 30 33 7
Pedophile casual acquaintance 381 237 62 120 31 21 6
Peer-perpetrated sexual assaultsTable 2 Note 21 4,196 2,032 48 1,892 45 242 6
Peer stranger 522 257 49 225 43 36 7
Peer known to victim 3,674 1,775 48 1,667 45 206 6
Peer intimate partner 1,417 728 51 634 45 45 3
Peer family 312 180 58 112 36 15 5
Peer casual acquaintance 1,314 604 46 603 46 103 8
Age gap between victim and accusedTable 2 Note 22
Accused older than victim 9,823 4,949 50 4,168 42 616 6
1 to 5 years apart 2,681 1,348 50 1,160 43 155 6
6 to 10 years apart 2,030 1,110 55 786 39 117 6
11 to 15 years apart 1,155 584 51 491 43 66 6
16 or more years apart 3,957 1,907 48 1,731 44 278 7
Same age 561 260 46 268 48 32 6
Accused younger than victim 1,953 993 51 843 43 93 5
1 to 5 years apart 1,032 476 46 487 47 58 6
6 to 10 years apart 364 192 53 155 43 11 3
11 to 15 years apart 212 114 54 80 38 15 7
16 or more years apart 345 211 61 121 35 9 3
Relationship by sex
Female victim, male accused 11,387 5,700 50 4,893 43 698 6
Male victim, male accused 841 460 55 325 39 40 5
Female victim, female accused 59 20 34 33 56 3 5
Male victim, female accused 65 31 48 34 52 0 0
Note 1

Represents the percentage of linked cases completed in adult or youth court (that had at least one sexual/physical assault charge in the case) that received a guilty decision for the most serious offence in the case. Guilty findings include guilty of the offence, of an included offence, of an attempt of the offence, or of an attempt of an included offence. Also includes guilty pleas, and cases where an absolute or conditional discharge has been imposed.

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Note 2

Includes stays as well as court referrals to alternative or extrajudicial measures and restorative justice programs, withdrawals, dismissals and discharges at preliminary inquiry. These decisions refer to the court either putting the charges against the accused on hold or stopping criminal proceedings against the accused.

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Note 3

An acquittal requires that a trial took place and a verdict of not guilty was reached for all the charges presented before the court. This table excludes figures for other decisions including final decisions of found not criminally responsible and waived out of province or territory, any order where a conviction was not recorded, the court's acceptance of a special plea, cases that raise Charter arguments, and cases where the accused was found unfit to stand trial. However, percentages for other categories are presented with other decision counts factored into the denominator.

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Note 4

All sexual assault incident, accused or victim-based counts exclude cases where the most serious offence in the court case linked to a police-reported incident that was not sexual assault (15%). As a result, the 'total sexual assaults' and 'total physical assaults' figures will differ from the sum of the figures that are broken down by incident characteristics, including sexual/physical assault incidents by level. See the "Analytical approach: Court outcomes" section for more information.

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Note 5

Locations of incidents include private property (home or house, dwelling unit or other private property structure); open areas (streets, roads or highways, parking lots, transit bus/bus shelters, subway/subway stations, other public transportation and connected facilities, and other open areas); commercial areas (commercial dwelling units such as motel or hotel rooms, bed and breakfast accommodations, or short term rental units), or other commercial or corporate places); schools (junior kindergarten through to high school or equivalent, universities or colleges, during unsupervised or unsupervised activity); other location types (non-commercial/corporate places, bars or restaurants, hospitals, correctional institutions, convenience stores, gas stations, religious institutions, banks or other financial institutions, construction sites, and homeless shelters/mission locations); or unknown location (the place where the incident occurred cannot be determined).

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Note 6

A census metropolitan area (CMA) consists of one or more neighbouring municipalities situated around a major urban core. A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000 of which 50,000 or more live in the urban core. To be included in the CMA, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census data. A CMA typically comprises more than one police service.

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Note 7

Due to varying provincial court practices, comparison of conviction outcomes by province is not advised and figures are provided for reference purposes only.

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Note 8

Represents the most serious weapon present during the commission of the sexual assault, which does not necessarily mean the weapon was used against the victim. Weapons include any object that could be used in causing or threatening death or injury to a person (e.g., firearm, knife, blunt instrument, etc.), excluding physical force or verbal or gestured threats of injury, which is captured under the 'only physical force' category. Unknown weapons signify incidents where a weapon was present during the sexual assault, however the type of weapon was unknown.

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Note 9

Represents the period of time between the date the sexual assault incident is known or believed to have occurred and the date it was reported to police. Excludes incidents where the incident date was erroneously reported as after the report date. Some categories overlap with others.

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Note 10

Represents the duration of the sexual assault incident as determined by the first incident date (earliest possible date on which the incident could have occurred) to the most recent incident date. Incidents with only one incident date (the most recent) or incidents beginning and ending on the same date are classified as single or isolated incidents, and incidents with a first incident date at least 8 days earlier than the most recent incident are classified as 'long-term' for having occurred over more than a one-week period. Incidents occurring over a period of 2 to 7 days are excluded from this table.

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Note 11

Incidents with incomplete or unknown elements includes having at least one of the following fields on the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey as reported by police as missing or unknown: time of incident, location of incident, presence of weapons, level of physical injury to the victim, or relationship between the victim and the accused. Note that relationship unknowns are based on the records that were imputed, that is, initially reported as unknown relationship type by police but was imputed during UCR processing using the nearest-neighbour approach in matching incidents based on a number of similarities on other variables. For the purposes of this portion of the analysis, the relationship imputation was undone and the initial unknown relationship incidents were kept as a measure of police investigation unknowns. The category 'at least one unknown' overlaps with 'two or more unknowns'.

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Note 12

Excludes incidents where the sex of the accused was unknown.

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Note 13

Represents the age of the accused at the time of the sexual assault incident. Excludes incidents where the accused was under 12 years of age, or where the accused was 90 years of age and older due to data quality concerns. Some age group categories overlap others.

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Note 14

Represents incidents with single victims (incidents where there was only one victim) in order to accurately count and present victim characteristics by attrition outcomes. Incidents without victim information (i.e., no victim identifier) were excluded.

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Note 15

Excludes incidents where the sex of the victim was unknown.

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Note 16

Represents the age of the victim at the time of the sexual assault incident. Excludes incidents where the victim was 90 years of age and older due to data quality concerns. Some age group categories overlap others.

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Note 17

Represents the level of physical injury suffered by the victim as a result of the sexual assault incident as reported by police. Injuries are defined on the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey as: 1) no injuries—no visible physical injury at the time of the incident though weapons or physical force were used; 2) minor physical injury—physical injury that required no professional medical treatment or only some first injury aid (e.g., band aid, ice, etc.); and 3) major physical injury—physical injury that is more than “trifling” or “transient” in nature and that injury required professional medical attention at the scene or transportation to a medical facility. Injury is reported as unknown when the extent of injuries to the victim could not be determined though weapons or physical force that were used against the victim.

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Note 18

Includes sexual assault incidents where a single accused matched to a single victim.

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Note 19

Represents selected relationship types between the victim and their assailant. Accused known to their victims include all relationship types other than stranger. Intimate partner includes boyfriend/girlfriend, ex-boyfriend girlfriend, spouse, ex-spouse, or another intimate relationship type. Parent includes natural father or mother of the victim, the legal guardian, or step-parent of the victim. Other family includes immediate family other than spouse (i.e., natural brother or sister of the victim or step/half/foster/adopted family brother or sister), extended family (all others related to the victim either by blood or by marriage, e.g., grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, sister/brother-in-law, parents-in-law, etc.), and children that are step/half/foster/adopted and therefore assume the same relationships to the extended family as a 'natural offspring'. Casual acquaintance includes social relationships which is neither long-term nor close (includes known, by sight only, etc.). Other relationship types not presented in this table include accused in a position of authority over the victim, friends, business or criminal associates, neighbours, roommates, and reverse authority figures.

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Note 20

Pedophile-perpetrated sexual assaults include incidents where the accused may meet the age-based criteria for pedophilia. This requires that the accused was 16 years of age and older, their victim was 13 years of age and younger, and that there was an age difference of at least five years between them. This grouping does not represent an actual diagnosis of pedophilia by a medical professional, but rather an age-based grouping using accused and victim information, and the fact that the criminal offence was sexual in nature.

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Note 21

Peer-perpetrated sexual assaults include incidents where the victim and the accused were within 5 years of each other's age, and the accused did not qualify as meeting the criteria for a pedophile. For sexual assaults perpetrated by a family member within the same peer age group as the victim, relationships identified as parent are excluded for data quality reasons.

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Note 22

The age gap between the victim and the accused is a measure of the difference in age between two the two parties in years, at the time of the sexual assault incident. Excludes incidents where the accused was under 12 years of age, or 90 years and older, and incidents where the victim was 90 years and older.

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Note: Data represent court decisions for the most serious offence in the case that linked from a sexual/physical assault incident reported by police between 2009 and 2014 to a court case completed in adult or youth court between 2009/2010 and 2014/2015 (that had at least one sexual/physical assault charge in the case). A case combines all charges against the same person having one or more key overlapping dates (date of offence, date of initiation, date of first appearance, or date of decision) into a single case. Data exclude incidents reported by police in Quebec and Prince Edward Island due to missing personal identifiers required to link to court data. Court data exclude cases that were completed in superior court in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan due to the unavailability of data. Excludes police-reported incidents involving multiple accused due to analytical challenges introduced when associating accused characteristics to more than one person. Record linkage is subject to false negative linkage issues where police-reported incidents may not have linked to court cases due to data quality issues in administrative data (e.g., incorrect birthdates or different personal identifiers for the same accused). Decisions do not necessarily reflect verdicts rendered specifically for a sexual/physical assault charge, but rather the outcome of the most serious offence in a case that was associated with a sexual/physical assault incident charged by police. When base figures are low, corresponding percentages should be interpreted with caution.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey and Integrated Criminal Court Survey linked file.
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