Table 3
Selected sentencing outcomes of police-reported sexual assaults that were convicted in adult criminal court, by selected incident characteristics, Canada, 2009 to 2014

Table 3
Selected sentencing outcomes of police-reported sexual assaults that were convicted in adult criminal court, by selected incident characteristics, Canada, 2009 to 2014
Table summary
This table displays the results of Selected sentencing outcomes of police-reported sexual assaults that were convicted in adult criminal court. The information is grouped by Selected incident characteristics (appearing as row headers), Total, Custody, Probation and Conditional sentence, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Selected incident characteristics Total CustodyTable 3 Note 1 ProbationTable 3 Note 2 Conditional sentenceTable 3 Note 3
number number percent number percent number percent
Total sexual assaultsTable 3 Note 4 6,891 3,846 56 2,006 29 629 9
Sexual assault level 1 5,173 2,861 55 1,564 30 518 10
Sexual assault level 2 141 91 65 32 23 11 8
Sexual assault level 3 50 42 84 3 6 1 2
Total physical assaultsTable 3 Note 4 159,551 57,955 36 75,554 47 8,752 5
Physical assault level 1 84,985 23,630 28 48,370 57 3,405 4
Physical assault level 2 35,079 13,808 39 15,847 45 2,849 8
Physical assault level 3 3,499 2,248 64 690 20 430 12
Incident characteristics
LocationTable 3 Note 5
Private property 3,656 2,184 60 946 26 379 10
Open area 782 417 53 273 35 60 8
Commercial area 439 176 40 189 43 40 9
School 47 12 26 28 60 6 13
Other 322 141 44 131 41 28 9
Unknown 118 64 54 32 27 17 14
Population density regionTable 3 Note 6
Census metropolitan area (CMA) 2,769 1,482 54 985 36 213 8
Outside of CMA 2,595 1,512 58 614 24 317 12
Weapon presence during sexual assaultTable 3 Note 7
Weapon present 271 162 60 77 28 20 7
Only physical force 4,888 2,705 55 1,482 30 484 10
Unknown 205 127 62 40 20 26 13
Delay in reporting to policeTable 3 Note 8
Reported same day as incident occurred 3,630 2,022 56 1,092 30 353 10
Reported at least one day after 1,687 946 56 492 29 175 10
Reported more than week after 680 391 58 174 26 91 13
Reported more than one year after 131 83 63 13 10 31 24
Long-term incidentsTable 3 Note 9
Isolated incident 4,222 2,325 55 1,292 31 415 10
Occurred over a one week period or longer 655 375 57 184 28 72 11
Incomplete information on fileTable 3 Note 10
No unknowns 3,503 1,961 56 1,042 30 340 10
At least one unknown 1,318 740 56 377 29 138 10
Two or more unknowns 240 133 55 57 24 34 14
Accused characteristics
Accused sexTable 3 Note 11
Male accused 5,322 2,977 56 1,583 30 524 10
Female accused 42 17 40 16 38 6 14
Accused age groupsTable 3 Note 12
18 to 24 1,309 734 56 385 29 140 11
25 to 34 1,463 863 59 396 27 132 9
35 to 44 1,123 648 58 316 28 104 9
45 to 54 860 481 56 260 30 82 10
55 to 89 609 268 44 242 40 72 12
Victim characteristicsTable 3 Note 13
Victim sexTable 3 Note 14
Male victim 288 166 58 74 26 29 10
Female victim 4,528 2,531 56 1,344 30 449 10
Victim age groupsTable 3 Note 15
Child (13 and younger) 802 593 74 118 15 62 8
Older than child (14 and older) 4,003 2,099 52 1,295 32 415 10
Youth (12 to 17) 1,436 922 64 318 22 149 10
Adult (18 and older) 2,924 1,433 49 1,031 35 302 10
18 to 24 1,156 587 51 368 32 139 12
25 to 34 847 393 46 321 38 86 10
35 to 44 488 229 47 193 40 38 8
45 to 54 291 144 49 103 35 27 9
55 to 89 142 80 56 46 32 12 8
Physical injury to victimTable 3 Note 16
Minor or major 1,452 863 59 381 26 129 9
No injury 2,962 1,608 54 922 31 308 10
Unknown 407 230 57 116 29 41 10
Victim and accused relationship characteristicsTable 3 Note 17
Relationship of victim to accusedTable 3 Note 18
Stranger 929 486 52 336 36 59 6
Known to victim 3,892 2,215 57 1,083 28 419 11
Intimate partner 1,031 479 46 402 39 84 8
Parent 263 208 79 35 13 13 5
Other family 573 385 67 95 17 74 13
Casual acquaintance 1,313 781 59 330 25 152 12
Group type (age-based)
Pedophile-perpetrated sexual assaultsTable 3 Note 19 802 593 74 118 15 62 8
Pedophile stranger 78 53 68 16 21 5 6
Pedophile known to victim 724 540 75 102 14 57 8
Pedophile parent 135 109 81 16 12 6 4
Pedophile other family 235 177 75 35 15 14 6
Pedophile casual acquaintance 198 152 77 25 13 17 9
Peer-perpetrated sexual assaultsTable 3 Note 20 1,369 638 47 520 38 134 10
Peer stranger 205 106 52 74 36 12 6
Peer known to victim 1,164 532 46 446 38 122 10
Peer intimate partner 605 253 42 267 44 44 7
Peer family 61 31 51 15 25 14 23
Peer casual acquaintance 353 183 52 112 32 46 13
Age gap between victim and accusedTable 3 Note 21
Accused older than victim 3,871 2,191 57 1,097 28 403 10
1 to 5 years apart 881 406 46 332 38 93 11
6 to 10 years apart 776 452 58 198 26 85 11
11 to 15 years apart 488 296 61 118 24 55 11
16 or more years apart 1,726 1,037 60 449 26 170 10
Same age 159 69 43 64 40 16 10
Accused younger than victim 775 432 56 252 33 58 7
1 to 5 years apart 359 184 51 128 36 29 8
6 to 10 years apart 161 93 58 47 29 15 9
11 to 15 years apart 97 53 55 33 34 6 6
16 or more years apart 158 102 65 44 28 8 5
Relationship by sex
Female victim, male accused 4,517 2,529 56 1,337 30 447 10
Male victim, male accused 266 155 58 69 26 26 10
Female victim, female accused 11 2 18 7 64 2 18
Male victim, female accused 22 11 50 5 23 3 14
Note 1

A custodial sentence refers to being sentenced to time in prison or jail.

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Note 2

A probation sentence requires the offender to remain in the community and be subject to particular conditions, such as keeping the peace and appearing in court as required. Probation is mandatory in cases where the accused receives a conditional discharge or a suspended sentence.

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Note 3

A conditional sentence requires that the accused serve his/her sentence in the community under supervision. For a conditional sentence to be imposed, the following conditions must be met: the offence must not be subject to a mandatory minimum sentence; the maximum length of the prison sentence associated with the offence must be less than two years; and the court must have good reason to believe that the offender will not be a threat to the community. The accused who receives a conditional sentence must comply with certain conditions, such as house arrest, curfews, refraining from drinking alcohol or driving, treatment programs or community service orders. The accused may be imprisoned if he/she violates these conditions. The collection of data on conditional sentences in the various jurisdictions is not consistent over time.

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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

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 8

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 9

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 10

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 11

Excludes incidents where the sex of the accused was unknown.

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Note 12

Represents the age of the accused at the time of the sexual assault incident. Excludes incidents that linked to youth court and incidents where the accused was 90 years of age and older due to data quality concerns.

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Note 13

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 14

Excludes incidents where the sex of the victim was unknown.

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Note 15

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 16

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 17

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

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Note 18

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 19

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 20

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 21

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 sentencing outcomes for the most serious sentence in a guilty case (adults only) that linked from a police-reported sexual/physical assault incident with a charge laid or charge recommended between 2009 and 2014 to a court case completed in adult court between 2009/2010 and 2014/2015 (that had at least one sexual/physical assault charge in the case). Excludes youth sentences due to the fundamental differences between adult and youth sentencing principles (see Text box 5 "Justice outcomes for young offenders accused of sexual assault"). 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. 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. Percentages will not add up to 100% because cases may involve more than one type of sentence and because some less frequently imposed sentence types were excluded from this table, including (for linked sexual assault cases): fines (3%) or other types of sentences (3%; this can include restitution, absolute and conditional discharges, suspended sentences, and community service and prohibition orders, among others). The corresponding figures for physical assault were 5% and 6%, respectively. Excludes guilty cases where no sentencing detail was available (7% for sexual assault and 4% for physical assault). 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). Sentencing decisions do not necessarily reflect sentences handed down specifically for a sexual/physical assault charge, but rather the outcome for 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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