Table 4.4
Child and youth victims (0 to 17 years) of police-reported family violence, by sex of victim and type of clearance status, Canada, 2016

Table 4.4
Child and youth victims (0 to 17 years) of police-reported family violence, by sex of victim and type of clearance status, Canada, 2016
Table summary
This table displays the results of Child and youth victims (0 to 17 years) of police-reported family violence. The information is grouped by Type of clearance status (appearing as row headers), Female victims, Male victims and Total victims, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of clearance statusTable 4.4 Note 1 Female victims Male victims Total victims
number percent number percent number percent
Not clearedTable 4.4 Note 2 2,730 29 1,782 26 4,512 28
Cleared by charge 4,349 46 2,813 42 7,162 44
Cleared otherwise 2,440 26 2,134 32 4,574 28
Complainant declined that charge(s) be laid 742 8 567 8 1,309 8
Reasons beyond the control of department 717 8 652 10 1,369 8
Departmental discretion 744 8 776 12 1,520 9
OtherTable 4.4 Note 3 237 2 139 2 376 2
Total 9,519 100 6,729 100 16,248 100
Note 1

For incidents that involve multiple victims, a single clearance status is recorded in relation to each victim in the incident. For instance, if charges are laid in relation to a violation against one of the victims, the clearance status for all victims will be ‘charged.’ Thus, under- or over-counts are possible with respect to clearance status, and this may affect the 26% of family violence incidents that involve more than one victim or accused person.

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Note 2

Includes incidents where an accused person has been identified in connection with the incident, but where there is insufficient evidence to lay a charge or to clear the incident through other means.

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Note 3

Includes suicide of accused, death of accused, death of witness/complainant, accused is less than 12 years of age, committal of accused to mental hospital, accused in foreign country, accused involved in other incidents, accused already sentenced, diversionary programs, incident cleared by a lesser statute, and incident cleared by other municipal/provincial/federal agency.

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Note: Family violence refers to violence committed by parents (biological, step, adopted and foster), siblings (biological, step, half, adopted and foster), extended family members (e.g., grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and in-laws) and spouses (legally married, separated, divorced and common-law). Victims refer to those aged 17 years and younger. Excludes spousal victims under the age of 15 years. Excludes victims where the sex or the age was unknown or where the accused-victim relationship was unknown. Excludes a small number of victims in Quebec whose age was unknown but was miscoded as 0. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding. In cases of domestic violence, every Canadian jurisdiction has implemented some form of pro-charging policies. The particular parameters of these pro-charging policies can vary regionally.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.
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