Fact sheet
New Brunswick

Victims of police-reported violent crime in New Brunswick, 2016

There were 8,030 victims of violent crime and criminal traffic offences causing death or bodily harm reported by police in New Brunswick in 2016. This represented 1,061 victims per 100,000 population, above the overall national rate (951) (Table A).
Most (83%) victims of police-reported crime were adults aged 18 and older; 65% were aged 25 and older. Meanwhile, 12% of victims were youth aged 12 to 17 and 4% were children under age 12. When controlling for population, the rate of victimization was highest among young adults aged 18 to 24 and youth aged 16 to 17 (Table 5.1).
Almost two-thirds (62%) of victims of police-reported crime in 2016 were victims of assault: 47% were victims of common assault (level 1) and 12% were victims of major assault (level 2 or 3).^Note Assault victims accounted for almost two-thirds (64%) of adult victims of police-reported violent crime. In comparison, assault accounted for more than half (52%) of child and youth victims (Table 5.1). Rates of assault were highest among young adults.
Overall, 6% of police-reported victims were victims of sexual offences. However, these offences were much more prevalent among child and youth victims that came to the attention of police. Among child victims (under age 12), 16% were victims of sexual assault (almost all sexual assault level 1) and another 17% were victims of sexual violations against children.^Note For youth victims (aged 12 to 17), 14% were victims of sexual assault (almost all sexual assault level 1) and 9% were victims of sexual violations against children (Table 5.1). Among victims of all ages, rates of police-reported sexual assault were highest among youth aged 16 to 17 while sexual violations against children were highest among youth aged 12 to 15 years.
Over one-quarter (30%) of police-reported victims in 2016 were victims of other violent offences including uttering threats (20%) (Table 5.1).
While just over half (54%) of police-reported victims were female, they represented a much larger proportion of victims of sexual offences (87%) and of some other violent offences such as criminal harassment (79%) and indecent and harassing communications (71%) (Table 5.2).
Assault was the most common police-reported offence among both male (67%) and female (58%) victims in 2016. Meanwhile, 10% of female victims were victims of sexual offences (8% sexual assault—mostly level 1—and 3% sexual violations against children). In comparison, 2% of males were victims of sexual offences (Table 5.2).
Male and female victims of police-reported sexual offences differed notably by age. Overall, among female victims of all sexual offences, 65% were either children under the age of 12 (19%) or youth aged 12 to 17 (45%). Of all female child and youth victims, 39% were victims of sexual offences: 23% were sexual assault and 16% were sexual violations against children (Table 5.3).
Compared to females, a much larger proportion (78%) of male victims of police-reported sexual offences were either children (44%) or youth (34%). Despite this, sexual offences were still less common among young male children and youth, representing 9% of victims (compared to 39% for their female counterparts). Instead, assault was the most common (68%) offence for male child and youth victims (Table 5.3).

Victim services in New Brunswick

In New Brunswick, the Department of Justice and Public Safety Victim Services offers a system-based program that assists victims as their cases proceed through the criminal justice system. New Brunswick’s victim services offices are located in 15 communities, and serve victims of both violent and non-violent offences that have been reported to police. Services for victims are also available through municipal police services in Saint John and Fredericton, as well as the Codiac Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Greater Moncton Region. In addition, specialized community-based programs such as the Domestic Violence Outreach Program, the Fredericton Sexual Assault Centre, transition homes and specialized services for Indigenous victims are available.

The information provided below is limited to data on victims of police-reported incidents referred to the provincial Victim Services Program through police, Crown prosecutors, courts and other organizations, as well as victims seeking assistance from the program directly.^Note

In 2016, the New Brunswick Victim Services Program assisted 4,942 direct victims of crime, and 338 family members of victims.^Note
Children and youth accounted for 12% of direct victims assisted by the program.
Just over half (53%) of direct victims were female.
Of direct victims who received services from the Victim Services Program, 44% were victims of a violent crime.^Note One-quarter (25%) were victims of physical assault, and another 2% were victims of sexual assault. Half (51%) of sexual assault victims were under age 18 (38 victims). There were another 45 victims who were direct victims of specific sexual violations against children.^Note Over half (53%) of victims served were victims of a non-violent offence such as theft or break and enter. Another 80 individuals who received assistance were victims of traffic offences.
In 2016, New Brunswick Victim Services provided 3,444 Victim Impact Statements, of the Statements requested, 959 Victim Impact Statements were completed and submitted to court services. 2,485 Statements were declined by victims.^Note

Note: Percentages have been calculated excluding unknowns. Percentages may not add up to totals due to rounding. Not all percentages presented in the text are provided in the tables. No tables are provided for the Canadian Victim Services Indicators (CVSI) data.

Detailed data tables

Table 5.1
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and age group of victim, New Brunswick, 2016
Table summary
This table displays the results of Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Age group, Total victims, Child victims
under 12 years, Youth victims, Adult victims, 12 to 15 years, 16 to 17 years, 18 to 24 years and 25 years and older, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Age group										Total victims^{Table 5.1 Note 1}
	Child victims under 12 years		Youth victims				Adult victims
	Child victims under 12 years		12 to 15 years		16 to 17 years		18 to 24 years		25 years and older
	number	percent^{Table 5.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 5.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 5.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 5.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 5.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 5.1 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	38	13	62	21	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 5.1 Note 2}	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	29	10	71	14	100
Attempted murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	57	3	43	7	100
Sexual offences	117	23	163	32	62	12	73	14	100	19	516	100
Sexual assault	57	16	79	22	58	16	73	20	100	27	368	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	1	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	100
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	0	0	1	13	1	13	2	25	4	50	8	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	56	16	78	22	57	16	71	20	96	27	359	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 5.1 Note 3}	60	41	84	57	4	3	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	148	100
Assaults	179	4	325	7	183	4	961	19	3,297	67	4,985	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	2	4	2	4	0	0	14	27	34	65	53	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	33	4	44	5	34	4	195	22	572	65	880	100
Assault (level 1)	141	4	278	7	147	4	724	19	2,459	66	3,783	100
Other^{Table 5.1 Note 4}	3	1	1	0	2	1	28	11	232	87	269	100
Other violent offences	52	2	134	6	103	4	401	17	1,738	72	2,445	100
Robbery	0	0	4	2	6	4	28	17	131	78	170	100
Criminal harassment	0	0	13	4	13	4	47	15	243	77	321	100
Indecent/harassing communications	3	1	5	2	4	2	35	14	204	81	254	100
Uttering threats	32	2	99	6	74	5	264	17	1,098	70	1,575	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	4	10	0	0	1	2	10	24	26	63	41	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	25	3	75	4	100
Other^{Table 5.1 Note 5}	13	16	13	16	5	6	16	20	33	41	80	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 5.1 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 5.1 Note 6}	1	14	0	0	0	0	3	43	3	43	7	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 5.1 Note 6}	5	9	2	4	1	2	16	29	32	57	56	100
Total victims	354	4	624	8	349	4	1,462	18	5,183	65	8,030	100
... not applicable Note 1 Total victims includes victims where the age was unknown. Percentage calculations exclude victims where the age was unknown. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Excludes Criminal Code traffic violations causing death such as impaired driving. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code offences that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assault and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the "Definitions" section for a full list of offences in this category. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes assaults against police and other peace officers, and other types of assaults such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes violent firearm offences, extortion and other violent violations. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop and other Criminal Code traffic violations. Return to note 6 referrer Note: Victims refer to those aged 89 years and younger. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. For police-reported incidents that involve violations against the person, a victim record is collected for each victim involved in the incident. If an individual is a victim in multiple incidents in the same reference year, that individual will be counted as one victim for each separate incident. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Table 5.2
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and sex of victim, New Brunswick, 2016
Table summary
This table displays the results of Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm. The information is grouped by Type of offence (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 offence	Female victims		Male victims		Total victims^{Table 5.2 Note 1}
Type of offence	number	percent^{Table 5.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 5.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 5.2 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	5	24	16	76	21	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 5.2 Note 2}	4	29	10	71	14	100
Attempted murder	1	14	6	86	7	100
Sexual offences	448	87	68	13	516	100
Sexual assault	328	89	40	11	368	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	1	100	0	0	1	100
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	7	88	1	13	8	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	320	89	39	11	359	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 5.2 Note 3}	120	81	28	19	148	100
Assaults	2,506	51	2,446	49	4,985	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	11	21	42	79	53	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	325	37	554	63	880	100
Assault (level 1)	2,129	56	1,651	44	3,783	100
Other^{Table 5.2 Note 4}	41	17	199	83	269	100
Other violent offences	1,369	56	1,067	44	2,445	100
Robbery	69	41	101	59	170	100
Criminal harassment	252	79	69	21	321	100
Indecent/harassing communications	179	71	74	29	254	100
Uttering threats	775	49	792	51	1,575	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	33	80	8	20	41	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	4	100	0	0	4	100
Other^{Table 5.2 Note 5}	57	71	23	29	80	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 5.2 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 5.2 Note 6}	1	14	6	86	7	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 5.2 Note 6}	23	41	33	59	56	100
Total victims	4,352	54	3,636	46	8,030	100
Note 1 Total victims includes victims where the sex was unknown. Percentage calculations exclude victims where the sex was unknown. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Excludes Criminal Code traffic violations causing death such as impaired driving. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code offences that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assault and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the "Definitions" section for a full list of offences in this category. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes assaults against police and other peace officers, as well as other types of assaults such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes violent firearm offences, extortion and other violent violations. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop and other Criminal Code traffic violations. Return to note 6 referrer Note: Victims refer to those aged 89 years and younger. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. For police-reported incidents that involve violations against the person, a victim record is collected for each victim involved in the incident. If an individual is a victim in multiple incidents in the same reference year, that individual will be counted as one victim for each separate incident. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Table 5.3
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and sex and age group of victim, New Brunswick, 2016
Table summary
This table displays the results of Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Age group, Total victims, Child victims
under 12 years, Youth victims
12 to 17 years and Adult victims
18 years and older, calculated using Number, rate and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Age group									Total victims^{Table 5.3 Note 1}
	Child victims under 12 years			Youth victims 12 to 17 years			Adult victims 18 years and older			Total victims^{Table 5.3 Note 1}
	number	rate	percent^{Table 5.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 5.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 5.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 5.3 Note 1}
Female victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 5.3 Note 2}	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	2	100	5	1	100
Sexual offences	87	203	19	202	895	45	158	51	35	448	117	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	43	100	13	126	558	39	158	51	48	328	86	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 5.3 Note 3}	44	103	37	76	337	63	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	120	31	100
Assaults^{Table 5.3 Note 4}	60	140	2	227	1,006	9	2,198	703	88	2,506	654	100
Other violent offences^{Table 5.3 Note 5}	21	49	2	138	611	10	1,201	384	88	1,369	357	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 5.3 Note 6}	2	5	8	1	4	4	21	7	88	24	6	100
Total female victims	170	397	4	568	2,517	13	3,583	1,146	83	4,352	1,136	100
Male victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 5.3 Note 2}	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	5	100	16	4	100
Sexual offences	30	67	44	23	94	34	15	5	22	68	18	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	14	31	35	11	45	28	15	5	38	40	11	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 5.3 Note 3}	16	36	57	12	49	43	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	28	7	100
Assaults^{Table 5.3 Note 4}	118	264	5	281	1,152	12	2,031	670	84	2,446	654	100
Other violent offences^{Table 5.3 Note 5}	31	69	3	99	406	9	929	307	88	1,067	285	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 5.3 Note 6}	4	9	10	2	8	5	33	11	85	39	10	100
Total male victims	183	410	5	405	1,660	11	3,024	998	84	3,636	972	100
Total victims^{Table 5.3 Note 7}	354	405	4	973	2,071	12	6,645	1,079	83	8,030	1,061	100
... not applicable Note 1 Total victims includes victims where the age was unknown. Percentage calculations exclude victims where the age was unknown. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Includes homicide, other offences causing death and attempted murder. Excludes Criminal Code traffic violations causing death such as impaired driving. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code offences that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assault and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the "Definitions" section for a full list of offences in this category. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes assault (level 1, 2 and 3), assaults against police and other peace officers, and other types of assaults such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes robbery; criminal harassment; incident/harassing communications; uttering threats; kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking; trafficking in persons and prostitution; violent firearm offences; extortion; and other violent violations. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes impaired driving, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop and other Criminal Code traffic violations. Return to note 6 referrer Note 7 Includes victims where the sex was unknown. Return to note 7 referrer Note: Victims refer to those aged 89 years and younger. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations based upon July 1st estimates from Statistics Canada, Demography Division. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. For police-reported incidents that involve violations against the person, a victim record is collected for each victim involved in the incident. If an individual is a victim in multiple incidents in the same reference year, that individual will be counted as one victim for each separate incident. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Notes

Note

The remaining assaults include other assaults such as assault against a peace officer.

Return to note referrer

Note

Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code violations that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assaults and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the "Definitions" section for a full list of offences in this category.

Return to note referrer

Note

Because of differences in the definition of victims and methods of counting, these victim counts should not be compared to victim counts for other provinces and territories. Moreover, these counts should also not be compared to the count of police-reported victims from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Return to note referrer

Note

Data includes all victims referred to the Victim Services Program, whether or not an offender has been identified. The count of victims is based on the number of referrals. For some victims of multiple incidents (repeat victims), there may be only a single referral and the victim is counted once. In other instances, there may be multiple referrals for a single individual. In some cases, a victim “self-refers”, but in all cases there must be a police report.

Return to note referrer

Note

Information by offences is based on victims where an offender has been identified.

Return to note referrer

Note

This includes some adult survivors of sexual violations against children. Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code offences that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assault and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the "Definitions" section for a full list of offences in this category.

Return to note referrer

Note

Victim Impact Statements in New Brunswick are provided and prepared only at the request of the courts once an offender has pleaded or been found guilty.

Return to note referrer

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Fact sheet
New Brunswick

Victims of police-reported violent crime in New Brunswick, 2016

Victim services in New Brunswick

Detailed data tables

Fact sheet New Brunswick

Victims of police-reported violent crime in New Brunswick, 2016

Victim services in New Brunswick

Detailed data tables

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Fact sheet
New Brunswick