Fact sheet
Saskatchewan

Victims of police-reported violent crime in Saskatchewan, 2016

There were 20,904 victims of violent crime and criminal traffic offences causing death or bodily harm reported by police in Saskatchewan in 2016. This represented 1,840 victims per 100,000 population, the highest rate among the provinces (Table A).
Most (82%) victims of police-reported crime were adults aged 18 and older; 60% were aged 25 and older. Meanwhile, 13% of victims were youth aged 12 to 17 and 5% 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. Children and youth (9 victims) represented 15% of all victims of homicide and other offences causing death^Note (Table 9.1).
Three-quarters (75%) of victims of police-reported crime in 2016 were victims of assault, the highest percentage among the provinces: 51% were victims of common assault (level 1) and 20% were victims of major assault (level 2 or 3).^Note Assault victims accounted for four in five (78%) of adult victims of police-reported violent crime. In comparison, assault accounted for three-fifths (60%) of child and youth victims (Table 9.1). Rates of assault were highest among young adults.
Overall, 7% 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), 15% were victims of sexual assault (almost all sexual assault level 1) and another 15% were victims of sexual violations against children.^Note For youth victims (aged 12 to 17), 12% were victims of sexual assault (almost all sexual assault level 1) and 6% were victims of sexual violations against children (Table 9.1). 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.
Approximately one in eight (16%) police-reported victims in 2016 were victims of other violent offences including uttering threats (9%) (Table 9.1).
While over half (56%) of police-reported victims were female—along with Manitoba, the highest percentage among the provinces—they represented a much larger proportion of victims of sexual offences (88%) and of some other violent offences such as criminal harassment (76%) and indecent and harassing communications (73%) (Table 9.2).
Assault was the most common police-reported offence among both male (77%) and female (73%) victims in 2016. Meanwhile, 11% of female victims were victims of sexual offences (9% sexual assault—mostly level 1—and 2% sexual violations against children). In comparison, 2% of males were victims of sexual offences (Table 9.2).
Male and female victims of police-reported sexual offences differed notably by age. Overall, among female victims of sexual offences, 52% were either children under the age of 12 (20%) or youth aged 12 to 17 (33%). Of all female child and youth victims, 32% were victims of sexual offences: 20% were sexual assault and 12% were sexual violations against children (Table 9.3).
Compared to females, a much larger proportion (75%) of male victims of police-reported sexual offences were either children (46%) or youth (28%). Despite this, sexual offences were still less common among young male children and youth, representing 8% of victims (compared to 32% for their female counterparts). Instead, assault was the most common (70%) offence for male child and youth victims (Table 9.3).

Victim services in Saskatchewan

In Saskatchewan, a range of programs and services are available to assist victims of crime immediately after they have been victimized, and throughout the criminal justice process. In addition to police-based victim services programs, community-based organizations deliver services to domestic violence victims, children who have been exposed to violence and Indigenous family violence programs. Furthermore, there are two restitution programs that increase the amount of restitution collected and paid to victims, and additional prosecution-based victim/witness programs available to provide court orientation and support to children and other vulnerable adult witnesses required to testify in court. These victim services programs are supported by Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Justice which also provides a compensation program for victims.

The information provided here reflects data reported by police-based victim services programs funded by the Ministry of Justice.^Note Some individuals who are victims in repeat incidents (e.g., domestic violence victims) may be counted once if they are served by the same victim service program. Victims assisted more than once, but in different locations, may be counted more than once.

In 2016, police-based victim services programs in Saskatchewan assisted 11,933 direct victims of crime.
Children and youth accounted for 14% of direct victims assisted by the program.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of direct victims served were female.
Most direct victims who received assistance (75%) were victims of violent crime.^Note About two-fifths (41%) were victims of physical assault, and another 7% were victims of sexual assault. Over one-third (37%) of sexual assault victims were under age 18 (305 victims), and another 142 individuals were victims of specific sexual violations against children.^Note Almost one-quarter (23%) of direct victims served were victims of a non-violent offence such as theft or fraud.
In 2016, police-based victim services in Saskatchewan assisted with the preparation and filing of 2,402 Victim Impact Statements to the courts.

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 9.1
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and age group of victim, Saskatchewan, 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 9.1 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 9.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 9.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 9.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 9.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 9.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 9.1 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	6	5	7	6	4	3	34	27	74	59	125	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 9.1 Note 2}	6	10	1	2	2	3	17	29	33	56	59	100
Attempted murder	0	0	6	9	2	3	17	26	41	62	66	100
Sexual offences	347	23	360	24	133	9	266	17	417	27	1,526	100
Sexual assault	177	15	207	17	126	11	266	22	417	35	1,196	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	1	6	0	0	1	6	2	13	12	75	16	100
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	0	0	3	18	4	24	4	24	6	35	17	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	176	15	204	18	121	10	260	22	399	34	1,163	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 9.1 Note 3}	170	52	153	46	7	2	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	330	100
Assaults	643	4	882	6	794	5	3,470	22	9,808	63	15,605	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	6	1	12	3	20	5	115	28	263	63	416	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	148	4	209	5	230	6	913	24	2,345	61	3,847	100
Assault (level 1)	473	4	651	6	529	5	2,344	22	6,563	62	10,566	100
Other^{Table 9.1 Note 4}	16	2	10	1	15	2	98	13	637	82	776	100
Other violent offences	134	4	303	9	213	6	630	18	2,160	63	3,440	100
Robbery	12	1	73	9	59	7	204	25	461	57	809	100
Criminal harassment	2	1	17	7	16	7	35	15	166	70	236	100
Indecent/harassing communications	0	0	21	13	10	6	22	14	109	67	162	100
Uttering threats	77	4	158	8	104	5	290	15	1,284	67	1,913	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	32	19	5	3	7	4	45	27	77	46	166	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	0	0	1	17	0	0	3	50	2	33	6	100
Other^{Table 9.1 Note 5}	11	7	28	19	17	11	31	21	61	41	148	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 9.1 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 9.1 Note 6}	4	15	1	4	0	0	5	19	16	62	26	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 9.1 Note 6}	8	4	7	4	13	7	43	24	111	61	182	100
Total victims	1,142	5	1,560	7	1,157	6	4,448	21	12,586	60	20,904	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 9.2
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and sex of victim, Saskatchewan, 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 9.2 Note 1}
Type of offence	number	percent^{Table 9.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 9.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 9.2 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	26	21	99	79	125	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 9.2 Note 2}	14	24	45	76	59	100
Attempted murder	12	18	54	82	66	100
Sexual offences	1,337	88	185	12	1,526	100
Sexual assault	1,069	90	124	10	1,196	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	12	75	4	25	16	100
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	16	94	1	6	17	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	1,041	90	119	10	1,163	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 9.2 Note 3}	268	81	61	19	330	100
Assaults	8,493	55	7,050	45	15,605	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	108	26	308	74	416	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	1,593	41	2,252	59	3,847	100
Assault (level 1)	6,579	62	3,972	38	10,566	100
Other^{Table 9.2 Note 4}	213	29	518	71	776	100
Other violent offences	1,724	51	1,689	49	3,440	100
Robbery	267	33	542	67	809	100
Criminal harassment	178	76	55	24	236	100
Indecent/harassing communications	119	73	43	27	162	100
Uttering threats	925	49	965	51	1,913	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	123	74	43	26	166	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	5	100	0	0	6	100
Other^{Table 9.2 Note 5}	107	72	41	28	148	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 9.2 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 9.2 Note 6}	9	36	16	64	26	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 9.2 Note 6}	87	48	93	52	182	100
Total victims	11,676	56	9,132	44	20,904	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 9.3
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, Saskatchewan, 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 9.3 Note 1}
	Child victims under 12 years			Youth victims 12 to 17 years			Adult victims 18 years and older			Total victims^{Table 9.3 Note 1}
	number	rate	percent^{Table 9.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 9.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 9.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 9.3 Note 1}
Female victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 9.3 Note 2}	2	2	8	3	8	12	21	5	81	26	5	100
Sexual offences	261	300	20	438	1,108	33	635	148	48	1,337	237	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	129	148	12	302	764	28	635	148	60	1,069	190	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 9.3 Note 3}	132	152	49	136	344	51	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	268	48	100
Assaults^{Table 9.3 Note 4}	256	295	3	877	2,218	10	7,359	1,713	87	8,493	1,508	100
Other violent offences^{Table 9.3 Note 5}	54	62	3	267	675	15	1,403	327	81	1,724	306	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 9.3 Note 6}	2	2	2	11	28	11	83	19	86	96	17	100
Total female victims	575	662	5	1,596	4,037	14	9,501	2,212	81	11,676	2,073	100
Male victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 9.3 Note 2}	4	4	4	8	19	8	87	20	88	99	17	100
Sexual offences	86	95	46	52	123	28	47	11	25	185	32	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	48	53	39	29	69	23	47	11	38	124	22	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 9.3 Note 3}	38	42	62	23	54	38	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	61	11	100
Assaults^{Table 9.3 Note 4}	385	425	5	798	1,886	11	5,861	1,341	83	7,050	1,230	100
Other violent offences^{Table 9.3 Note 5}	79	87	5	248	586	15	1,362	312	81	1,689	295	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 9.3 Note 6}	10	11	9	10	24	9	89	20	82	109	19	100
Total male victims	564	622	6	1,116	2,637	12	7,446	1,704	82	9,132	1,594	100
Total victims^{Table 9.3 Note 7}	1,142	643	5	2,717	3,319	13	17,034	1,966	82	20,904	1,840	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

Excludes Criminal Code traffic violations causing death such as impaired driving.

Return to note referrer

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

Counts represent individuals served as new referrals in the reference year. Includes secondary victims (families) counted once per victim.

Return to note referrer

Note

This may include 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

Date modified:: 2018-05-30

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Fact sheet
Saskatchewan

Victims of police-reported violent crime in Saskatchewan, 2016

Victim services in Saskatchewan

Detailed data tables

Fact sheet Saskatchewan

Victims of police-reported violent crime in Saskatchewan, 2016

Victim services in Saskatchewan

Detailed data tables

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Fact sheet
Saskatchewan