Police-reported sexual assaults in Canada before and after #MeToo, 2016 and 2017

In 2017, sexual violence and sexual misconduct were the centre of significant public discussion. A number of high-profile cases involving prominent figures and celebrities accused of sexual assault or misconduct received widespread media attention, and many victims’ accounts of sexual abuse and harassment were shared. In response, several social media campaigns were launched, with #MeToo being one of the most prominent, going viral in October of 2017. While most of these social media campaigns and cases originated from the United States, they arguably had an impact on the discussion of sexual violence internationally and in Canada.

Recently, Statistics Canada has published a wide range of reports focused on sexual violence, including: a profile of sexual assault victims and their assailants (Rotenberg 2017a), attrition of sexual assault cases in the justice system (Rotenberg 2017b), sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces (Cotter 2016), self-reported sexual victimization, including incidents not reported to the police (Conroy and Cotter 2017), and most recently, sexual assaults classified as ‘unfounded’ by police (Greenland and Cotter 2018) and sexual assault data as part of the 2017 annual crime statistics report (Allen 2018).

The present Juristat article expands on previous analytical reports and focuses on the shifts in police-reported sexual assaults before and after #MeToo, as well as changes in victim characteristics among those who reported to police. It is important to recall that Canada’s most recent victimization survey (2014) showed that only a minority (1 in 20)^Note of sexual assaults are reported to police (Conroy and Cotter 2017), and therefore police-reported sexual assault data do not reflect the true extent of sexual assault and sexual violence in Canada. In addition, because so few sexual assaults are reported to police in the first place, changes in reporting behaviour – such as new reports prompted by #MeToo – are likely to have notable impacts on police-reported data. Consequently, increases in police-reported sexual assaults during this time period may not necessarily reflect increases in the prevalence of sexual assault itself, but rather increases in reporting to police as well as changes in police practices (Text box 3). Nonetheless, these statistics are important in understanding the nature of sexual assaults that are reported to police in Canada, as well as informing criminal justice system planning and workload allocation given the potential increase in resources required at various levels (e.g., policing, courts, and victim services).

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Number of victims of sexual assaults reported by police increased after #MeToo

According to data reported by police in Canada to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey, there were 23,834 victims of founded^Note sexual assaults (level 1, 2 and 3 combined^Note ) in 2017. This translated to a rate of 65.5 victims of sexual assault per 100,000 population, a 13% increase from the previous year (58.0 per 100,000 population). In both 2016 and 2017, 9 in 10 victims were women.

Before and after #MeToo: Defining analytical time periods

Pre- and post-#MeToo time periods were defined to analyze police-reported sexual assaults and their characteristics before and after the social media movement went viral (see Text box 1). The pre-#MeToo period as defined by this study spans January 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017, and the post-#MeToo period includes October 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017.^Note Although #MeToo has been recognized for going viral on social media on or around October 15th, 2017, the whole month of October is included in the post-#MeToo analytical time period because it allows for a more complete temporal analysis on a month-to-month as well as a quarterly basis, and because there was evidence of an increase in incidents reported by police leading up to mid-October. It is important to note that the pre- and post-#MeToo time periods applied in this analysis are not to be taken as rigid characterizations of the social climate around or public attention towards sexual violence. Indeed, attention on sexual violence in Canada did not only begin in October of 2017, and other events, such as a study on unfounded sexual assaults published in The Globe and Mail (see Text box 3), had taken place prior to. Ultimately, the data evidenced a clear jump in sexual assaults reported by police in October of 2017, which reinforced the use of this period as an analytical marker for the purposes of this study.

Data provided by police services in Canada indicate a marked increase in the number of victims^Note of founded sexual assault incidents during the same month that the #MeToo movement first went viral (Chart 1). It should be noted that reporting a crime to police can be done by any party, including the victim, a parent or guardian, or another third party.

There were nearly 2,500 victims of sexual assault reported by police in Canada in October 2017, higher than any other month in 2016 or 2017. This constituted 29% more victims than the month prior, and 46% more victims than in October of the previous year (Chart 2). Historically, there is typically an increase in reported sexual assaults in the summer months, making the sharp increase in October even more noteworthy.

During the post-#MeToo period of October 1 to December 31, 2017, there were 6,766 victims of sexual assault incidents reported to and deemed founded by police (see Text box 3). Because the pre-#MeToo period in this study spans 21 months (January 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017), average quarterly numbers are provided throughout this article in order to better compare the pre-#MeToo period with the three months of post-#MeToo data. Before #MeToo, there was an average of 5,418 victims of sexual assault per quarter, which increased by 25% after #MeToo.^Note These figures translate to an average of 74 sexual assault victims reported to police per day during the post-#MeToo period, up from 59 per day before #MeToo.

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Majority of increase in police-reported sexual assaults after #MeToo was driven by recently-committed crimes

One research question raised in relation to the observed increase in police-reported sexual assaults following #MeToo was whether these cases were historical sexual assaults – that is, whether the conversations prompted by the #MeToo movement drove more victims to come forward to police with experiences that may have occurred months, years, or decades prior. By nature of the offence and the emotional trauma often endured by victims, sexual assaults, relative to other types of violent crime, tend to be reported to police longer after they took place (Rotenberg 2017a).

Though sexual assault is more likely to be delayed in coming to the attention of police relative to other types of crime, according to 2016 and 2017 police-reported data, the majority of sexual assaults that were reported to police had occurred somewhat recently. Both before and after #MeToo, about three-quarters of sexual assaults were reported to police within the month they occurred (77% pre- and 73% post-#MeToo), including about half that were reported the same day they happened^Note (51% and 47%). Of incidents that were not reported the same day they occurred, the median time to reporting to police was just over a month (32 days) for post-#MeToo cases. This was longer than the 3-week median (21 days) it took for pre-#MeToo sexual assaults to come to the attention of police.^Note

Proportionally, a marginal difference was noted when looking at sexual assaults that occurred more than one year before being reported to police. Before #MeToo, 12% of victims reported a sexual assault to police over a year after the incident, compared with a slightly higher proportion (16%) of victims after #MeToo. While proportions were fairly close, after #MeToo, the number of sexual assaults that took place a year prior to being reported was 56% higher than an average quarter before #MeToo (1,043 versus 671). More specifically, the increase in historical sexual assaults was driven by incidents that happened over a decade prior to being reported.

After #MeToo, there were 544 sexual assaults reported that had taken place more than a decade earlier, nearly twice as many as an average quarter before #MeToo (284). While this represented a 92% increase in reports per quarter, decade-old cases still represented a small proportion of sexual assault reports overall (5% pre-#MeToo and 8% post-#MeToo). This, combined with increases in reports of sexual assaults from a few weeks to a year after the incident, meant a 5 percentage point decline in the proportion of sexual assaults reported to police on the same or next day (from 59% before #MeToo to 54% after), though the average quarterly number of these incidents still increased by 14% (Chart 3).

As such, despite increases in historical sexual assaults after #MeToo, which also resulted in longer median times between the incident occurring and being reported, it is important to recognize that the majority of the increase in reported sexual assaults post-#MeToo was driven by recently-committed crimes coming to the attention of police.

Quebec reported largest increase in rate of sexual assaults after #MeToo

Nationally, in the 21 months prior to #MeToo (January 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017), there was an average of 15.0 victims of sexual assault per 100,000 population per quarter, a rate that increased by 24% to 18.6 per 100,000 population after #MeToo (Table 1). Note that analysis of these periods uses average quarterly numbers and rates in order to compare the pre- and post-#MeToo periods. They are therefore not directly comparable with other analytical products which publish annual rates.^Note

As is the case for most violent crimes, the rates of police-reported sexual assaults were highest in the three territories, both pre- and post-#MeToo (Table 1). In the three month period following #MeToo (October 1 to December 31, 2017), Nunavut reported the highest quarterly rate at 113.2 victims per 100,000 population, followed by the Northwest Territories (78.8) and Yukon (41.7). The lowest rates after #MeToo were reported in British Columbia (15.0), New Brunswick (13.4), and Prince Edward Island (12.6).

By far, the largest increase in quarterly rate of police-reported sexual assaults after #MeToo was in Quebec, up by 61% compared to the pre-#MeToo quarterly average (from 12.4 to 20.0 victims per 100,000 population). Newfoundland and Labrador (+36%) and Manitoba (+27%) were the only other provinces or territories to record an increase higher than the national average increase (+24%) after #MeToo (Map 1). Much smaller increases following #MeToo were noted in Saskatchewan (+0.6%) and Prince Edward Island (+3%). A decrease in rate was observed in Yukon (-18%) and the Northwest Territories (-10%), however, the small number of police-reported sexual assaults post-#MeToo in these territories (Table 1) should be taken into consideration when interpreting these changes. Collectively, the three territories saw a small decrease (-4%) in quarterly rate of reported sexual assaults after #MeToo. There are various economic and social factors which may help explain the different trends observed in the territories, one of which may be less widespread use of social media in Northern Canada, as internet access and use is much lower (Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 2017).

Police-reported sexual assaults increased in virtually all census metropolitan areas after #MeToo

Police-reported sexual assault rates varied across Canada’s census metropolitan areas (CMAs)^Note before and after #MeToo. At two times the national quarterly rate (18.6 per 100,000 population), Peterborough reported the highest rate of police-reported sexual assaults after #MeToo (36.3), followed by Winnipeg (30.3), Brantford (29.9), and Kingston (29.7) (Table 2).

Figure 1 shows both the post-#MeToo quarterly rate as well as the change compared to an average quarter prior to #MeToo, with CMAs in the upper right representing those that saw both considerable increases in police-reported sexual assaults and comparatively higher rates of sexual assault after #MeToo. Of note, nearly all CMAs reported an increase in rate of reported sexual assaults following #MeToo (Table 2; Figure 1). Barrie (-33%), Thunder Bay (-17%), Windsor (-5%), and Kelowna (-2%) were the exceptions.

Though Montréal’s quarterly rate of sexual assaults was similar to the national rate (20.0 versus 18.6 per 100,000 population), there were considerable increases in reports in that CMA post-#MeToo. In the last three months of 2017, 821 victims of sexual assault came to the attention of police in Montréal, more than double the average number per quarter pre-#MeToo (331 victims). This translated to a 67% increase in quarterly rate of police-reported sexual assaults after #MeToo. Other CMAs in Quebec saw even larger increases: Québec City (+78%), Sherbrooke (+76%), and Saguenay (+69%). Outside of Quebec, the Ontario CMA of Brantford also saw a considerable increase (+76%).

It is important to consider that increases in rates of sexual assault following #MeToo may not be an indication of an increase in the prevalence of sexual assault, but rather a reflection of changes in reporting behaviours and police classifications, coding practices, or new initiatives. For example, in October 2017, the Montréal Police Service implemented a dedicated hotline for reporting sexual assaults in the wake of #MeToo and high-profile accusations of sexual assault and harassment, both internationally and within Quebec. Other police services in Quebec also urged victims to come forward around this time (Laframboise 2017). These factors likely influenced the high volume of sexual assaults reported to police in late 2017, thereby contributing to the high percent changes in rates in the Quebec CMAs shown in Figure 1.

Sexual assault rates slightly higher in rural areas, but greater increase in urban areas after #MeToo

Overall, in 2016 and 2017, there were more victims of sexual assault in Canada’s urban areas than in rural areas, as urban areas contain a larger proportion of the Canadian population.^{Note Note} When population figures were taken into account, the average quarterly rate of sexual assault was slightly higher in rural Canada, whether before (19.2 versus 14.0 per 100,000 population) or after #MeToo (21.5 versus 17.8). However, the increase in rate of reported sexual assaults in urban areas was more than double that of rural areas after #MeToo, with rural quarterly rates increasing by 12% and urban quarterly rates by 27%. 

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Charge rate for sexual assaults declined after #MeToo as fewer accused were identified by police

Among sexual assaults that were founded by police in 2016 or 2017 (representing 83% of incidents – see Text box 3),^Note the proportion of incidents resulting in charges declined after #MeToo from 36% to 29%. It is important to note that in order to lay a criminal charge, at least one accused must have been identified in connection with the crime and there must be sufficient evidence against the accused to substantiate it.^Note Even when an accused is charged with sexual assault, other research has found that the case often does not go to court or result in criminal conviction, especially when the crime was reported long after it took place or where certain information about the crime was missing (Rotenberg 2017b).

With fewer sexual assaults resulting in charges, there were more cases going uncleared. Of founded sexual assaults, under half (47%) had been classified as not cleared before #MeToo, increasing to more than half (56%) after #MeToo. When an incident is founded but not cleared, it can mean that while there was evidence that a crime occurred, there was no accused person identified in connection with the crime. Overall, the proportion of sexual assault victims with an identified accused in the case was lower after #MeToo (44% versus 53%).^Note

While the proportion of incidents resulting in charges declined and a smaller proportion of incidents had an identified accused person, when only sexual assaults with identified accused persons are considered, the charge rate was in fact the same before and after #MeToo (both 66%). The decline in charge rate at the policing level coincides with the increase in founded but unsolved sexual assaults, which is related to a shift in police reporting practices after national attention on unfounded sexual assaults (Text box 3). A lower charge rate after #MeToo may also be explained in-part by police having a shorter time frame to update the clearance status in longer investigations before the data was sent to Statistics Canada. The increase in historical cases previously noted may have also been a factor, as these cases are less likely to be cleared by charge.

Severity of reported sexual assaults remained the same after #MeToo

While the degree of seriousness of a sexual assault is not something police-reported data alone can speak to, physical injury to the victim, the presence of a weapon, and the level of sexual assault (1, 2, or 3) reported by police can be useful in providing some insight on the severity of the incident. One in four sexual assaults resulted in physical injury to the victim, both before #MeToo (24%) and after #MeToo (23%). The vast majority of these (98%) constituted minor physical injuries that typically did not require medical attention. A weapon was present in a minority (4%) of police-reported sexual assaults in both time periods. Both before and after #MeToo, the vast majority (98%) of sexual assaults were classified by police as level 1 offences, which typically involves violations of a sexual nature without a weapon or evidence of bodily harm (Table 3).^Note The remaining 2% of sexual assaults were level 2 or 3 offences, which consist of sexual assaults with a weapon, causing or threatening to cause bodily harm, or endangering the life of the victim.

Nine in ten victims of police-reported sexual assault were female

Regardless of time period, and as has been the case historically, the vast majority of victims of police-reported sexual assault were women or girls (89%) (Table 3). In the last three months of 2017, police reported that 6,043 women and girls were victims of sexual assault, 25% more than the average quarter pre-#MeToo (4,840). Though men represented far fewer victims, there was likewise a 25% increase in the number of male victims post-#MeToo (723, compared with 578 in an average quarter pre-#MeToo).

Rate of police-reported sexual assaults highest for young women and girls between 12 and 24 years old

Overall, victims of sexual assault were disproportionately young women and girls. Over half (55%) of sexual assault victims in 2016 and 2017 were females under 25 years of age, a proportion which was similar before and after #MeToo.

Young girls aged 15 to 17 had the highest quarterly rates of sexual assault both before and after #MeToo (Chart 4). Girls aged 12 to 14 were victims of sexual assault at an average quarterly rate of 86.2 per 100,000 population before #MeToo, increasing by 48% to 127.9 after #MeToo. Quarterly rates for girls aged 15 to 17 similarly increased from 145.3 to 191.5 (+32%), as did rates for young women between 18 and 24 years old, from 76.4 to 92.6 (+21%). Despite continuing to have relatively low rates, rates for older male victims between 35 and 54 years old nearly doubled after #MeToo (from 1.3 to 2.4 per 100,000 population) (see Table 4).

Bigger increase in sexual assaults after #MeToo committed by someone known to the victim than by a stranger

Police-reported sexual assaults involving all types of perpetrators increased after #MeToo (Table 3; Chart 5). Four in five victims knew their assailant, both before (79%) and after #MeToo (82%). Even in cases where police had not officially identified an accused in connection with the crime, the majority of victims knew the person accused of sexually assaulting them (72% pre- and 79% post-#MeToo). Both before and after MeToo, 16% of police-reported sexual assaults involved a current or former intimate partner and another 16% involved a family member other than a spouse.

Sexual assaults committed by a stranger saw the smallest increase (+6%) between the number of incidents reported in the three months following #MeToo (1,188) and the average quarterly number reported to police before #MeToo (1,116). Larger increases in reporting after #MeToo were seen among sexual assaults involving a friend or roommate of the victim (+35%), followed by casual acquaintances (+28%). Though business relationships represented a small proportion of sexual assaults (6% post-#MeToo), they saw the largest increase in reports after #MeToo (+65%) (Table 3). Business relationships can include sexual assaults perpetrated by co-workers, service providers, or patrons or clients of public services.

More historical sexual assaults against girls reported after #MeToo, males victimized by a family member reporting sooner

Sexual assaults tend to take longer to be reported to police when the victim knew their assailant (especially as a family member), and when the victim was a child (Rotenberg 2017a). As noted above, after #MeToo, there was an increase in sexual assaults reported to police that had occurred more than one year prior. This increase was largely driven by sexual assaults against young girls.

After #MeToo, 14% of all reported sexual assaults against a female had occurred over a year before they were brought to the attention of police. But for those who were under 12 when the incident occurred, nearly half (48%) were reported at least a year after the incident. This represents an increase in reporting of historical sexual assaults (from 38% pre-#MeToo), larger than that for female victims overall (from 11% to 14%). Though less frequent in volume, sexual assaults against young boys were also more likely to have long delays in reporting, but there was no increase in reporting of historical cases after #MeToo.

After #MeToo, sexual assaults committed by a family member against boys and men were reported to police sooner after they happened. Specifically, the proportion of males victimized by a family member who reported on the same or day following the sexual assault increased from 44% to 49% after #MeToo, in contrast to a decrease in same-or-next-day reporting among males victimized by someone outside the family (from 53% to 50%). This shift was even more pronounced among boys under 12.

Increase in sexual assault reports at schools, bars, and restaurants after #MeToo

Both pre- and post-#MeToo, around three in five (62% and 61% respectively) sexual assaults reported to police took place on private property.^Note Incidents which occurred at a school, college, or university represented a small proportion of all incidents reported to police in 2016 or 2017 (5%). Nonetheless, incidents in these locations saw considerable increases after #MeToo, with sexual assaults on school, college, or university property nearly doubling (+87%) compared with the average number reported per quarter before #MeToo (439 versus 235 incidents). Because school attendance is seasonal the post-#MeToo period of October to December 2017 was also compared to the last three months of 2016 to control for seasonality in the data. A 59% increase in number of reported sexual assaults was observed, still making it one of the top types of sexual assault that saw a marked increase in reports after #MeToo.

Coinciding with the largest increases being observed among 12- to 17-year-old victims, the bulk of sexual assault incidents on school property (93% pre-#MeToo and 95% after) took place on non-postsecondary school grounds, most often during supervised activity, rather than at a college or university.^Note Sexual assaults at a bar or restaurant were 46% higher after #MeToo than in an average quarter before #MeToo, though they still represented a small proportion of all reported sexual assaults (3% post-#MeToo) (Table 3).

Recently, attention to sexual violence on college and university campuses has increased, with many institutional and student-led task forces raising concerns and responding to high-profile incidents (Our Turn 2017; University of Ottawa n.d.). In Ontario, the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act mandates that all colleges and universities have a sexual violence policy that addresses sexual violence involving students and outlines the process for responding to incidents and complaints (Bill 132 2016). Many schools below the post-secondary level have also introduced prevention programs, and as was the case with #MeToo, increased levels of awareness surrounding sexual assault and sexual violence may have had an impact on reporting practices.

Increase in youth accused of sexual assault after #MeToo

In about half of sexual assault incidents, police had identified an accused person in connection with the crime (53% for pre- and 44% for post-#MeToo). Police identified 2,788 persons who were accused of sexual assault during the three-month period after #MeToo, which was slightly higher than the average quarterly number of accused persons before #MeToo (2,744). The largest increases in number of accused persons after #MeToo were noted among younger offenders, specifically 12-to-14 year olds (+23%) and 15-to-17 year olds (+26%) (Chart 6).

Sexual assaults perpetrated by a youth aged 12 to 17 represented 17% of cases before #MeToo, increasing to 21% after #MeToo. This was largely attributed to the previously noted increases in sexual assaults of 12-to 17-year old girls, where the accused was often a youth or young adult male.

With the increases in both youth victims and youth accused, the age gap between the victim and the accused narrowed among sexual assaults reported by police after #MeToo. The proportion of victims sexually assaulted by someone in their peer age group (within five years) increased from 46% to 52%, while victimization at the hands of someone six or more years older declined. This shift was true for both female and male victims.

Regardless of time period, virtually all persons accused of sexual assault in 2016 or 2017 were male (97% before #MeToo, and 96% after).

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Summary

Data from Canadian police services suggest that the #MeToo movement coincided with a substantial increase in the number of police-reported sexual assaults, with reports peaking in October of 2017, marking a 46% increase from October of the previous year.

#MeToo had a clear impact on the reporting of sexual assaults in some regions. Provincially, Quebec – where there was significant media attention, prominent figures accused of sexual misconduct, and where many police services introduced dedicated hotlines for reporting sexual assault—saw the largest increase in reported sexual assaults. Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba also saw notable increases. Although sexual assault rates were consistently higher in rural areas, urban areas saw an increase in reports after #MeToo that was more than double that of rural Canada.

Typically, sexual assaults reported to police before and after #MeToo had taken place somewhat recently rather than a long time in the past, though there was an increase in the number and proportion of cases reported to police that were over a decade old. No changes in the severity of sexual assaults reported to police were observed after #MeToo, as most sexual assaults continued to be level 1 offences with less than one in four victims suffering physical injuries.

As was the case before #MeToo, the majority of victims of police-reported sexual assault were female, with young women and girls in particular having the highest rates as well as the largest increases after #MeToo. An increase in younger accused persons, largely close in age to the victim, was also noted after #MeToo.

Police-reported sexual assaults that occurred at a school, college, or university, as well as those involving a friend, roommate, or someone with whom the victim had a business relationship increased after #MeToo.

It is important to recall that an increase in number of police-reported sexual assaults does not necessarily signify an increase in the actual prevalence of sexual assault in Canada, as the data used for this article are based on sexual assaults reported to and classified as founded by police. Based on the most recent available data, only one in twenty sexual assaults were reported to police in 2014 (Conroy and Cotter 2017). Further, 17% of sexual assaults reported to police in 2016 and 2017 were classified as unfounded. For these reasons, the number of victims of sexual assault reported in this study do not capture the true volume of sexual victimization in Canada. That said, they do point to increases in sexual assaults reported by police after #MeToo.

The increase in sexual assaults reported by police after #MeToo is likely best explained by a combination of factors:

1. Victims may have had more sources of support and encouragement to report a sexual assault to police, given the shift in conversations surrounding supporting victims and the sharing nature of the #MeToo hashtag itself.
2. Victims may have been more inclined to identify or recognize that they had been sexually assaulted after becoming more aware of what constitutes a sexual assault, which may have increased the likelihood of reporting an incident, whether it occurred recently or in the past.
3. More police services were encouraging victims of sexual assault to come forward and assuring their support of victims, whether through their own social media channels or in larger-scale projects such as the implementation of sexual violence reporting hotlines. The publicizing of large-scale reviews of past unfounded sexual assault cases by a number of police services may have also served as a sign of support for victims.
4. Many police services recently committed to the revision of what constitutes an ‘unfounded’ sexual assault. Statistics Canada and police services across Canada worked together to develop a new and uniform approach for classifying incidents as unfounded or founded (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics 2018). Although the adoption of the new coding structure is still underway in 2018, police services may have already begun implementing new policies or practices as early as 2017 wherein more sexual assaults may be reported as founded than were previously.

A central outstanding question that cannot be definitively answered by police-reported data is to what extent the rise in sexual assault numbers signifies an increased willingness of victims to report to police. Data collection for the next General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization^Note is planned for 2019. The results of this national survey of Canadians will be able to determine whether there has been a shift in reporting behaviours in the post-#MeToo era. Moving forward, future research using data from police services will also be important in analyzing the longer-term impacts of #MeToo on police-reported sexual assaults beyond the last three months of 2017.

Detailed data tables

Table 1 Victims of police-reported sexual assault, by quarterly #MeToo period and province or territory, Canada, 2016 and 2017

Table 2 Victims of police-reported sexual assault, by quarterly #MeToo period and census metropolitan area, Canada, 2016 and 2017

Table 3 Victims of police-reported sexual assault, by selected characteristics, by quarterly #MeToo period, Canada, 2016 and 2017

Table 4 Victims of police-reported sexual assault, by quarterly #MeToo period and victim sex and age group, Canada, 2016 and 2017

Survey description

Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey

The Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey collects detailed information on criminal incidents that have been reported by Canadian police services, and permits analysis by the date the incident was reported to police. The data includes characteristics pertaining to founded criminal incidents (e.g., weapon use, location, delay in reporting), victims (e.g., age, sex, victim-accused relationship, physical injury) and accused persons (e.g., age, sex, charges laid). In 2016 and 2017, data from police services covered 99% of the population of Canada. Incidents are based on UCR microdata for pre- and post-#MeToo periods as defined by this study, and will not match data from CANSIM tables as these capture annual aggregate-based data.

In 2017, the collection and dissemination of unfounded criminal incidents through the UCR Survey was reinstated (see Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics 2018). Data on unfounded incidents include details on the type of violation, the date the incident was reported to police, and the clearance status (unfounded). Other incident, victim, or accused characteristics that are available through the UCR for founded incidents are not reported or available for unfounded incidents. 2017 data on unfounded incidents may still be subject to inconsistent reporting and therefore be incomparable across police services, as police services implement new standards of classification throughout 2018.

Appendix

References

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