Table 3
Cases at risk of exceeding the presumptive ceiling in adult criminal court, by type of offence, Canada, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018


Table 3
Cases at risk of exceeding the presumptive ceiling in adult criminal court, by type of offence, Canada, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018
Table summary
This table displays the results of Cases at risk of exceeding the presumptive ceiling in adult criminal court. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), 2008/2009, 2017/2018, Difference in percentage points, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018 and Cases at-risk (appearing as column headers).
Type of offenceTable 3 Note 1 2008/2009 2017/2018 Difference in percentage points, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018
Cases at-riskTable 3 Note 2
percentage
Crimes against the person 4.3 5.0 0.7
Homicide 4.9 4.8 -0.1
Attempted murder 5.7 4.1 -1.6
Robbery 4.5 4.8 0.3
Sexual assault 5.7 6.0 0.3
Other sexual offencesTable 3 Note 3 6.5 8.1 1.6
Major assaultTable 3 Note 4 5.3 5.3 0.1
Common assault 3.4 4.2 0.8
Uttering threats 3.7 4.0 0.3
Criminal harassment 4.5 5.2 0.7
Other crimes against persons 3.8 4.7 0.9
Crimes against property 6.9 6.7 -0.2
TheftTable 3 Note 5 7.0 7.2 0.2
Break and enter 5.0 5.5 0.6
Fraud 9.5 9.1 -0.4
Mischief 5.2 5.3 0.1
Possess stolen property 6.1 5.4 -0.7
Other property offences 5.4 5.4 0.1
Administration of justice offencesTable 3 Note 6 Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Fail to appear Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Breach of probation Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Unlawfully at large Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Fail to comply with order Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Other administration of justice offences Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Other Criminal Code offences 5.2 4.8 -0.4
Weapons 4.7 4.4 -0.3
ProstitutionTable 3 Note 7 Note ..: not available for a specific reference period Note ..: not available for a specific reference period Note ...: not applicable
Disturbing the peace 6.1 4.8 -1.3
Residual Criminal Code offences 6.2 6.3 0.2
Criminal Code (excluding traffic) 5.9 6.3 0.4
Criminal Code traffic offences 8.2 9.0 0.8
Impaired driving 8.7 9.1 0.5
Other Criminal Code traffic offences 6.6 8.8 2.2
Total Criminal Code offences 6.3 6.6 0.3
Other federal statute offences 6.9 8.1 1.3
Drug possession 4.0 6.2 2.2
Other drug offencesTable 3 Note 8 6.2 8.7 2.6
Youth Criminal Justice Act 8.2 8.1 -0.1
Residual federal statute offences 17.5 12.8 -4.7
Total (excluding AOJO-only cases) 6.2 6.4 0.3
Total offences 6.4 6.7 0.3
.. not available for a specific reference period
... not applicable
Note 1

Cases that involve more than one charge are represented by the Most Laborious Offence (MLO).

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Note 2

At-risk cases refer to the proportion of open cases that are potentially at risk of surpassing the presumptive limits set out in the Supreme Court of Canada’s R. v. Jordan decision in July 2016 that set time limits for the completion of criminal cases, specifically: 18 months for cases tried in provincial court; and 30 months for cases tried in superior court or in provincial court following a preliminary inquiry.

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Note 3

Includes, for example, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, child pornography, luring a child via a computer and sexual exploitation.

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Note 4

Includes, for example, assault with a weapon (level 2) and aggravated assault (level 3).

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Note 5

Includes, for example, theft over $5,000, theft $5,000 or under, as well as motor vehicle theft.

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Note 6

Cases involving only offences against the administration of justice are excluded, refer to Text Box 3 for more information.

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Note 7

Several legislative changes have been made to prostitution-related offences in Canada. Such changes have an impact on the comparability of data over time. Therefore, cases involving prostitution offences are excluded.

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Note 8

Includes drug trafficking, production, importing and exporting.

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Note: The Workload Time Series Database is currently unable to track some cases that are transferred from provincial to superior court, resulting in a potential undercount of the time those cases remain open in court. Offences that are more likely to be transferred to superior court will be disproportionately affected by this undercount, therefore caution should be used when making comparisons between different offence types. Canada excluding Quebec. Data exclude information from superior courts in Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan due to the unavailability of data.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Integrated Criminal Court Survey Workload Time Series Database, 2017/2018.
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