Table 4
Completion rates in adult criminal court cases, by type of offence, Canada, select years


Table 4
Completion rates in adult criminal court cases, by type of offence, Canada, select years
Table summary
This table displays the results of Completion rates in adult criminal court cases. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), 2008/2009, 2015/2016, 2017/2018, Difference in percentage points, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018 and Completion rate (appearing as column headers).
Type of offenceTable 4 Note 1 2008/2009 2015/2016 2017/2018 Difference in percentage points, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018
Completion rateTable 4 Note 2 Completion rateTable 4 Note 2 Completion rateTable 4 Note 2
percentage
Crimes against the person 99 90 94 -5
Homicide 66 51 73 7
Attempted murder 78 71 85 7
Robbery 94 85 89 -5
Sexual assault 91 78 77 -15
Other sexual offencesTable 4 Note 3 84 81 85 1
Major assaultTable 4 Note 4 100 91 93 -7
Common assault 101 92 98 -3
Uttering threats 99 94 95 -4
Criminal harassment 100 94 95 -5
Other crimes against persons 98 82 94 -3
Crimes against property 99 90 94 -5
TheftTable 4 Note 5 99 89 97 -1
Break and enter 101 90 91 -9
Fraud 99 89 94 -5
Mischief 101 91 94 -7
Possess stolen property 101 91 94 -7
Other property offences 95 84 89 -6
Administration of justice offencesTable 4 Note 6 Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Fail to appear Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Breach of probation Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Unlawfully at large Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Fail to comply with order Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Other administration of justice offences Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Other Criminal Code offences 99 89 94 -5
Weapons 99 88 93 -7
ProstitutionTable 4 Note 7 Note ..: not available for a specific reference period Note ..: not available for a specific reference period Note ..: not available for a specific reference period Note ..: not available for a specific reference period
Disturbing the peace 100 95 100 0
Residual Criminal Code offences 95 91 99 5
Criminal Code (excluding traffic) 100 90 93 -7
Criminal Code traffic offences 97 94 98 2
Impaired driving 96 97 100 4
Other Criminal Code traffic offences 100 88 95 -5
Total Criminal Code offences 100 90 94 -6
Other federal statute offences 92 91 92 1
Drug possession 101 96 98 -4
Other drug offencesTable 4 Note 8 93 88 89 -3
Youth Criminal Justice Act 99 97 95 -3
Residual federal statute offences 65 81 82 18
Total (excluding AOJO-only cases) 97 90 94 -3
Total offences 99 90 94 -5
.. 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

The completion rate is the number of final decisions divided by the number of cases initiated, expressed as a percentage. A completion rate below 100% indicates that the courts closed fewer cases during the year than were initiated.

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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: Cases receiving decisions considered to be temporary in nature, for example, committed for trial in superior court are not included in the count of closed cases as their final outcome is considered to be unknown. As a result, the Backlog Index and completion rate both slightly undercount case completions. The impact of excluding these temporary decisions at the national level is minimal, but when broken down by offence, the more serious offences which are more likely to be transferred to superior court are more heavily affected by this undercount. 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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