Table 5
Case processing times for closed cases in adult criminal court, by type of offence, Canada, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018


Table 5
Case processing times for closed cases in adult criminal court, by type of offence, Canada, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018
Table summary
This table displays the results of Case processing times for closed cases in adult criminal court. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), 2008/2009, 2017/2018, Difference in median length of cases, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018 and median length of case (appearing as column headers).
Type of offenceTable 5 Note 1 2008/2009 2017/2018 Difference in median length of cases, 2008/2009 and 2017/2018
median length of caseTable 5 Note 2 median length of caseTable 5 Note 2
days
Crimes against the person 126 148 22
Homicide 207 286 79
Attempted murder 153 259 106
Robbery 129 181 52
Sexual assault 219 247 28
Other sexual offencesTable 5 Note 3 198 258 60
Major assaultTable 5 Note 4 141 157 16
Common assault 113 128 15
Uttering threats 112 125 13
Criminal harassment 116 147 31
Other crimes against persons 125 154 29
Crimes against property 78 99 21
TheftTable 5 Note 5 56 80 24
Break and enter 97 127 30
Fraud 113 133 20
Mischief 77 92 15
Possess stolen property 84 99 15
Other property offences 88 115 27
Administration of justice offencesTable 5 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 107 122 15
Weapons 129 133 4
ProstitutionTable 5 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
Disturbing the peace 57 63 6
Residual Criminal Code offences 92 99 7
Criminal Code (excluding traffic) 82 104 22
Criminal Code traffic offences 121 113 -8
Impaired driving 120 90 -30
Other Criminal Code traffic offences 128 157 29
Total Criminal Code offences 85 104 19
Other federal statute offences 101 125 24
Drug possession 79 100 21
Other drug offencesTable 5 Note 8 170 218 48
Youth Criminal Justice Act 60 81 21
Residual federal statute offencesTable 5 Note 9 58 1 -57
Total (excluding AOJO-only cases) 102 121 19
Total offences 87 106 19
.. 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

Case lengths are calculated based on the number of days it takes to complete a case, from first appearance to final decision or sentencing for cases with a guilty finding. The median is the point at which half of all cases had longer case lengths and half had shorter case lengths. Excludes cases in which the case length was unknown.

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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 9

The residual federal statutes category is made up of a variety of charges outlined in federal statutes other than the Criminal Code of Canada. The content in this offence category is likely to shift considerably when legislative changes are made. Such changes have an impact on the comparability of data over time.

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Note: A closed case is a case in which all charges against an individual laid out on a single Information filed in the court have received a final decision. 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 that 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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