Table 10
Characteristics of accused persons associated with completed court cases involving a homicide charge and final decision in the case, by Indigenous identity and gender of victim, Canada, 2009/10 to 2020/21


Table 10
Characteristics of accused persons associated with completed court cases involving a homicide charge and final decision in the case, by Indigenous identity and gender of victim, Canada, 2009/10 to 2020/21
Table summary
This table displays the results of Characteristics of accused persons associated with completed court cases involving a homicide charge and final decision in the case. The information is grouped by Characteristics of accused person (appearing as row headers), Indigenous identity and gender of victims, Indigenous women and girls, Non-Indigenous women and girls, Total, Guilty and Not guilty, calculated using number of accused and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Characteristics of accused personTable 10 Note 4 Table 10 Note 5 Indigenous identity and gender of victims
Indigenous women and girlsTable 10 Note 1 Non-Indigenous women and girlsTable 10 Note 2
Total Guilty Not guiltyTable 10 Note 3 Total Guilty Not guiltyTable 10 Note 3
number of accused percentTable 10 Note 6 percent number of accused percentTable 10 Note 6 percent
Age group of accused
12 to 17 years 24 14.2 83 17 34 6.5 76 24
18 to 24 years 46 27.2 52 48 113 21.5 49 51
25 to 34 years 52 30.8 79 21 126 24.0 52 48
35 to 44 years 27 16.0 52 48 114 21.7 55 45
45 years and older 20 11.8 55 45 139 26.4 63 37
Gender of accused
Man 123 72.8 63 37 467 88.8 58 42
Woman 46 27.2 70 30 59 11.2 49 51
Most serious charge laid or recommended by policeTable 10 Note 6
Murder - first degree 35 20.7 57 43 249 47.3 53 47
Murder - second degree 101 59.8 66 34 228 43.3 59 41
Manslaughter 33 19.5 70 30 49 9.3 65 35
Accused involved in illegal activitiesTable 10 Note 7
Yes 23 13.9 57 43 50 9.5 44 56
No 143 86.1 67 33 475 90.5 58 42
Accused has a previous criminal conviction
Yes 119 71.7 63 37 232 44.1 65 35
No 47 28.3 70 30 294 55.9 50 50
Accused consumed alcohol, drugs, or intoxicating substance
Yes 117 69.2 68 32 217 41.3 65 35
No 22 13.0 55 45 182 34.6 50 50
Don't knowTable 10 Note 8 30 17.8 60 40 127 24.1 51 49
Total 169 100.0 65 35 526 100.0 57 43
Note 1

Indigenous victims are those identified by police as First Nations (Status or non-Status), Métis, Inuit, or an Indigenous identity where the Indigenous group was not known to police.

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Note 2

Non-Indigenous victims includes instances where police have confirmed that a victim is not identified as an Indigenous person.

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Note 3

Includes acquittals, stays, withdrawals, dismissals, discharges, and all other final decisions other than findings of guilt.

Return to note 3 referrer

Note 4

As charges against the multiple accused people may refer to the same incident or court case, and may be processed at the same time in the same court case, the total number of accused persons in this table differs from the total number of cases published elsewhere in this analysis.

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Note 5

The sum of the categories and the calculation of percentages exclude missing or not stated values. For that reason, the sum of the categories may not equal the sum of the total.

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Note 6

The charge laid or recommended by police does not necessarily correspond to the charge laid or processed in court.

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Note 7

Refers to accused people who were identified by police as being involved in illegal activities, i.e., activities related to the illegal drug trade, commodification of sexual activities, organized crime or street gangs, human trafficking, fraud, other financial crime, or other illegal activity.

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Note 8

Values of don't know are generally excluded from the calculation of percentages, but in this case have been retained in the analysis as they represent a relatively large proportion of responses.

Return to note 8 referrer

Note: Indigenous identity is reported by the police and is determined through information found with the victim, such as Status cards, or through information supplied by the victims' families, community members, or other sources (i.e., such as band records, or forensic evidence such as genetic testing). Represents all completed cases where incidents successfully linked to at least one charge completed in adult criminal or youth courts in Canada between 2009/10 and 2020/21. The decision is determined at the accused level, refers to the most serious decision in the case, and, in instances where there were multiple victims, is applied to all victims in the case and not necessarily one specific charge or victim. Incidents may not have linked to courts data for multiple reasons, including survey coverage and time required to complete a case. See "Data sources and methodology" for more details about the linkage and methodology.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Homicide Survey and Integrated Criminal Court Survey (linked file).
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