Table 11
Characteristics of incidents 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 11
Characteristics of incidents 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 incidents associated with completed court cases involving a homicide charge and final decision in the case. The information is grouped by Characteristics of incidents (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 incidentsTable 11 Note 4 Table 11 Note 5 Indigenous identity and gender of victims
Indigenous women and girlsTable 11 Note 1 Non-Indigenous women and girlsTable 11 Note 2
Total Guilty Not guiltyTable 11 Note 3 Total Guilty Not guiltyTable 11 Note 3
number of accused percentTable 11 Note 6 percent number of accused percentTable 11 Note 6 percent
Number of victims
Single victim 140 92.1 62 38 405 88.2 57 43
Multiple victim 12 7.9 75 25 54 11.8 57 43
Number of accused
Single accused 114 75.0 66 34 395 86.1 60 40
Two accused 23 15.1 65 35 37 8.1 46 54
Three or more accused 15 9.9 40 60 27 5.9 26 74
Location type
Residential location 112 74.2 66 34 373 81.3 59 41
Non-residential location 39 25.8 54 46 85 18.5 51 49
Other 0 0.0 Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable 1 0.2 0 100
Most serious violation (according to police, not courts)
Murder - first degree 28 18.4 54 46 202 44.0 52 48
Murder - second degree 98 64.5 65 35 208 45.3 60 40
Manslaughter 26 17.1 65 35 49 10.7 65 35
Infanticide 0 0.0 Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable 0 0.0 Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable
Most serious related offence
None 64 42.4 67 33 264 59.6 53 47
Crime against the person 69 45.7 64 36 115 26.0 63 37
Crime against property 4 2.6 25 75 29 6.5 62 38
Other 14 9.3 57 43 35 7.9 66 34
Primary apparent motive
Argument or quarrel 71 49.0 65 35 105 24.8 78 22
Frustration, anger, despair 27 18.6 63 37 120 28.3 52 48
Jealousy or envy 16 11.0 81 19 53 12.5 66 34
Sexual motivation 7 4.8 43 57 15 3.5 47 53
Financial gains, settling of accounts or debts 9 6.2 33 67 40 9.4 48 53
Other motive 4 2.8 25 75 44 10.4 57 43
No apparent motive 11 7.6 82 18 47 11.1 43 57
Total 152 100.0 63 37 459 100.0 57 43
... not applicable
0 true zero or a value rounded to zero
Note 1

Indigenous victims are those identified by police as First Natons (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.

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Note 4

Incident characteristics are based on police-reported data and may not necessarily reflect the information that was presented to the court.

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Note 5

As incidents of homicide may refer to multiple accused people and/or multiple victims and may be processed at the same time in the same court case, the total number of incidents in this table may differ from the total number of cases published elsewhere in this analysis.

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Note 6

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

Return to note 6 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. 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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