Table 5
Characteristics of homicide incidents associated with completed court cases by gender-related status, criminal courts, Canada, 2009/2010 to 2020/2021


Table 5
Characteristics of homicide incidents associated with completed court cases by gender-related status, criminal courts, Canada, 2009/2010 to 2020/2021
Table summary
This table displays the results of Characteristics of homicide incidents associated with completed court cases by gender-related status. The information is grouped by Incident characteristic (appearing as row headers), Gender-related homicide of women and girls, Non-gender-related homicide of women and girls and Homicide of men and boys, calculated using number, percent and percent guilty units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Incident characteristic Gender-related homicide of women and girlsTable 5 Note 1 Non-gender-related homicide of women and girlsTable 5 Note 2 Homicide of men and boysTable 5 Note 3
number percent percent guilty number percent percent guilty number percent percent guilty
Number of victims
Single victim 402 90.7 57.2 250 89.0 49.2 2,379 98.0 49.7
Multiple victims 41 9.3 61.0 31 11.0 51.6 49 2.0 59.2
Total 443 100.0 57.6 281 100.0 49.5 2,428 100.0 49.9
Number of accused
Single accused 402 90.7 60.0 198 70.5 48.0 1,243 51.2 58.5
Two accused 27 6.1 37.0 50 17.8 60.0 498 20.5 46.2
Three or more accused 14 3.2 28.6 33 11.7 42.4 687 28.3 37.1
Total 443 100.0 57.6 281 100.0 49.5 2,428 100.0 49.9
Location type
Residential locationTable 5 Note 4 380 86.0 58.2 192 68.3 50.5 1,349 55.7 51.5
Non-residential locationTable 5 Note 5 61 13.8 54.1 89 31.7 47.2 1,068 44.1 48.2
OtherTable 5 Note 6 1 0.2 0.0 0 0.0 Note ...: not applicable 5 0.2 20.0
Unknown 1 Note ...: not applicable 100.0 0 Note ...: not applicable Note ...: not applicable 6 Note ...: not applicable 16.7
Total 443 100.0 57.6 281 100.0 49.5 2,428 100.0 49.9
Most serious related offence
None 244 57.5 56.6 125 45.6 44.0 1,037 44.3 47.6
Crime against the personTable 5 Note 7 143 33.7 57.3 89 32.5 57.3 1,017 43.4 52.2
Crime against propertyTable 5 Note 8 15 3.5 53.3 25 9.1 52.0 76 3.2 56.6
OtherTable 5 Note 9 22 5.2 77.3 35 12.8 48.6 212 9.1 52.4
Unknown 19 Note ...: not applicable 52.6 7 Note ...: not applicable 42.9 86 Note ...: not applicable 38.4
Total 443 100.0 57.6 281 100.0 49.5 2,428 100.0 49.9
Primary apparent motive
No apparent motive 28 6.8 53.6 39 14.9 46.2 159 6.8 50.9
Argument or quarrel 142 34.3 63.4 73 28.0 67.1 946 40.7 54.0
Financial gain or settling of accounts or debts 15 3.6 46.7 20 7.7 65.0 293 12.6 51.9
Jealousy or envy 71 17.1 63.4 6 2.3 66.7 60 2.6 63.3
Frustration, anger, despair 109 26.3 53.2 61 23.4 44.3 237 10.2 54.4
Revenge 9 2.2 77.8 10 3.8 60.0 159 6.8 40.9
Other motiveTable 5 Note 10 40 9.7 55.0 52 19.9 28.8 468 20.2 43.4
Unknown 29 Note ...: not applicable 37.9 20 Note ...: not applicable 35.0 106 Note ...: not applicable 31.1
Total 443 100.0 57.6 281 100.0 49.5 2,428 100.0 49.9
... not applicable
0 true zero or a value rounded to zero
Note 1

Gender-related homicide cases are solved homicides committed by at least one male accused who killed at least one female victim who was an intimate partner or family member of the accused, who was sexually assaulted during the killing, or who was identified by police as a sex worker.

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Note 2

Non-gender-related homicides of women and girls require that no gender-related criteria are present in the case, but involve at least one female victim.

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Note 3

Homicide cases of men and boys require that no female victims were killed in the same incident.

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Note 4

Includes single homes, dwelling units (e.g., apartment units, condo units), commercial dwelling units (e.g. hotel rooms), nursing homes, retirement homes and community group homes.

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Note 5

Includes parking lots, streets, roads, highways and other open areas (e.g., playgrounds, parks, fields), transit buses and bus shelters, subways and subway stations, and other forms of public transportation and connected facilities.

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Note 6

Includes commercial properties and other corporate places (e.g., banks, bars, restaurants, car dealerships, convenience stores, gas stations, pharmacies), schools (including universities and colleges) during supervised and unsupervised activities, non-commercial locations (e.g., government buildings, community centres, halfway houses, homeless shelters or missions), private property structures (e.g., sheds, detached garages, fishing boats) and other locations (e.g., religious institutions, hospitals, correctional institutions, construction sites, privately owned vehicles, taxis, limousines).

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Note 7

Crime against the person includes all violent Criminal Code offences, e.g., assault, sexual assault, uttering threats, criminal harassment, and robbery.

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Note 8

Crime against property includes non-violent Criminal Code offences, e.g., breaking and entering, theft, mischief, fraud, and arson.

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Note 9

Other includes all other Criminal Code offences (e.g., administration of justice offences), Criminal Code traffic violations, and violations of other statutes (e.g., the Youth Criminal Justice Act).

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Note 10

Includes hate crime, terrorism or security threat, illegal drug trade activities, concealment of a child, intent to conceal information or actions, assisting a suicide, euthanasia, sexual motivations, custody disputes, fear of apprehension, personal protection, honour based and types of motives not otherwise classified.

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Note: Victims and accused persons for whom gender was reported as unknown by police are excluded from this table. Represents all completed cases successfully linked to a homicide reported by police in Canada between 2009 and 2021. 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. Percent calculations exclude unknown locations, related offences and motives. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Homicide Survey and Integrated Criminal Courts Survey linked file.
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