Table 4
Characteristics of police-reported physical assault and clearance and court outcomes, Canada, 2010 to 2019

Table 4
Characteristics of police-reported physical assault and clearance and court outcomes, Canada, 2010 to 2019 Table summary
This table displays the results of Characteristics of police-reported physical assault and clearance and court outcomes, Canada, 2010 to 2019. The information is grouped by Characteristic (appearing as row headers), Went to court2, Charges laid or recommended, 2015 to 20191, 2010 to 20141, Did not go to court2 and Incidents, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Characteristic 2010 to 2014 Table 4 Note 1 2015 to 2019 Table 4 Note 1
Incidents Charges laid or recommended Went to court Table 4 Note 2 Did not go to court Table 4 Note 2 Incidents Charges laid or recommended Went to court Table 4 Note 2 Did not go to court Table 4 Note 2
number number percent percent number number percent percent
Note 1

The time period represents the year in which the incident was reported to police, and not necessarily the time period during which the related charges were processed in court.

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Note 2

"Went to court" means that the incident was successfully linked to a completed court case between 2009/2010 and 2021/2022. The court case to which the incident was linked did not necessarily retain a specific charge for sexual assault, once heard in court. See Methodology and data sources for greater detail. The term "did not go to court" is the residual of all incidents where charges were laid or recommended, after subtracting those that were linked to a completed court case.

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Note 3

There are many differences between provinces and territories, in terms of demographics, resources, policies, data quality, and data availability. These differences can have a notable impact on charging and retention. For that reason, direct comparisons between provinces are not recommended.

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Note 4

An urban area is defined as a census metropolitan area (CMA) or a census agglomeration (CA). A CMA consists of one or more neighbouring municipalities situated around a major urban core. A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000, of which 50,000 or more live in the urban core. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census data. A CA must have a core population of at least 10,000. Rural areas are all areas outside of CMAs and CAs.

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Note 5

The Provincial South includes Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the southern regions of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Provincial North and Territories includes the northern regions of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Territories.

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Note 6

Due to data quality concerns, excludes the province of Quebec unless the most serious weapon present was a firearm, and data from the Québec City Police Service is excluded regardless of most serious weapon present.

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Note 7

Based on the end date of an incident and the date it was reported to police.

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Note 8

Includes single homes, private and commercial dwelling units, and group housing (e.g., nursing homes, retirement homes, community group homes).

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Note 9

Includes private property structures other than dwellings, commercial locations, schools, hospitals, public transit, streets or other open areas, and other public places.

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Note 10

Victims and accused persons older than 110 years were coded as unknown due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category, as were certain victims whose age was reported as 80 and older, but were identified as possible instances of miscoding.

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Note 11

Includes current and former legally married spouses, common-law partners and dating partners (i.e., boyfriends, girlfriends), and other intimate partners (e.g., one-night stands). Victims of spousal violence include those aged 15 and older, and victims of dating violence include those aged 12 and older.

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Note 12

Includes biological, step, adoptive and foster parents.

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Note 13

Includes all other family members related by blood, marriage (including common-law) or adoption (e.g., siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and in-laws).

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Note 14

Includes neighbours, roommates, authority figures, reverse authority figures (e.g., student-to-teacher, patient-to-doctor), business relationships and criminal relationships (i.e., relationships based on illegal activities).

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Note 15

Includes injuries that required no professional medical treatment or only some first aid (e.g., bandage, ice).

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Note 16

Includes injuries that required professional medical attention at the scene or transportation to a medical facility.

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Note 17

Percentages for charges laid or recommended are not directly comparable with those for incidents or victims, as information on accused persons is only available for incidents that are solved in some way.

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Note 18

Excludes a small number of accused persons identified as being under the age of 12. Persons under 12 cannot be held criminally responsible in Canada.

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Note: The sum of the categories may not add up to the total as unknown values are not always displayed. As there can be multiple victims in an incident, the sum of victims does not equal the sum of incidents. Similarly, as not all incidents result in the identification of an accused person, and there can be multiple accused persons in the same incident, the sum of accused persons can also differ. For victim data, offences reflect the most serious violation against the victim. For incident and accused data, offences reflect the most serious violation in the incident. Physical assault includes level 1, 2 and 3 physical assault.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey and Integrated Criminal Courts Survey (linked file).
Total incidents 951,844 482,999 51 82 18 986,471 494,693 50 80 20
Incident characteristics  
Violation  
Aggravated assault (level 3) 14,626 11,337 78 85 15 15,943 12,464 78 84 16
Assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (level 2) 206,668 124,266 60 84 16 226,309 136,417 60 83 17
Common assault (level 1) 730,550 347,396 48 81 19 744,219 345,812 46 78 22
Province or territory Table 4 Note 3  
Newfoundland and Labrador 17,931 7,502 42 89 11 16,985 7,505 44 88 12
Prince Edward Island 3,486 1,595 46 83 17 3,095 1,646 53 85 15
Nova Scotia 29,136 14,456 50 89 11 25,977 14,364 55 88 12
New Brunswick 23,451 10,174 43 75 25 20,227 8,420 42 75 25
Quebec 175,405 78,747 45 65 35 182,861 84,957 46 57 43
Ontario 268,256 160,133 60 91 9 285,985 160,296 56 88 12
Manitoba 61,330 31,689 52 91 9 70,978 37,489 53 90 10
Saskatchewan 66,992 31,048 46 87 13 65,782 33,816 51 87 13
Alberta 132,577 67,883 51 84 16 145,336 72,371 50 84 16
British Columbia 149,514 68,899 46 70 30 142,212 62,968 44 71 29
Yukon 4,330 1,783 41 92 8 4,697 1,697 36 92 8
Northwest Territories 10,206 4,068 40 75 25 12,452 4,426 36 59 41
Nunavut 9,230 5,022 54 74 26 9,884 4,738 48 86 14
Location Table 4 Note 4  
Urban 706,500 364,164 52 82 18 742,577 371,092 50 79 21
Rural 245,344 118,835 48 82 18 243,894 123,601 51 81 19
Geography Table 4 Note 5  
Provincial South 785,252 401,704 51 82 18 810,636 406,495 50 79 21
Provincial North and Territories 166,592 81,295 49 82 18 175,835 88,198 50 82 18
Weapon present Table 4 Note 6  
Yes 148,694 86,623 58 87 13 174,647 100,058 57 86 14
No (includes threats and physical force) 610,213 315,218 52 84 16 610,210 307,160 50 84 16
Unknown 19,185 3,261 17 81 19 20,086 3,295 16 80 20
Delay in reporting to police Table 4 Note 7  
Reported same or next day 875,933 447,585 51 82 18 905,610 457,112 50 80 20
Reported same day as incident 829,159 425,509 51 82 18 859,335 436,408 51 80 20
Reported next day after incident 46,774 22,076 47 83 17 46,275 20,704 45 79 21
Reported 2 to 7 days after incident 39,026 17,080 44 81 19 39,809 17,206 43 77 23
Reported 8 to 30 days after incident 16,068 7,433 46 79 21 16,915 7,761 46 73 27
Reported 31 to 365 days after incident 12,183 6,251 51 76 24 14,497 7,506 52 69 31
Reported more than one year after incident 2,665 1,274 48 70 30 3,787 1,766 47 63 37
Unknown 5,969 3,376 57 82 18 5,853 3,342 57 80 20
Location  
Residential Table 4 Note 8 547,712 323,166 59 82 18 581,878 336,756 58 80 20
Non-residential Table 4 Note 9 394,780 156,066 40 82 18 398,377 156,608 39 80 20
Victim characteristics  
Gender  
Women and girls 531,557 322,888 61 82 18 552,650 330,719 60 80 20
Men and boys 534,955 225,985 42 82 18 542,277 230,973 43 80 20
Age group (years)  
11 and younger 40,085 12,592 31 78 22 42,559 14,426 34 68 31
12 to 17 124,635 50,376 40 84 16 100,743 40,245 40 82 18
18 to 24 237,314 124,048 52 83 17 207,485 110,446 53 81 19
25 to 44 440,865 248,127 56 82 18 479,644 268,446 56 80 20
45 to 64 196,375 101,252 52 82 18 223,953 112,342 50 80 20
65 and older Table 4 Note 10 25,352 11,019 43 79 20 38,574 15,268 40 78 22
Accused–victim relationship  
Intimate partner Table 4 Note 11 354,368 269,036 76 81 19 373,637 280,132 75 80 20
Parent Table 4 Note 12 52,527 22,663 43 81 19 57,927 24,304 42 73 27
Other family member Table 4 Note 13 105,120 42,414 40 84 16 111,370 43,521 39 81 19
Friend or casual acquaintance 256,695 102,416 40 84 16 223,881 87,543 39 82 17
Other person known to the victim Table 4 Note 14 78,535 32,479 41 79 20 103,556 44,009 42 78 22
Stranger 221,492 80,887 37 83 17 226,619 82,774 37 81 19
Level of injury  
No injury 386,997 172,609 45 81 19 420,892 182,987 43 78 22
Minor injury Table 4 Note 15 590,800 329,706 56 83 17 576,466 331,016 57 81 19
Major injury Table 4 Note 16 33,810 22,494 67 86 14 36,716 24,201 66 84 16
Unknown 57,261 25,146 44 81 19 63,021 24,134 38 78 22
Accused person characteristicsTable 4 Note 17  
Gender  
Women and girls 203,916 112,003 55 79 21 202,942 119,520 59 76 24
Men and boys 605,277 406,434 67 81 19 581,003 406,947 70 80 20
Age group (years) Table 4 Note 18  
12 to 17 106,045 50,358 47 84 16 83,268 40,322 48 84 16
18 to 24 182,908 119,475 65 81 19 153,676 105,018 68 79 21
25 to 44 366,120 255,387 70 81 19 385,469 280,984 73 79 21
45 to 54 133,880 87,315 65 80 20 136,570 92,338 68 78 22
65 and older Table 4 Note 10 14,379 6,380 44 76 24 19,422 8,194 42 71 29
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