Table 5
Court decisions for First Nations, Métis and Inuit accused relative to White accused in adult criminal court, Canada, 2016/2017 to 2020/2021

Table 5
Court decisions for First Nations, Métis and Inuit accused relative to White accused in adult criminal court, Canada, 2016/2017 to 2020/2021 Table summary
The information is grouped by Indigenous group (appearing as row headers), Decision , Guilty, Acquittal, Stay of proceedings and Withdrawn, dismissed, discharged, calculated using adjusted relative rate index1 units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Indigenous group Decision
Guilty Acquittal Stay of proceedings Withdrawn, dismissed, discharged
adjusted relative rate index Table 5 Note 1
Note 0

true zero or a value rounded to zero

Note 1

The adjusted relative rate index (ARRI) measures the likelihood of Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) accused encountering a court decision relative to white accused encountering the same court decision, controlling for the severity of the most serious offence in the case. Severity is based on the crime severity weight that is used in calculating the Crime Severity Index. The ARRI is a relative measure. For example, an ARRI of 0% means that Indigenous accused have the same likelihood of encountering the same court decision as their White counterpart. Furthermore, an ARRI larger or smaller than zero means that Indigenous accused have a higher or lower likelihood of encountering the same court decision than White accused.

Return to note 1 referrer

Note 2

Sex is defined as female or male in the 2016 Census.

Return to note 2 referrer

Note 3

Age at date of offence. Excludes calculated age under 18 years and older than 100 years. When the date of the offence was missing, age was calculated using the case start date.

Return to note 3 referrer

Notes: Only individuals who had a completed court case in the Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS) and were linked to the 2016 Census of Population long-form questionnaire were retained for analysis. Calibrated weights were developed for this dataset so that the sum of these weights equalled the total population of accused before the courts. Weights were calibrated to ensure consistency between the linked ICCS population and the total ICCS population in terms of key sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender and criminal history). Calibrated weights were developed independently for each fiscal year of ICCS data. Results for each year are produced using these calibrated weights. The results presented in this table are the averaged ARRIs from 2016/2017 to 2020/2021.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Linked 2016 Census of Population long-form questionnaire and Integrated Criminal Court Survey.
First Nations  
All 0 -68 80 -23
Sex Table 5 Note 2  
Female 2 -66 71 -26
Male -1 -68 83 -23
Age group (years) Table 5 Note 3  
18 to 24 0 -68 78 -23
25 to 34 1 -68 78 -24
35 to 44 1 -68 76 -25
45 and older 0 -67 83 -24
Métis  
All -5 -61 68 -7
Sex Table 5 Note 2  
Female -5 -60 66 -7
Male -4 -61 68 -7
Age group (years) Table 5 Note 3  
18 to 24 -5 -62 68 -6
25 to 34 -6 -62 70 -5
35 to 44 -2 -61 61 -10
45 and older -4 -59 66 -9
Inuit  
All 18 13 -17 -42
Sex Table 5 Note 2  
Female 23 19 -24 -47
Male 17 12 -14 -40
Age group (years) Table 5 Note 3  
18 to 24 20 14 -20 -44
25 to 34 19 14 -17 -42
35 to 44 20 12 -19 -42
45 and older 15 11 -13 -40
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