Table 5
Characteristics of police-reported incidents of online child sexual exploitation and physical assault, by clearance and court outcomes, Canada, 2014 to 2021

Table 5
Characteristics of police-reported incidents of online child sexual exploitation and physical assault, by clearance and court outcomes, Canada, 2014 to 2021
Table summary
This table displays the results of Characteristics of police-reported incidents of online child sexual exploitation and physical assault, by clearance and court outcomes, Canada, 2014 to 2021. The information is grouped by Incident, victim or accused characteristic (appearing as row headers), Incidents, Went to court3, Physical assault2, Charges laid or recommended, Online child sexual exploitation1 and Did not go to court3, calculated using percent and number units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Incident, victim or accused characteristic Online child sexual exploitation Table 5 Note 1 Physical assault Table 5 Note 2
Incidents Charges laid or recommended Went to court Table 5 Note 3 Did not go to court Table 5 Note 3 Incidents Charges laid or recommended Went to court Table 5 Note 3 Did not go to court Table 5 Note 3
number percent number percent
Note ...

not applicable

Note 1

Includes online sexual offences against children and online child pornography incidents.

Return to note 1 referrer

Note 2

Physical assault includes assault (levels 1, 2, 3), unlawfully causing bodily harm, and other assaults where a victim was identified as being 17 years of age or younger at the start of the incident, and where physical assault was the most serious violation in the incident.

Return to note 2 referrer

Note 3

"Went to court" means that the incident was successfully linked to a completed court case between 2013/2014 and 2022/2023. The court case to which the incident was linked did not necessarily retain a specific charge for an online child sexual exploitation violation, once heard in court. 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.

Return to note 3 referrer

Note 4

Incidents reported by police between 2014 and 2021.

Return to note 4 referrer

Note 5

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

Return to note 5 referrer

Note 6

Victim characteristics include incidents with a single victim, where victim gender was known and victim age was 17 years or younger at the start of the incident. Excludes online child pornography incidents because these incidents do not have victim files.

Return to note 6 referrer

Note 7

Excludes victims whose gender was unknown.

Return to note 7 referrer

Note 8

Based on the victim's age at the start of the incident. Excludes victims whose age was unknown.

Return to note 8 referrer

Note 9

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

Return to note 9 referrer

Note 10

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.

Return to note 10 referrer

Note 11

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

Return to note 11 referrer

Note 12

Excludes accused persons whose gender was unknown.

Return to note 12 referrer

Note 13

Excludes a small number of accused persons identified as being under the age of 12 years. Persons 11 years of age and younger cannot be held criminally responsible in Canada.

Return to note 13 referrer

Note 14

Youth (aged 12 to 17 years) accused of committing a criminal offence are tried in youth court as per the Youth Criminal Justice Act (2003). See Text box 6 for more information.

Return to note 14 referrer

Note 15

Accused persons older than 110 years were coded as unknown due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category.

Return to note 15 referrer

Note: The sum of the categories may not add up to the total as unknown values are not always displayed. 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 differ. Includes victims where the most serious violation against the victim was also the cyber violation. For incident and accused data, offences reflect the cyber violation in the incident.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey and Integrated Criminal Courts Survey (linked file).
Total incidents Table 5 Note 4 50,653 8,030 16 53 47 205,482 76,104 37 73 27
Incident characteristics  
Violation  
Luring 10,093 2,773 27 49 51 ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable
Non-consensual distribution of intimate images 1,432 191 13 65 35 ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable
Invitation to sexual touching 972 792 81 60 40 ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable
Other online sexual offences against children 1,471 744 51 58 42 ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable
Possessing or accessing child pornography 11,296 1,834 16 58 42 ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable
Making or distributing child pornography 25,389 1,696 7 47 53 ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable ... not applicable
Delay in reporting to police Table 5 Note 5  
Reported same or next day 23,417 3,669 16 56 44 170,843 64,200 38 75 25
Reported same day as incident 21,677 3,290 15 56 44 153,434 58,551 38 75 25
Reported next day after incident 1,740 379 22 56 44 17,409 5,649 32 72 28
Reported 2 to 7 days after incident 3,103 668 22 53 47 17,982 5,770 32 67 33
Reported 8 to 30 days after incident 4,974 868 17 54 46 7,462 2,513 34 58 42
Reported 31 to 365 days after incident 17,088 1,944 11 47 53 5,752 2,293 40 52 48
Reported more than one year after incident 1,469 487 33 42 58 2,188 758 35 48 52
Unknown 602 394 65 59 41 1,255 570 45 70 30
Victim characteristics Table 5 Note 6  
Gender of victim Table 5 Note 7  
Victim was a girl 6,774 1,818 27 47 53 73,280 26,859 37 72 28
Victim was a boy 1,143 252 22 44 56 92,811 25,726 28 72 28
Age group of victim Table 5 Note 8  
Victim was a child (aged 0 to 11 years) 1,269 233 18 37 63 44,804 10,489 23 58 42
Victim was a youth (aged 12 to 17 years) 6,662 1,839 28 48 52 121,815 42,173 35 76 24
Accused–victim relationship  
Family (parent, sibling, other family) Table 5 Note 9 646 227 35 51 49 53,393 16,765 31 63 37
Spouse, common-law, dating or other intimate partner Table 5 Note 10 739 221 30 50 50 15,029 10,589 70 75 25
Friend 622 147 24 45 55 12,027 2,771 23 77 23
Casual acquaintance 1,870 625 33 49 51 55,560 15,574 28 79 21
Authority figure 275 147 53 42 58 5,057 1,019 20 56 44
Stranger 3,131 544 17 43 57 20,893 4,630 22 77 23
Other Table 5 Note 11 147 70 48 46 54 4,559 1,281 28 77 23
Unknown 501 91 18 57 43 110 38 35 58 42
Accused characteristics  
Gender of accused Table 5 Note 12  
Women and girls 1,212 261 22 50 50 49,349 22,807 46 70 30
Men and boys 11,460 7,929 69 53 47 115,494 62,917 54 73 27
Age group (years) Table 5 Note 13  
12 to 17 Table 5 Note 14 3,832 1,072 28 48 52 71,680 31,238 44 78 22
18 to 24 2,343 1,780 76 47 53 25,613 17,546 69 73 27
25 to 44 4,203 3,613 86 55 45 43,181 27,601 64 67 33
45 to 64 1,704 1,473 86 56 44 15,630 8,894 57 66 34
65 and older Table 5 Note 15 309 257 83 49 51 1,197 515 43 58 42
Date modified: