Table 9
Decision and sentencing outcomes in completed court cases linked to police-reported incidents of online sexual offences against children, online child pornography and physical assault, by level of court, Canada, 2014 to 2021

Table 9
Decision and sentencing outcomes in completed court cases linked to police-reported incidents of online sexual offences against children, online child pornography and physical assault, by level of court, Canada, 2014 to 2021
Table summary
This table displays the results of Decision and sentencing outcomes in completed court cases linked to police-reported incidents of online sexual offences against children, online child pornography and physical assault, by level of court, Canada, 2014 to 2021. The information is grouped by Level of court, final decision, and most serious sentence (appearing as row headers), Cases linked to incidents of police-reported online child sexual exploitation, Cases with at least one online sexual offences against children charge retained, Cases with at least one physical assault charge retained1 and Cases with at least one online child pornography charge retained, calculated using percent and number units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Level of court, final decision, and most serious sentence Table 9 Note 2 Cases linked to incidents of police-reported online child sexual exploitation Cases with at least one physical assault charge retained Table 9 Note 1
Cases with at least one online sexual offences against children charge retained Cases with at least one online child pornography charge retained
number percent number percent number percent
Note 0

true zero or a value rounded to zero

Note ...

not applicable

Note 1

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.

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Note 2

Information on sentencing reflects the most serious sentence handed down by the courts for the most serious offence in the case which resulted in a guilty decision. There can be multiple sentences related to the same case (e.g., a sentence of custody followed by a period of probation). While this does not impact information on sentences of custody, which are always the most serious sentence according to the Integrated Criminal Court Survey, it means that percentages for other types of sentences which are considered to be less serious may be underestimated.

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Note 3

Includes intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision.

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Note 4

Includes conditional sentence, intensive support and supervision, order to attend a non-residential program, fine, community service, reprimand, and other types of sentences.

Return to note 4 referrer

Note: Counts represent the number of cases where there was at least one Criminal Code online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) or physical assault charge in the case. The type of decision for these counts represents that for the most serious offence within the case. While court cases may not have proceeded with the same charges initially laid or recommended by police, all cases involve incidents where at least one OCSE charge was retained in court. Case categories are not mutually exclusive. For instance, a case linked to a police-reported online child pornography incident may have dropped the child pornography charge in court but retained an online sexual offences against children charge and vice versa. As such, cases do not add up to the total case count for OCSE. The decision is determined at the accused level, refers to the most serious decision in the case, and, in instances where there were multiple victims, is applied to all victims in the case and not necessarily one specific charge or victim. Incidents may not have linked to courts data for multiple reasons, including survey coverage and time required to complete a case. The data file used for analysis includes all completed court cases between 2013/2014 and 2022/2023 for incidents reported by police between 2014 and 2021.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey and Integrated Criminal Courts Survey (linked file).
Adult criminal courts  
Guilty 1,025 70 912 74 14,674 52
Custody 799 86 756 90 3,319 24
Conditional sentence 46 5 46 5 1,077 8
Probation 69 7 32 4 8,230 59
Fine 4 0 2 0 427 3
Other 12 1 3 0 924 7
Not available (guilty but no sentencing detail) 95 ... not applicable 73 ... not applicable 697 ... not applicable
Acquitted 32 2 24 2 1,461 5
Stayed, withdrawn, dismissed, or discharged 389 26 280 23 11,991 42
Other 22 1 13 1 271 1
Total, adult criminal courts 1,468 100 1,229 100 28,397 100
Youth courts  
Guilty 171 66 110 77 8,520 49
Custody and supervision (including conditional supervision) Table 9 Note 3 7 4 3 3 638 8
Deferred custody and supervision 8 5 8 8 273 3
Probation 108 67 64 65 4,784 59
Other Table 9 Note 4 38 24 23 23 2,404 30
Not available (guilty but no sentencing detail) 10 ... not applicable 12 ... not applicable 421 ... not applicable
Acquitted 2 1 0 0 254 1
Stayed, withdrawn, dismissed, or discharged 87 33 33 23 8,588 49
Other 0 0 0 0 92 1
Total, youth courts 260 100 143 100 17,454 100
Total, adult and youth  
Guilty 1,196 69 1,022 74 23,194 51
Acquitted 34 2 24 2 1,715 4
Stayed, withdrawn, dismissed, or discharged 476 28 313 23 20,579 45
Other 22 1 13 1 363 1
Total, adult and youth 1,728 100 1,372 100 45,851 100
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