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Table 10
Decisions and outcomes of adult criminal court cases linked to police-reported incidents of online sexual offences against children, online child pornography and physical assault, by selected characteristics, Canada, 2014 to 2021

Table 10
Decisions and outcomes of adult criminal court cases linked to police-reported incidents of online sexual offences against children, online child pornography and physical assault, by selected characteristics, Canada, 2014 to 2021
Table summary
This table displays the results of Decisions and outcomes of adult criminal court cases linked to police-reported incidents of online sexual offences against children, online child pornography and physical assault, by selected characteristics, Canada, 2014 to 2021. The information is grouped by Selected characteristic (appearing as row headers), Online sexual offences against children, Physical assault1, Sentenced to custody, Online child sexual exploitation, Guilty decision, Online child pornography and Completed court cases2, calculated using percent3, percent, median length4 and number units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Selected characteristic	Online child sexual exploitation												Physical assault ^{Table 10 Note 1}
	Online sexual offences against children						Online child pornography						Physical assault ^{Table 10 Note 1}
	Completed court cases ^{Table 10 Note 2}	Guilty decision		Sentenced to custody			Completed court cases ^{Table 10 Note 2}	Guilty decision		Sentenced to custody			Completed court cases ^{Table 10 Note 2}	Guilty decision		Sentenced to custody
	number		percent	number	percent ^{Table 10 Note 3}	median length ^{Table 10 Note 4}	number		percent	number	percent ^{Table 10 Note 3}	median length ^{Table 10 Note 4}	number		percent	number	percent ^{Table 10 Note 3}	median length ^{Table 10 Note 4}
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. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 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. Includes cases where an online sexual offence charge, child pornography charge, or physical assault charge laid by police was retained through the court process. The retained charge was not necessarily the most serious offence in the case. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Percent calculations exclude cases that resulted in a decision of guilt but the sentencing detail was unknown. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Length in days. Excludes indeterminate sentences and sentences of unknown length. Excludes sentences of 0 days, which may reflect remaining time in sentenced custody after credit for pre-trial time served, or may be a sentence of unknown length. The median represents the midpoint of all sentences once sorted from lowest to highest. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Victim characteristics include incidents with a single victim, where victim gender was known and victim age was 17 years or younger. Excludes online child pornography incidents. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 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 6 referrer Note 7 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 years and older, and victims of dating violence include those aged 12 years and older. Return to note 7 referrer Note 8 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 8 referrer Note 9 Represents youth who were tried in adult criminal court. Return to note 9 referrer Note: Includes cases completed in adult criminal court only, due to fundamental differences in approach and sentencing between adult and youth courts. Characteristics are based on what was reported by police. Since one court case can be linked to multiple victims and incidents, the characteristics presented in this table reflect all court cases that successfully linked to a police-reported incident where at least one relevant charge was retained in court. As a result, there can be overlap between categories as the same victim or incident may have linked to more than one court case, or one court case may have linked to more than one incident or victim. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey and Integrated Criminal Courts Survey (linked file).
Victim characteristic ^{Table 10 Note 5}
Gender of victim
Victim was a girl	457	328	72	249	84	180	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	8,797	4,170	47	820	21	30
Victim was a boy	60	42	70	30	79	365	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	8,159	4,096	50	721	18	60
Age group of victim
Victim was a child (aged 0 to 11 years)	49	34	69	25	83	365	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	4,669	2,376	51	358	16	84
Victim was a youth (aged 12 to 17 years)	470	337	72	254	84	180	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	12,310	5,898	48	1,184	21	33
Accused-victim relationship
Family (Parent, sibling, other family) ^{Table 10 Note 6}	80	49	61	33	75	365	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	8,225	3,847	47	531	15	60
Spouse, common-law, dating or other intimate partner ^{Table 10 Note 7}	35	23	66	14	67	270	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	3,121	1,537	49	388	26	30
Friend	23	20	87	10	71	365	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	401	221	55	49	24	50
Casual acquaintance	164	116	71	89	86	180	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	2,469	1,266	51	259	21	56
Authority figure	32	24	75	16	76	90	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	503	213	42	29	14	90
Stranger	138	104	75	85	87	231	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	1,844	985	53	248	26	45
Other ^{Table 10 Note 8}	23	16	70	13	93	309	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	408	201	49	38	20	44
Unknown	24	19	79	19	100	180	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	... not applicable	9	5	56	1	20	43
Accused characteristic
Gender of accused
Accused was a man or boy	38	21	55	15	71	195	24	12	50	9	75	365	6,851	2,941	43	320	11	33
Accused was a woman or girl	1,430	1,004	70	784	86	240	1,203	899	75	747	90	300	21,528	11,724	54	2,999	27	60
Age of accused
12 to 17 years ^{Table 10 Note 9}	4	1	25	1	100	90	3	0	0	0	... not applicable	... not applicable	47	11	23	1	9	1
18 to 24 years	389	271	70	206	83	180	182	121	66	97	85	180	8,861	4,828	54	1,239	27	45
25 to 44 years	799	561	70	443	87	226	588	444	76	358	88	360	14,309	7,516	53	1,757	25	60
45 to 64 years	253	173	68	135	87	354	384	297	77	259	94	360	4,918	2,218	45	318	15	60
65 years and older	23	19	83	14	78	300	72	50	69	42	93	300	262	101	39	4	4	10

Date modified:: 2025-03-11