Table 1
Unique persons accused of homicide, by gender-related status and accused characteristic, Canada, 2009 to 2022

Table 1
Unique persons accused of homicide, by gender-related status and accused characteristic, Canada, 2009 to 2022 Table summary
This table displays the results of Unique persons accused of homicide, by gender-related status and accused characteristic, Canada, 2009 to 2022. The information is grouped by Accused characteristic (appearing as row headers), Total, Non-gender-related homicides and Gender-related homicides of women and girls1, calculated using percent and number units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Accused characteristic Gender-related homicides of women and girls Table 1  Note 1 Non-gender-related homicides Total
number percent number percent number percent
Note 0

true zero or a value rounded to zero

Note ...

not applicable

Note 1

Due to the analysis focusing on known accused only, this category includes data for persons accused of a homicide involving at least one female victim whose homicide could be classified as gender-related. Gender-related homicides of women and girls are solved homicides committed by a male accused who was an intimate partner or family member of the victim, inflicted sexual violence on the victim as part of the killing or killed a victim who was identified as a sex worker. Non-gender-related homicides are all those that do not contain the above qualifiers but have a known accused. If one accused was involved in multiple homicides during the reference period, the gender-related homicide is counted.

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Note 2

Analysis excludes accused who are younger than 12 as they cannot be held criminally responsible as per the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

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Note 3

The criminal history categories are not mutually exclusive. An accused person can have a criminal history pertaining to violent, property and other offences.

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Note 4

Includes violent offences such as homicide, sexual assault and other sexual violations, assault, kidnapping, trafficking of persons, hostage taking, robbery, commodification of sexual activities, harassment, uttering threats and other violence offences not otherwise listed.

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Note 5

Includes non-violent offences such as arson, break and enter, theft, fraud, mischief and other crimes against property not otherwise listed.

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Note 6

Includes other Criminal Code offences (e.g., gaming/betting, offensive weapons), and those not otherwise specified. Also includes offences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) or Cannabis Act as well as other federal or provincial statute offences.

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Note 7

Based on the investigating officer's assessment of the mental health status of the accused at the time of the incident and is not a medical diagnosis. Examples of mental or developmental disorders could include schizophrenia, depression, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, neurodevelopmental disorders, dementia of Alzheimer's, psychotic and neurotic illnesses or antisocial personality behaviours which may have contributed to some degree to the homicide incident.

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Note 8

The substance use categories are not mutually exclusive. An accused person could have used alcohol, drugs and an intoxicating substance during the period leading up to the homicide.

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Note: Analysis focuses on known accused only. There may be a small number of homicides included in a given year's total that occurred in previous years. Homicides are counted according to the year in which they are reported to Statistics Canada. Excludes victims and accused where gender was coded as unknown. The year 2019 marked the first cycle of collection of the Homicide Survey data for which information on gender identity was reported for victims and persons accused of homicide. Gender refers to the gender a person publicly expresses in their daily life, including at work, while shopping or accessing other services, in their housing environment or in the broader community. Prior to 2019, Homicide Survey data was presented by the sex of the victims and accused persons. Sex and gender refer to two different concepts. Caution should be exercised when comparing counts for sex with those for gender. Given that small counts of victims and accused persons reported or were identified as being non-binary, the aggregate Homicide Survey data available to the public has been recoded to distribute these counts to either "men" or "women" in order to ensure the protection of confidentiality and privacy. Victims and accused persons who reported or were identified as being non-binary have been distributed to either men or women categories based on the regional distribution of victims’ or accused persons’ gender. Percent calculations exclude accused whose age, marital status, criminal history, mental health status and substance use was unknown. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Gender-related homicide record linkage file.
Gender  
Men or boys 1,328 100.0 3,965 85.5 5,293 88.7
Women or girls ... not applicable ... not applicable 674 14.5 674 11.3
Total 1,328 100.0 4,639 100.0 5,967 100.0
Age (years)Table 1  Note 2  
12 to 17 36 2.7 330 7.1 366 6.1
18 to 24 191 14.4 1,402 30.3 1,593 26.7
25 to 34 332 25.0 1,496 32.3 1,828 30.7
35 to 44 294 22.1 725 15.6 1,019 17.1
45 to 54 234 17.6 406 8.8 640 10.7
55 to 64 127 9.6 178 3.8 305 5.1
65 or older 114 8.6 97 2.1 211 3.5
Unknown 0 ... not applicable 2 ... not applicable 2 ... not applicable
Total 1,328 100.0 4,636 100.0 5,964 100.0
Marital status  
Single, never married 388 30.1 2,685 63.7 3,073 55.8
Married 324 25.1 268 6.4 592 10.8
Living common-law 329 25.5 789 18.7 1,118 20.3
Separated or divorced 245 19.0 450 10.7 695 12.6
Widowed 5 0.4 23 0.5 28 0.5
Unknown 37 ... not applicable 424 ... not applicable 461 ... not applicable
Total 1,328 100.0 4,639 100.0 5,967 100.0
Criminal history Table 1  Note 3  
No criminal record 695 52.6 1,584 34.5 2,279 38.5
Violent offences Table 1  Note 4 430 32.6 2,107 45.9 2,537 42.9
Property offences Table 1  Note 5 133 10.1 825 18.0 958 16.2
Other offences Table 1  Note 6 234 17.7 1,191 25.9 1,425 24.1
Unknown 7 ... not applicable 48 ... not applicable 55 ... not applicable
Total 1,328 100.0 4,639 100.0 5,967 100.0
Mental or developmental disorder  
No mental or developmental disorder 786 67.8 3,182 80.8 3,968 77.9
Suspected or known developmental disorder Table 1  Note 7 373 32.2 754 19.2 1,127 22.1
Unknown 169 ... not applicable 703 ... not applicable 872 ... not applicable
Total 1,328 100.0 4,639 100.0 5,967 100.0
Substance use Table 1  Note 8  
None 361 39.5 691 22.9 1,052 26.7
Alcohol use 427 46.8 1,954 64.7 2,381 60.5
Drug use 273 29.9 1,036 34.3 1,309 33.3
Other substance use 11 1.2 47 1.6 58 1.5
Information unknown or unavailable 415 ... not applicable 1,618 ... not applicable 2,033 ... not applicable
Total 1,328 100.0 4,639 100.0 5,967 100.0
Clearance status  
Cleared by charge 1,035 77.9 4,448 95.9 5,483 91.9
Cleared otherwise 293 22.1 191 4.1 484 8.1
Total 1,328 100.0 4,639 100.0 5,967 100.0
Accused suicide  
Did not suicide 1,053 79.3 4,518 97.4 5,571 93.4
Suicide 275 20.7 121 2.6 396 6.6
Total 1,328 100.0 4,639 100.0 5,967 100.0
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