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The Daily. Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Youth court statistics

The caseload for youth courts continued to decline at the end of the 1990s, the result of a substantial decrease in cases involving property crime, according to the Youth Court Survey, which collects court data concerning young people aged 12 to 17 at the time of offence.

Youth courts heard 102,061 cases in the fiscal year 1999/2000, down 4% from 1998/99 and 11% from 1992/93, the first year of national survey coverage. During this period, the rate of cases involving property crimes declined 38%. In 1999/2000, the rate of violent crime cases dropped 3% from the previous year, returning to the same level as in 1992/93.

Property crime accounted for 40% of all cases before youth courts, while violent crime accounted for 22%. About one-half of these violent crime cases were common assaults, which include pushing, slapping, punching and face-to-face verbal threats.

Drug offences accounted for 5,394 cases, far more than double the total from seven years earlier, although they represented only 5% of the total caseload.

Young women account for a growing proportion of the youth court caseload. In 1999/2000, they comprised 21% of the total, up from 18% in 1992/93. Youth courts heard 21,507 cases involving young women, a 4% increase from seven years earlier.

Case rates for youth courts were highest in Western Canada. In 1999/2000, courts in Saskatchewan recorded a rate of 941 cases for every 10,000 youths, followed by Manitoba at 700 and Alberta at 614. All were substantially higher than the national average of 417. The lowest case rates were in Quebec (196), Prince Edward Island (271) and British Columbia (364).

Since 1992/93, youths aged 16 and 17 have appeared more often in youth court than two other age groups. Youths 16 and 17 accounted for 51% of cases in 1999/2000. Those aged 15 accounted for 21%, and those aged 12 to 14 accounted for 25%.

About two-thirds of youth court cases have resulted in guilty findings since 1992/93. In 1999/2000, probation was the most serious sentence ordered in 48% of cases with guilty findings. The most serious sentence of custody (open and secure) was ordered about one-third of the time.

About 77% of custody cases had a term of three months or less, up from 71% in 1992/93. The median term for all cases was one month.

In 1999/2000, repeat young offenders (defined as youths with at least one prior conviction) were involved in 35% of cases with convictions.

Persistent offenders, those with at least three prior convictions, accounted for 10% of convictions. Young men were more than twice as likely to be persistent offenders as young women. Persistent offenders accounted for 11% of the male caseload, and only 5% of the female caseload.

Available on CANSIM: tables 2520005-2520012 and matrices 8900-8922.

Juristat: Youth court statistics, 1999/2000, Vol. 21, no. 3 (85-002-XIE, $8/$70; 85-002-XPE, $10/$93) and Youth court data tables, 1999/2000 (85F0030XIE, $26) are now available.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact the Client Services Unit (1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.

Cases heard in youth court by major crime category