Adult criminal court statistics

The Juristat: Adult Criminal Court Statistics, 2003/04, presents case characteristics information from the Adult Criminal Court Survey (ACCS), and summarizes trend information covering a 10-year period (1994/95 to 2003/04). The time series information represents 80% of the national adult criminal court caseload covering seven provinces and one territory: Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Yukon.

According to the ACCS, during the past 10 years, cases in Canada's adult criminal courts have become more complex and are taking more time to resolve.

Cases involving multiple charges accounted for 51% of the adult courts caseload in 2003/04, up from 44% in 1994/95. In addition, the time required to dispose of court cases continued to grow. In 2003/04, on average, cases took 226 days compared with 137 days a decade earlier. Indeed, the average processing time for multiple-charge cases rose from 157 days to 236.

Administration of justice offences (e.g., breach of probation, failure to comply with a court order) steadily increased their share of the caseload over the reference period. This offence group accounted for 19% of all cases in 2003/04 compared with 14% a decade ago.

During the past decade, the proportion of guilty cases sentenced to prison has remained stable at just over one-third, while the percentage of guilty cases receiving probation has increased and the percentage of guilty cases receiving fines has fallen.

In addition to trend data, this Juristat presents detailed case characteristics information for 2003/04. The analysis includes the same eight jurisdictions covered in the time series summary, plus British Columbia and New Brunswick, and represent about 90% of the national adult criminal court caseload. These 10 jurisdictions processed about 450,000 cases in 2003/04, 14,000 fewer than a year earlier.

Available on CANSIM: tables 252-0015 to 252-0026.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3312.

Data tables are also available online. From the Canadian Statistics module of our Web site, choose Justice and crime, then Police and courts.

The Juristat: Adult Criminal Court Statistics, 2003/04, Vol. 24, no. 12 (85-002-XIE20040128431, $11/$75; 85-002-XPE20040128431, $9/$100) is now available.

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