Youth court statistics

The caseload in Canada's youth courts incurred its single largest annual decline in more than a decade in 2003/04, the first year under the new Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

Judges heard 70,465 cases during the 2003/04 fiscal year, down 17% from the previous year. It was the single largest annual decline since 1991/92, the first year for which complete national data coverage was available from the Youth Court Survey.

The youth court caseload has been falling gradually since 1991/92, primarily due to the steady drop in the number of cases involving crimes against property. Overall, the youth court caseload has declined by one-third since 1991/92.

The YCJA, introduced in April 2003, emphasizes keeping the less serious cases out of court and dealing with them in less formal manners. At the same time, it stresses the importance of providing meaningful consequences for youth such as repairing any harm done to victims.

The YCJA was a large contributing factor to the decline of youth court cases in 2003/04.

The impact of the new legislation is also reflected in the rate of youth charged by police. In 2003, the rate of youth charged with criminal offences dropped 15% from 2002.

Meanwhile, the rate of youth who received a warning, caution, referral to community program or no further action by the police in lieu of charges, increased by 30%. This of course affects the number of youth who appear in court.

Five offences accounted for just over one-half of the total caseload in youth court: theft, failure to comply with a disposition under either the new YCJA or the old Young Offenders Act; common assault; breaking and entering and possession of stolen property.

Over one-half of the cases before youth courts involved older teenagers, those aged 16 and 17. Youth aged under 15 were involved in one-fifth of cases, while younger adolescents aged 12 to 14 accounted for about one-quarter.

Accused youth were found guilty in 57% of cases heard in youth courts in 2003/04. Cases involving Criminal Code traffic offences had the highest proportion of convictions at 69%. Probation, still the most frequently ordered sentence for youth, was imposed in 63% of convicted cases.

Court cases in which the youth was found guilty of being unlawfully at large were most likely to receive a sentence to custody and supervision, with 79% of these convicted cases receiving such a sentence.

The average length for probation was just over one year, 381 days. Custodial sentences tended to be much shorter, with an average length of 67 days.

Youth court cases are becoming more complex and lengthier. In 2003/04, multiple charge cases represented 56% of the total youth caseload, up from the previous high of 52% in 2001/02.

In comparison, cases involving multiple charges represented 42% of youth court cases in 1991/92.

Cases involving both single and multiple charges took longer to process in 2003/04 — singles averaged 134 days and multiples 146 days.

This compares to 105 days for single charge cases and 122 days for multiple charge cases the year before.

Note: Caution should be used when comparing sentencing statistics from this release to previous releases. This is particularly true of custody data. In the past, custody sentences were presented by the level (i.e., open or secure) of custody to which a youth was sentenced. Although the YCJA provides for various levels of custody, it does not specify these levels. For that reason, the majority of the provinces and territories no longer maintain this level of detail. Hence, custodial sentences are presented as simply "custody."

Available on CANSIM: tables 252-0027 to 252-0030, 252-0036 to 252-0042.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3309.

The publication Juristat: Youth Court Statistics, 2003/04, Vol. 25, no. 4 (85-002-XIE, $9/$75, 85-002-XPE, $11/$100) is now available.

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

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