Quick fact

Probation the most frequent sanction in adult criminal courts

In 2006/2007, adult criminal courts in Canada disposed of over 372,000 cases, involving more than one million charges. In 65% of these cases the accused was found guilty. Probation, which is frequently combined with other sanctions, was imposed in 43% of guilty cases

Chart 1
Probation was the most frequent sanction in 2006/2007

1. In 2006/2007, conditional sentence data were not available for Quebec.
Notes: The sentence types are not mutually exclusive and do not add to 100. Probation includes mandatory probation for cases with a conditional discharge or a suspended sentence. Coverage for the Adult Criminal Court Survey data for 2006/2007 is estimated at 98% of adult criminal court caseload.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Adult Criminal Court Survey

For more information about adult criminal courts please read the Juristat article: Adult criminal court statistics, 2006/2007.