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Table 7
Number of completed cases in adult criminal and youth courts, by type of decision and child sexual offences, Canada, 2011/2012

Table summary
This table displays the results of Number of completed cases in adult criminal and youth courts. The information is grouped by Offence (appearing as row headers), Guilty, Acquitted, Stayed/Withdrawn, Other decision and Total, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Offence^Note 1	Guilty^Note 2		Acquitted^Note 3		Stayed/Withdrawn^Note 4		Other decision^Note 5		Total
Offence^Note 1	number	percent	number	percent	number	percent	number	percent	number	percent
s. 151 - Sexual interference (under 16)	750	78	61	6	145	15	8	1	964	100
s. 163.1 - Child pornography (under 18)	339	77	10	2	86	19	7	2	442	100
s. 152 - Invitation to sexual touching (under 16)	83	60	4	3	48	35	4	3	139	100
s. 172.1 - Luring a child (under 18)	70	83	2	2	10	12	2	2	84	100
s. 153 - Sexual exploitation (16 and 17)	39	57	3	4	27	39	0	0	69	100
s. 173(2) - Indecent acts (under 16)	17	53	2	6	13	41	0	0	32	100
s. 212 - Procuring prostitution (under 18)	12	48	2	8	11	44	0	0	25	100
Other child sexual offence (under 18)^Note 6	10	50	1	5	9	45	0	0	20	100
Total cases^Note 7	1,320	74	85	5	349	20	21	1	1,775	100
Note 1. Represented by the charge with the "most serious offence" (MSO). The most serious offence is selected using the following rules. First, court decisions are considered and the charge with the "most serious decision" (MSD) is selected. Court decisions for each charge in a case are ranked from most to least serious as follows: (1) guilty, (2) guilty of a lesser offence, (3) acquitted, (4) stay of proceeding, (5) withdrawn, dismissed or discharged, (6) not criminally responsible, (7) other, and (8) transfer of court jurisdiction. Second, in cases where two or more charges result in the same MSD (for example, guilty), Criminal Code sanctions are considered. The charge with the most serious offence type is selected according to an offence seriousness scale, based on actual sentences handed down by courts in Canada (The offence seriousness scale is calculated using data from both the adult and youth components of the Integrated Criminal Court Survey from 2002/2003 to 2006/2007). Each offence type is ranked by looking at (1) the proportion of guilty charges where custody was imposed and (2) the average (mean) length of custody for the specific type of offence. These values are multiplied together to arrive at the final seriousness ranking for each type of offence. If, after looking at the offence seriousness scale, two or more charges remain tied then information about the sentence type and duration of the sentence are considered (for example, custody and length of custody, then probation and length of probation, etc.). Return to note 1 referrer Note 2. Guilty findings include guilty of the offence, of an included offence, of an attempt of the offence, or of an attempt of an included offence. This category also includes cases where an absolute or conditional discharge has been imposed. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3. Acquittal means that the accused has been found not guilty of the charges presented before the court. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4. Stay/Withdrawn includes stays, withdrawals, dismissals and discharges at preliminary inquiry as well as court referrals to alternative or extrajudicial measures and restorative justice programs. These decisions all refer to the court stopping criminal proceedings against the accused. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5. Other decisions include final decisions of found not criminally responsible and waived out of province or territory. This category also includes any order where a conviction was not recorded, the court's acceptance of a special plea, cases which raise Charter arguments and cases where the accused was found unfit to stand trial. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6. Other child sexual offences includes the following Criminal Code offences: bestiality (s. 160 subsection 3), parent or guardian procuring sexual activity (s. 170), householder permitting sexual activity (s. 171) and corrupting children (s. 172). Return to note 6 referrer Note 7. A case is one or more charges against an accused person or company, which were processed by the courts at the same time (date of offence, date of initiation, date of first appearance, date of decision, or date of sentencing), and received a final decision. The definition attempts to reflect court processing. All data have been processed using this case definition. The case definition changed for the 2006/2007 release of data. The former definition (used in releases prior to October 2007) combined all charges against the same person disposed of in court on the same day into a case. Consequently, comparisons should not be made with data tables and reports released before that time. Return to note 7 referrer Note: All adult provincial and territorial courts in 10 provinces and 3 territories reported to the survey as of 2005/2006. Information from superior courts in Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as municipal courts in Quebec could not be extracted from their electronic reporting systems and was therefore unavailable. The absence of data from superior courts in these five jurisdictions may have resulted in a slight underestimation of the severity of sentences since some of the most serious cases, which are likely to result in the most severe sanctions, are processed in superior courts. All youth courts in Canada have reported to the survey since the 1991/1992 fiscal year. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Integrated Criminal Court Survey, adult and youth.

Date modified:: 2015-11-30