Fact sheet
Northwest Territories

Victims of police-reported violent crime in the Northwest Territories, 2016

There were 3,066 victims of violent crime and criminal traffic offences causing death or bodily harm reported by police in the Northwest Territories in 2016. This represented 6,895 victims per 100,000 population, more than seven times the national rate (Table A).
Most (90%) victims of police-reported crime were adults aged 18 and older; 71% were aged 25 and older. Meanwhile, 8% of victims were youth aged 12 to 17 and 2% were children under age 12. When controlling for population, the rate of victimization was highest among young adults aged 18 to 24 and youth aged 16 to 17 (Table 13.1).
Over three-quarters (79%) of victims of police-reported crime in 2016 were victims of assault, the highest percentage among the provinces and territories: 63% were victims of common assault (level 1) and 14% were victims of major assault (level 2 or 3).^Note Assault victims accounted for four in five (81%) of adult victims of police-reported violent crime. In comparison, assault accounted for three-fifths (61%) of child and youth victims (Table 13.1). Rates of assault were highest among young adults.
Overall, 6% of police-reported victims were victims of sexual offences. However, these offences were much more prevalent among child and youth victims that came to the attention of police. Among child victims (under age 12), 10% were victims of sexual assault (almost all sexual assault level 1) and another 12% were victims of sexual violations against children.^Note For youth victims (aged 12 to 17), 9% were victims of sexual assault (almost all assault level 1) and 11% were victims of sexual violations against children (Table 13.1). Among victims of all ages, rates of police-reported sexual assault were highest among youth aged 16 to 17 while sexual violations against children were highest among youth aged 12 to 15 years.
Over one in seven (15%) police-reported victims in 2016 were victims of other violent offences including uttering threats (10%) (Table 13.1).
While over half (59%) of police-reported victims were female, they represented a much larger proportion of victims of sexual offences (94%) and of some other violent offences such as criminal harassment (69%) and indecent and harassing communications (78%). (Table 13.2).
Assault was the most common police-reported offence among both male (83%) and female (77%) victims in 2016. Meanwhile, 9% of female victims were victims of sexual offences (7% sexual assault—almost all level 1—and 2% sexual violations against children). In comparison, less than 1% of male victims were victims of sexual offences (Table 13.2).
Male and female victims of police-reported sexual offences differed notably by age. Overall, among female victims of all sexual offences, 35% were either children under the age of 12 (7%) or youth aged 12 to 17 (27%). Of all female child and youth victims, 27% were victims of sexual offences: 12% were sexual assault and 15% were sexual violations against children (Table 13.3).
Compared to females, a much larger proportion (64%) of male victims of police-reported sexual offences were either children (9%) or youth (55%). Despite this, sexual offences were still less common among young male child and youth victims, representing 7% of victims (compared to 27% for their female counterparts). Instead, assault was the most common (68%) offence for male child and youth victims (Table 13.3).

Victim services in the Northwest Territories

In the Northwest Territories, the Department of Justice provides Victim Services Programs in eight regions covering the 33 communities in the territory. Given the geographic challenges of providing services in the territory, many communities have no local victim services staff. In these situations, victims generally receive support by telephone or by referral to local services. In some cases, victim service staff will go to the community to provide support. The Victim Services Programs provide a wide variety of support services to victims, including immediate crisis intervention, support, safety planning, accompaniment to medical appointments, referrals to other agencies and advocacy, as well as assistance to individuals required to testify in court. Each program works with community members and elders to provide important awareness initiatives that support local traditional knowledge sharing, on the land healing programs and community safety. In addition, there are 30 community-based Restorative Justice Programs that work with both offenders and victims.

The information provided below reflects data on victims directly served by the Northwest Territories Victims Services Programs. The data reported refer to newly opened files, or new referrals, in the 2015/2016 fiscal year. Therefore, if an individual is the victim in multiple cases with the same or different accused person(s) during the fiscal year, they may only be counted once in the data because each victim only has one open file with victim services. The data exclude individuals that have an open file with Victim Services Programs from a previous year, and in turn, were re-victimized during the 2015/2016 fiscal year.^Note

In 2015/2016, the Northwest Territories Victim Services assisted 583 direct victims of crime, and 78 secondary victims.^Note^Note
Children and youth accounted for 9% of victims assisted by the program.
Over four-fifths (83%) of victims served were female.
Most direct victims who received assistance (97%) were victims of a violent crime. Almost two-thirds (64%) were victims of physical assault, and another 18% were victims of sexual assault. About one-third (38%) of sexual assault victims were under the age of 18 (40 victims); another 64 sexual assault victims were adults and 12 were for past sexual assaults where age was not available.
In 2015/2016, Northwest Territories Victim Services assisted with the preparation and filing of 174 Victim Impact Statements.

Note: Percentages have been calculated excluding unknowns. Percentages may not add up to totals due to rounding. Not all percentages presented in the text are provided in the tables. No tables are provided for the Canadian Victim Services Indicators (CVSI) data.

Detailed data tables

Table 13.1
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and age group of victim, Northwest Territories, 2016
Table summary
This table displays the results of Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Age group, Total victims, Child victims
under 12 years, Youth victims, Adult victims, 12 to 15 years, 16 to 17 years, 18 to 24 years and 25 years and older, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Age group										Total victims^{Table 13.1 Note 1}
	Child victims under 12 years		Youth victims				Adult victims
	Child victims under 12 years		12 to 15 years		16 to 17 years		18 to 24 years		25 years and older
	number	percent^{Table 13.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 13.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 13.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 13.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 13.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 13.1 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	100	3	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 13.1 Note 2}	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	100	3	100
Attempted murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual offences	13	8	39	23	11	6	31	18	78	45	172	100
Sexual assault	6	4	13	9	10	7	31	22	78	57	138	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	100	1	100
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	1	13	1	13	1	13	0	0	5	63	8	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	5	4	12	9	9	7	31	24	72	56	129	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 13.1 Note 3}	7	21	26	76	1	3	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	34	100
Assaults	31	1	77	3	75	3	493	20	1,758	72	2,435	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	0	0	0	0	2	9	2	9	18	82	22	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	8	2	15	4	9	2	86	22	279	70	397	100
Assault (level 1)	23	1	61	3	64	3	402	21	1,394	72	1,944	100
Other^{Table 13.1 Note 4}	0	0	1	1	0	0	3	4	67	94	72	100
Other violent offences	15	3	24	5	17	4	57	13	334	75	447	100
Robbery	0	0	3	12	1	4	5	19	17	65	26	100
Criminal harassment	0	0	2	7	1	4	2	7	22	81	27	100
Indecent/harassing communications	0	0	1	3	2	5	4	11	30	81	37	100
Uttering threats	12	4	15	5	9	3	32	10	247	78	315	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	0	0	0	0	1	5	8	38	12	57	21	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other^{Table 13.1 Note 5}	3	14	3	14	3	14	6	29	6	29	21	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 13.1 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 13.1 Note 6}	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	100	1	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 13.1 Note 6}	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	100	8	100
Total victims	59	2	140	5	103	3	581	19	2,182	71	3,066	100
... not applicable Note 1 Total victims includes victims where the age was unknown. Percentage calculations exclude victims where the age was unknown. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Excludes Criminal Code traffic violations causing death such as impaired driving. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code offences that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assault and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the “Definitions” section for a full list of offences in this category. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes assaults against police and other peace officers, and other types of assaults such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes violent firearm offences, extortion and other violent violations. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop and other Criminal Code traffic violations. Return to note 6 referrer Note: Victims refer to those aged 89 years and younger. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. For police-reported incidents that involve violations against the person, a victim record is collected for each victim involved in the incident. If an individual is a victim in multiple incidents in the same reference year, that individual will be counted as one victim for each separate incident. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Table 13.2
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and sex of victim, Northwest Territories, 2016
Table summary
This table displays the results of Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Female victims, Male victims and Total victims, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Female victims		Male victims		Total victims^{Table 13.2 Note 1}
Type of offence	number	percent^{Table 13.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 13.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 13.2 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	1	33	2	67	3	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 13.2 Note 2}	1	33	2	67	3	100
Attempted murder	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual offences	161	94	11	6	172	100
Sexual assault	130	94	8	6	138	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	1	100	0	0	1	100
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	8	100	0	0	8	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	121	94	8	6	129	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 13.2 Note 3}	31	91	3	9	34	100
Assaults	1,386	57	1,036	43	2,435	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	5	23	17	77	22	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	157	40	240	60	397	100
Assault (level 1)	1,217	63	724	37	1,944	100
Other^{Table 13.2 Note 4}	7	11	55	89	72	100
Other violent offences	249	57	191	43	447	100
Robbery	11	42	15	58	26	100
Criminal harassment	18	69	8	31	27	100
Indecent/harassing communications	29	78	8	22	37	100
Uttering threats	154	50	155	50	315	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	20	95	1	5	21	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other^{Table 13.2 Note 5}	17	81	4	19	21	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 13.2 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 13.2 Note 6}	1	100	0	0	1	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 13.2 Note 6}	2	25	6	75	8	100
Total victims	1,800	59	1,246	41	3,066	100
Note 1 Total victims includes victims where the sex was unknown. Percentage calculations exclude victims where the sex was unknown. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Excludes Criminal Code traffic violations causing death such as impaired driving. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code offences that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assault and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the “Definitions” section for a full list of offences in this category. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes assaults against police and other peace officers, as well as other types of assaults such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes violent firearm offences, extortion and other violent violations. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop and other Criminal Code traffic violations. Return to note 6 referrer Note: Victims refer to those aged 89 years and younger. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. For police-reported incidents that involve violations against the person, a victim record is collected for each victim involved in the incident. If an individual is a victim in multiple incidents in the same reference year, that individual will be counted as one victim for each separate incident. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Table 13.3
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and sex and age group of victim, Northwest Territories, 2016
Table summary
This table displays the results of Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Age group, Total victims, Child victims
under 12 years, Youth victims
12 to 17 years and Adult victims
18 years and older, calculated using Number, rate and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Age group									Total victims^{Table 13.3 Note 1}
	Child victims under 12 years			Youth victims 12 to 17 years			Adult victims 18 years and older			Total victims^{Table 13.3 Note 1}
	number	rate	percent^{Table 13.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 13.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 13.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 13.3 Note 1}
Female victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 13.3 Note 2}	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	100	1	5	100
Sexual offences	12	305	7	44	2,815	27	105	645	65	161	738	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	6	152	5	19	1,216	15	105	645	81	130	596	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 13.3 Note 3}	6	152	19	25	1,599	81	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	31	142	100
Assaults^{Table 13.3 Note 4}	10	254	1	106	6,782	8	1,269	7,797	92	1,386	6,350	100
Other violent offences^{Table 13.3 Note 5}	5	127	2	27	1,727	11	217	1,333	87	249	1,141	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 13.3 Note 6}	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	18	100	3	14	100
Total female victims	27	686	2	177	11,324	10	1,595	9,800	89	1,800	8,247	100
Male victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 13.3 Note 2}	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	12	100	2	9	100
Sexual offences	1	24	9	6	408	55	4	24	36	11	49	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	0	0	0	4	272	50	4	24	50	8	35	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 13.3 Note 3}	1	24	33	2	136	67	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	3	13	100
Assaults^{Table 13.3 Note 4}	21	498	2	46	3,131	4	969	5,724	94	1,036	4,575	100
Other violent offences^{Table 13.3 Note 5}	10	237	5	14	953	7	167	986	87	191	844	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 13.3 Note 6}	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	35	100	6	26	100
Total male victims	32	760	3	66	4,493	5	1,148	6,781	92	1,246	5,503	100
Total victims^{Table 13.3 Note 7}	59	724	2	243	8,015	8	2,763	8,321	90	3,066	6,895	100
... not applicable Note 1 Total victims includes victims where the age was unknown. Percentage calculations exclude victims where the age was unknown. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Includes homicide, other offences causing death and attempted murder. Excludes Criminal Code traffic violations causing death such as impaired driving. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code offences that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assault and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the “Definitions” section for a full list of offences in this category. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes assault (level 1, 2 and 3), assaults against police and other peace officers, and other types of assaults such as criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes robbery; criminal harassment; incident/harassing communications; uttering threats; kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking; trafficking in persons and prostitution; violent firearm offences; extortion; and other violent violations. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes impaired driving, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop and other Criminal Code traffic violations. Return to note 6 referrer Note 7 Includes victims where the sex was unknown. Return to note 7 referrer Note: Victims refer to those aged 89 years and younger. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations based upon July 1st estimates from Statistics Canada, Demography Division. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. For police-reported incidents that involve violations against the person, a victim record is collected for each victim involved in the incident. If an individual is a victim in multiple incidents in the same reference year, that individual will be counted as one victim for each separate incident. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Notes

Note

The remaining assaults include other assaults such as assault against a peace officer.

Return to note referrer

Note

Sexual violations against children are a set of Criminal Code violations that specifically concern offences involving child and youth victims. These include offences such as sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation, but exclude sexual assaults and other sexual offences not specific to children. See the “Definitions” section for a full list of offences in this category.

Return to note referrer

Note

Because of differences in the definition of victims and methods of counting, these victim counts should not be compared to victim counts for other provinces and territories. Moreover, these counts should also not be compared to the count of police-reported victims from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Return to note referrer

Note

The data reported refer to newly opened files, or new referrals, in the 2015/2016 fiscal year. Therefore, if an individual is the victim in multiple cases with the same or different accused person(s) during the fiscal year, they may only be counted once in the data because each victim only has one open file with victim services. The data exclude individuals that have an open file with Victim Services Programs from a previous year, and in turn, were re-victimized during the 2015/2016 fiscal year.

Return to note referrer

Note

Secondary victims are predominantly family members of any victim or another individual present at the time of the incident, such as a non-family member of the household.

Return to note referrer

Date modified:: 2018-05-30

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Fact sheet
Northwest Territories

Victims of police-reported violent crime in the Northwest Territories, 2016

Victim services in the Northwest Territories

Detailed data tables

Fact sheet Northwest Territories

Victims of police-reported violent crime in the Northwest Territories, 2016

Victim services in the Northwest Territories

Detailed data tables

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Fact sheet
Northwest Territories