Fact sheet
Newfoundland and Labrador

Victims of police-reported violent crime in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2016

There were 5,462 victims of violent crime and criminal traffic offences causing death or bodily harm reported by police in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2016. This represented 1,067 victims per 100,000 population, above the overall national rate (951) (Table A).
Most (82%) victims of police-reported crime were adults aged 18 and older; 65% were aged 25 and older. Meanwhile, 13% of victims were youth aged 12 to 17 and 4% 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 2.1).
Over two-thirds (69%) of victims of police-reported crime in 2016 were victims of assault: 55% were victims of common assault (level 1) and 11% were victims of major assault (level 2 or 3).^Note Assault victims accounted for seven in ten (71%) of adult victims of police-reported violent crime. In comparison, assault accounted for almost two-thirds (63%) of child and youth victims (Table 2.1). Rates of assault were highest among youth aged 16 to 17.
Overall, 7% 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), 13% were victims of sexual assault (all sexual assault level 1) and another 14% were victims of sexual violations against children.^Note For youth victims (aged 12 to 17 years), 10% were victims of sexual assault (almost all sexual assault level 1) and 8% were victims of sexual violations against children (Table 2.1). 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.
Nearly one-quarter (23%) of police-reported victims in 2016 were victims of other violent offences including uttering threats (15%) (Table 2.1).
While just over half (52%) of police-reported victims were female, they represented a much larger proportion of victims of sexual offences (87%) and of some other violent offences such as criminal harassment (81%) and indecent and harassing communications (65%) (Table 2.2).
Assault was the most common police-reported offence among both male (74%) and female (65%) victims in 2016. Meanwhile, 12% of female victims were victims of sexual offences (10% sexual assault—mostly level 1—and 3% sexual violations against children). In comparison, 2% of males were victims of sexual offences (Table 2.2).
Male and female victims of police-reported sexual offences differed notably by age. Overall, among female victims of all sexual offences, 47% were either children under the age of 12 (14%) or youth aged 12 to 17 (33%). Of all female child and youth victims, 32% were victims of sexual offences: 18% were sexual assault and 14% were sexual violations against children (Table 2.3).
Compared to females, a much larger proportion (65%) of male victims of police-reported sexual offences were either children (31%) or youth (33%). Despite this, sexual offences were still less common among young male children and youth, representing 7% of victims (compared to 32% for their female counterparts). Instead, assault was the most common (76%) offence for male child and youth victims (Table 2.3).

Victim services in Newfoundland and Labrador

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Department of Justice and Public Safety’s Victim Services Program offers a system-based program that assists victims at any time after a crime has occurred, regardless of whether the crime was reported to police or a charge has been laid. General assistance to victims includes referrals to community support services, and specialized community-based programs such as the province-wide Newfoundland and Labrador Sexual Assault Crisis and Prevention Centre, women’s centres and shelters and other services for victims with specific needs. In addition, when a charge has been laid, victims receive specific assistance during and after their involvement in the criminal justice system, including court support and assistance with Victim Impact Statements, as well as updates on the status of their case.

The information provided below represents counts of files opened by the Victim Services Program as a result of referrals from police services and other sources such as medical professionals or lawyers, as well as victims who self-refer.^Note^Note

In 2016, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Victim Services Program opened files for 3,654 direct victims of crime and 96 families, as well as 191 business victims and 13 youth witnesses of crime.^Note^Note
Children and youth under age 16 accounted for 5% of direct victims for whom files were opened.
Over half (58%) of direct victims were female; 42% were male.^Note
Of all the files opened by Victim Services, 76% were for violent crimes.^Note This included 814 (21%) victims of spousal or intimate partner abuse. One in five (21%) files were for victims of a non-violent offence such as theft or fraud. Another 1% or 31 files were for impaired driving and other traffic offences.
In 2016, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Victim Services assisted with the completion and submission of 262 Victim Impact Statements to courts and review boards.

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 2.1
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and age group of victim, Newfoundland and Labrador, 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 2.1 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 2.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 2.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 2.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 2.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 2.1 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 2.1 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	2	13	0	0	2	13	2	13	10	63	16	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 2.1 Note 2}	1	11	0	0	0	0	1	11	7	78	9	100
Attempted murder	1	14	0	0	2	29	1	14	3	43	7	100
Sexual offences	64	16	98	25	35	9	82	21	120	30	403	100
Sexual assault	31	10	38	12	34	11	82	27	120	39	309	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	50	2	50	4	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	31	10	38	13	34	11	80	27	118	39	305	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 2.1 Note 3}	33	35	60	64	1	1	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	94	100
Assaults	153	4	252	7	204	5	631	17	2,528	67	3,781	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	1	2	0	0	1	2	8	17	37	79	47	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	23	4	25	5	25	5	100	18	378	69	551	100
Assault (level 1)	127	4	224	7	174	6	513	17	1,960	65	3,011	100
Other^{Table 2.1 Note 4}	2	1	3	2	4	2	10	6	153	89	172	100
Other violent offences	24	2	66	5	59	5	204	17	874	71	1,229	100
Robbery	1	1	6	6	7	7	27	26	64	61	105	100
Criminal harassment	0	0	1	2	1	2	16	26	44	71	62	100
Indecent/harassing communications	0	0	3	2	4	3	8	6	118	89	133	100
Uttering threats	16	2	53	6	44	5	120	14	604	72	839	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	3	8	2	5	0	0	18	45	17	43	40	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	100	1	100
Other^{Table 2.1 Note 5}	4	8	1	2	3	6	15	31	26	53	49	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 2.1 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 2.1 Note 6}	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	17	5	83	6	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 2.1 Note 6}	0	0	2	7	2	7	8	30	15	56	27	100
Total victims	243	4	418	8	302	6	928	17	3,552	65	5,462	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 2.2
Victims of police-reported violent crime and traffic violations causing death or bodily harm, by type of offence and sex of victim, Newfoundland and Labrador, 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 2.2 Note 1}
Type of offence	number	percent^{Table 2.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 2.2 Note 1}	number	percent^{Table 2.2 Note 1}
Violent Criminal Code offences
Violations causing death and attempted murder	9	56	7	44	16	100
Homicide and other offences causing death^{Table 2.2 Note 2}	4	44	5	56	9	100
Attempted murder	5	71	2	29	7	100
Sexual offences	351	87	51	13	403	100
Sexual assault	278	90	30	10	309	100
Sexual assault (level 3)—aggravated	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	3	75	1	25	4	100
Sexual assault (level 1)	275	90	29	10	305	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 2.2 Note 3}	73	78	21	22	94	100
Assaults	1,838	49	1,941	51	3,781	100
Assault (level 3)—aggravated	17	36	30	64	47	100
Assault (level 2)—weapon or causing bodily harm	224	41	327	59	551	100
Assault (level 1)	1,564	52	1,446	48	3,011	100
Other^{Table 2.2 Note 4}	33	19	138	81	172	100
Other violent offences	607	49	622	51	1,229	100
Robbery	43	41	62	59	105	100
Criminal harassment	50	81	12	19	62	100
Indecent/harassing communications	87	65	46	35	133	100
Uttering threats	357	43	482	57	839	100
Kidnapping, forcible confinement, abduction or hostage taking	36	90	4	10	40	100
Trafficking in persons and prostitution	1	100	0	0	1	100
Other^{Table 2.2 Note 5}	33	67	16	33	49	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 2.2 Note 6}
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing death^{Table 2.2 Note 6}	3	50	3	50	6	100
Impaired driving and other traffic violations causing bodily harm^{Table 2.2 Note 6}	13	48	14	52	27	100
Total victims	2,821	52	2,638	48	5,462	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 2.3
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, Newfoundland and Labrador, 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 2.3 Note 1}
	Child victims under 12 years			Youth victims 12 to 17 years			Adult victims 18 years and older			Total victims^{Table 2.3 Note 1}
	number	rate	percent^{Table 2.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 2.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 2.3 Note 1}	number	rate	percent^{Table 2.3 Note 1}
Female victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 2.3 Note 2}	2	7	22	1	7	11	6	3	67	9	3	100
Sexual offences	47	169	14	116	762	33	184	86	53	351	135	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	25	90	9	65	427	24	184	86	67	278	107	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 2.3 Note 3}	22	79	30	51	335	70	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	73	28	100
Assaults^{Table 2.3 Note 4}	51	184	3	216	1,419	12	1,563	729	85	1,838	708	100
Other violent offences^{Table 2.3 Note 5}	11	40	2	66	434	11	529	247	87	607	234	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 2.3 Note 6}	0	0	0	1	7	6	15	7	94	16	6	100
Total female victims	111	400	4	400	2,628	14	2,297	1,072	82	2,821	1,087	100
Male victims
Violations causing death and attempted murder^{Table 2.3 Note 2}	0	0	0	1	6	14	6	3	86	7	3	100
Sexual offences	16	55	31	17	109	33	18	9	35	51	20	100
Sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3)	5	17	17	7	45	23	18	9	60	30	12	100
Sexual violations against children^{Table 2.3 Note 3}	11	38	52	10	64	48	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	21	8	100
Assaults^{Table 2.3 Note 4}	102	349	5	240	1,542	12	1,594	773	82	1,941	770	100
Other violent offences^{Table 2.3 Note 5}	13	44	2	59	379	10	549	266	88	622	247	100
Criminal Code traffic violations causing death or bodily harm^{Table 2.3 Note 6}	0	0	0	3	19	18	14	7	82	17	7	100
Total male victims	131	448	5	320	2,055	12	2,181	1,057	83	2,638	1,046	100
Total victims^{Table 2.3 Note 7}	243	426	4	720	2,338	13	4,480	1,065	82	5,462	1,067	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 counts presented here, totalling 3,954, are counts of files opened by the Victim Services Program resulting from 6,279 newly referred matters in 2016 where services were offered by the program. Information is not available to identify how many of these victims accepted assistance as a result of the offer for services. Of the 6,279 matters referred, 2,325 individuals received Offers for Service letters but did not request assistance from the Victim Services Program.

Return to note referrer

Note

The data reported (3,954) refers to newly opened files for the 2016 reference year. The data excludes individuals who have an open file with victim services from previous years, and who were re-victimized during the 2016 reference year by the same accused. If an individual is the victim in multiple cases with the same accused, they will only be counted once in the data. If however, an individual is victimized in multiple offences with different accused, a separate file will be opened for each distinct matter.

Return to note referrer

Note

Victim Services in Newfoundland and Labrador are unable to count each individual associated with a file or offence such as break and enter where there may be multiple family members victimized. As a result, families are captured as one family file.

Return to note referrer

Note

Percentage based on files where information on the sex of the victim was available.

Return to note referrer

Note

Victims here include direct victims, families of victims and businesses, as well as youth witnesses.

Return to note referrer

Date modified:: 2018-05-30

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Fact sheet
Newfoundland and Labrador

Victims of police-reported violent crime in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2016

Victim services in Newfoundland and Labrador

Detailed data tables

Fact sheet Newfoundland and Labrador

Victims of police-reported violent crime in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2016

Victim services in Newfoundland and Labrador

Detailed data tables

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Fact sheet
Newfoundland and Labrador