Progress and challenges in the Canadian justice system

March 8 is International Women’s Day, an opportunity to reflect on the social and legal conditions of more than 20 million women and girls living in Canada. This year, the United Nations Women’s theme for that day is “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.” 

Women are generally more likely to report having high confidence in the police than in the justice system and courts. In 2024, approximately three in five women (65%) reported having high levels of confidence in the police; by comparison, just under half (48%) of women reported having high confidence in the justice system and courts.

Women’s representation among police personnel steadily increased from 1986 to 2023, doubling from 18% to 36% over this period.

In 1986, approximately 1 in 25 police officers (4%) in Canada were women, while 57% of the civilian staff of police services were women. By 2023, women made up over two-thirds (69%) of civilian staff and almost one-quarter (23%) of police officers.

Following the reforms to the federal judicial-appointment process announced in 2016, which were explicitly intended to improve transparency, diversity and rigour in appointing superior court judges, the share of women federally appointed as judges has increased.

Women accounted for 44% of judges appointed before 2016 and for 52% of those appointed after 2016 (as of February 2026). This brings the share of women judges currently on the bench to 49%.

Among people who had been physically assaulted in the 12 months preceding the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces in 2018, a smaller share of women (26%) than men (33%) reported that the police knew about the most serious incident of physical assault they had experienced.

The rate of police-reported family violence was 17% higher in 2024 than in 2018, when revisions to the definition of a founded incident were implemented in the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

The increase in police-reported violence was larger among men and boys (+21%) than women and girls (+16%) over this period. However, the rate of police-reported family violence against women and girls (474 victims per 100,000 population) was 2.1 times higher than against men and boys (224 victims per 100,000 population) in 2024.

From 2018 to 2024, the rate of intimate partner violence among victims aged 12 years and older increased by 14%. Once again, the increase was larger among men and boys (+22%) than among women and girls (+13%). Nevertheless, the rate of intimate partner violence against women and girls (553 victims per 100,000 population aged 12 years and older) was 3.5 times higher than against men and boys (158 victims per 100,000 population aged 12 years and older) in 2024.

Women are almost four times more likely than men to be sexually assaulted. In 2018, 30% of women and girls aged 15 years and older reported having been sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15, compared with 8% of men and boys.

Although it is common for incidents of violent crime not to come to the attention of police, sexual assaults are particularly underreported. In 2018, 1 in 20 women (5%) who had been sexually assaulted in the 12 months preceding the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces reported that the police were informed about the most serious incident of sexual assault they had experienced.

Reflecting a more victim-centred and trauma-informed approach to recording crime, a new definition of “founded” crime was implemented in the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey in 2018. Following the change, reported incidents are now classified as “unfounded” only when there is credible evidence that an incident did not occur. More incidents are now captured in police-reported data because of this change.

Police-reported data show that the proportion of sexual assaults classified as unfounded has steadily declined since the change in definition, falling from 14% in 2017 to 7% in 2022.