Description for Adult criminal court statistics in Canada, 2013/2014

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360,640 completed cases^Note 1 (includes 1,071,314 charges^Note 2)
- 359,229 Provincial court cases (99%)
- 1,411 Superior court cases (1%)
  - Decision
    - 228,328 Guilty^Note 3 (63%)
      - Sentence^Note 6
        
        82,764 Custody (36%)
        30 Median length of custody (days)^Note 8, ^Note 11
        
        9,854 Conditional sentence (4%)
        
        97,630 Probation (43%)
        365 Median length of probation (days)^Note 9, ^Note 11
        
        67,555 Fine (30%)
        600 Median amount of fine ($)^Note 10, ^Note 12
        
        5,530 Restitution (2%)
        
        125,692 Other^Note 7 (55%)
    - 13,979 Acquitted (4%)
    - 114,525 Stayed/Withdrawn^Note 4 (32%)
    - 3,808 Other^Note 5 (1%)
123 Median length of cases (days)^Note 13

Notes

Note 1.

A case is one or more charges against an accused person or company that were processed by the courts at the same time and received a final decision.

Return to note 1 referrer

Note 2.

A charge refers to a formal accusation against an accused person or company involving a federal statute offence that has been processed by the courts and received a final decision.

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Note 3.

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. Also includes guilty pleas, and cases where an absolute or conditional discharge has been imposed.

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Note 4.

Includes stays, withdrawals, dismissals and discharges at preliminary inquiry as well as court referrals to alternative or extrajudicial measures.

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Note 5.

Includes final decisions of found not criminally responsible and waived out of province or territory. Also includes any order where a conviction was not recorded, the court's acceptance of a special plea, cases that raise Charter arguments and cases where the accused was found unfit to stand trial.

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Note 6.

Cases may involve more than one type of sentence, therefore, percentages do not total 100%.

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Note 7.

"Other" sentences include absolute and conditional discharge, suspended sentence, community service order and prohibition order among others.

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Note 8.

Custodial sentence lengths exclude time spent in custody prior to sentencing and/or the amount of credit awarded for time spent in pre-sentence custody. Also excludes cases in which the length of the custody sentence was unknown or indeterminate. Length of custody information are not available from Manitoba.

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Note 9.

Data exclude cases in which the length of the probation sentence was unknown or greater than 3 years. Length of probation information are not available from Manitoba.

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Note 10.

Data exclude cases in which the amount of the fine was unknown. Amount of fine information are not available from Manitoba.

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Note 11.

The median is the point at which half of all cases had longer sentence lengths and half had shorter sentence lengths.

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Note 12.

The median is the point at which half of all cases had higher sentence amounts and half had lower sentence amounts.

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Note 13.

Case lengths are calculated based on the number of days it takes to complete a case, from first appearance to final decision. The median is the point at which half of all cases had longer case lengths and half had shorter case lengths.

Return to note 13 referrer

Note: Data exclude information from superior courts in Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as municipal courts in Quebec due to the unavailability of data.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Integrated Criminal Court Survey.

Date modified:: 2015-11-30

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Description for Adult criminal court statistics in Canada, 2013/2014

Archived Content

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