New statistics have shed light on the Canadian justice system in the years prior to a Supreme Court decision that set time limits on the completion of criminal charges.
Adult criminal and youth court statistics in Canada, 2016/2017, were released yesterday. They show the time taken to complete a charge – that is the time between a formal accusation against an accused person or company and a final decision – increased in both adult criminal court and youth court cases.
In July 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in R. v. Jordan set a presumptive ceiling of 18 months between charges being laid and the trial in a provincial court without a preliminary inquiry, or 30 months in other cases. Although it might be too early to what kind of impact, if any, Jordan has had on the Courts, these statistics tell us a lot about the shape of the justice system when the ruling was made.
ICCS is expected to release more up-to-date statistics later this year on charge processing times that provides more in-depth data on processing times and new indicators. It will also represent the first full-year of statistics since the Jordan decision and hopefully provide a clearer picture of its impact.
Length of time taken to complete a charge increased before Jordan
According to data collected by the Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS), the median length of time taken to complete both an adult criminal and a youth court charge increased from 2015/2016 to 2016/2017.
In adult criminal court, the median rose from 113 days in 2015/2016 to 124 days in 2016/2017 – an increase of 10 percent. In youth court, the median rose 7 percent, from 99 days in 2015/2016 to 106 days in 2016/2017.
There was a general upward trend in the length of time taken to complete charges over the past decade. Charges completed in 2016/2017 took a median of 12 days (11 percent) longer than they did in 2007/2008 in adult criminal court and 14 days (15 percent) longer in youth court.
First increase in number of completed adult criminal cases in seven years
The number of adult criminal court cases recorded its first increase in seven years. In 2016/2017, there were 357,642 adult cases, a 2 percent increase from 351,061 the previous year.
Despite the number of adult cases rising, the number of youth court cases continued its downward trajectory. In youth court in 2016/2017, there were 29,172 cases completed in Canada. This was a decline of 8 percent from 31,718 compared to a year earlier. Youth court cases have been halved over the past decade. In 2008/2009 there were 50 percent more youth cases (58,710).
Overall increase in the average number of charges per case
Although there were fewer cases completed in both adult criminal and youth court in 2016/2017 than a decade earlier, the average number of charges per case has increased for both adult criminal and youth court cases in the past 10 years.
In 2016/2017, there was an average of 3.4 charges per case in adult criminal court, a 17 percent increase from 2007/2008 when there were 2.9 charges per case.
In youth court, there was an average of 3.9 charges per case in 2016/2017, an increase of 20 percent compared to 2007/2008 when there were 3.3 charges per case.
The average number of charges was steadily increasing in both adult and youth cases until they jumped in 2014/2015 in youth court and 2015/2016 in adult criminal court.
Nearly two-thirds of adult and more than half of youth cases result in guilty verdicts
The percentage of adult criminal court cases that resulted in a guilty decision in 2016/2017 was 63 percent, remaining largely the same as 10 years prior. Of the remaining cases, 32 percent of cases resulted in a stay or withdrawal.
More than half (54 percent) of defendants in youth court cases were found or pleaded guilty in 2016/2017, slightly less than 60 percent in 2007/2008. Meanwhile, 44 percent of charges were stayed or withdrawn, slightly up from 38 percent in 2007/2008.
Acquittals represented 5 percent of decisions in adult criminal court and 2 percent in youth court cases.