Monday, November 5, 2007

Spotlight: Court statistics

Fewer youth in court

JUDGES are seeing fewer young people aged 12 to 17 in their courtrooms, and are sending fewer youth to custody.

According to the article “Youth court statistics” in The Daily, this trend has been witnessed since the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) went into effect in April 2003.

Since 2002/2003—the final year of the Young Offenders Act (YOA)—the youth court caseload has dropped 26%.

This decline is consistent with police-reported data showing that the rate of youth charged with criminal offences was 26% lower in 2005 than in 2002.

A less formal approach

The YCJA aims to keep the less serious offences out of youth courts by dealing with youth in less formal manners.

Half the reduction in the youth court caseload was the result of fewer youth appearing in court for property crimes such as theft, breaking and entering, fraud and possession of stolen property.

However, property crime cases still accounted for 38% of youth court caseload, more than any other type of crime.

Since it reached a high of 70% in 1998/1999, the proportion of cases where the accused either pleaded guilty or was found guilty has been gradually declining. Of those youth who went to court in 2005/2006, 62% of cases resulted in guilt.

There were 56,271 youth court cases completed during the 2005/2006 fiscal year, down 2% from the previous year.

Use of custody

One of the concerns with the YOA, which preceded the YCJA, was the overuse of custody.

Consistent with a key objective of the YCJA to decrease this overuse of custody, not only are fewer youth appearing in court, fewer are sentenced to custody.

In 2005/2006, about 18% or 6,355 of all guilty cases resulted in the youth being sentenced to custody. This compares to 27% or 13,246 of all guilty cases in 2002/2003.

Historically, judges have sentenced youth to probation more than any other type of sentence. Although this was still true in 2005/2006, the proportion of guilty youth receiving probation dropped to 60% from 70% in 2002/2003.

This drop may be due in part to the fact that under the YCJA, youth are subject to a period of mandatory community supervision following their release from custody, rather than a probation order.

New sentencing options

The YCJA introduced a number of new sentencing options for judges, including intensive support and supervision orders, deferred custody and supervision orders, and orders to attend a non-residential program.

Of the new sentences, deferred custody and supervision orders were handed down the most frequently.

Revision of data

All data are from the Youth Court Survey.

These statistics should not be compared with previously-released data, since there has been a revision of data dating back to 1991/1992. This revision is intended to more closely reflect court processing.

Accredited journalists can access the data tables related to this release (age and sex of accused and the type of decision and sentence). See the Detailed tables in CANSIM page in the Media Room for more details.

For more information, contact Information and Client Services (1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics or Media Relations.

See also
Adult cases become more complex THE DAILY -- Tuesday, October 23, 2007