Monday, November 5, 2007

Spotlight: Court statistics

Adult cases become more complex

ADULT criminal court cases have become more complex during the last 10 years, as cases involving multiple charges account for a growing share of the total caseload.

According to the Daily article “Adult criminal court statistics”, cases involving multiple charges represented 60% of the adult caseload in 2005/2006, compared with 51% a decade earlier.

In turn, this increased case complexity has likely contributed to the longer average time taken to complete a case in adult court. In 2005/2006, cases took two months longer to complete on average than they took in 1995/1996.

Not surprisingly, cases disposed of in adult criminal courts were down 11% from a decade earlier. The reasons for this were the increased complexity and duration of cases, as well as a long-term downward trend in police-reported crime statistics.

Of the 373,100 cases completed in 2005/2006, the largest shares—at 25% and 24%, respectively—involved crimes against the person and crimes against property. Administration of justice offences involved 17%, and Criminal Code traffic offences, 14%. The remaining 20% involved other Criminal Code and federal statute offences.

These proportions have remained relatively stable over time, except for administration of justice offences (including breach of probation and failure to comply with a court order), the share of which having doubled over the past decade.

Exactly two-thirds of adult cases received a guilty disposition in 2005/2006, with the majority of the accused in these cases pleading guilty.

The highest share of cases with a finding of guilt occurred in the Criminal Code traffic offences category. The lowest occurred in crimes against the person.

See also
Fewer youth in court THE DAILY -- Tuesday, October 23, 2007