I think the presentation has been distributed.
Thank you for the opportunity to present to the committee regarding Bill C-4. Statistics Canada does not take a position on the proposed amendments in the bill. The presentation we have prepared contains our most recent data on youth criminal justice and has been updated since our June 2010 appearance to inform this bill.
All data sources used are clearly indicated on the slides, as are any pertinent data notes. Distributed for your consideration are the most recent Juristat reports related to youth crime and youth courts.
My colleagues with me, Ms. Mia Dauvergne, Ms. Rebecca Kong, and Mr. Craig Grimes, will help answer any questions.
Please turn to the second slide in the deck. Using data received from police services across Canada, we can examine trends in youth accused of police-reported crimes. Over the last 10 years there has been a substantial shift in the trends of youth accused by police. The rate of youth charged has dropped, while the rate of youth cleared by other means has increased.
In 2009, 45% of youth accused of a police-reported crime were charged or had charges recommended against them. The remaining 55% were cleared by verbal warnings, written cautions, referrals to a community program, referral to an extrajudicial sanctions program, or other means, including incidents where the complainant declined to lay charges.
Crime can be classified into two categories, violent and non-violent. As can be seen on slide 4, most crime committed by youth is non-violent. This has been a consistent trend over the last 10 years. In 2009, seven in ten youth accused of a crime had committed a non-violent offence. The rate of non-violent crime committed by youth in Canada has been decreasing over the last 10 years, while the rate of violent crime has remained relatively stable.
As the youth crime rate is predominately driven by non-violent crimes, the overall crime rate as reported by police services in Canada has also dropped over the last 10 years.
The top 10 offences shown on slide 5 account for approximately 80% of all police-reported offences committed by youth in 2009. Eight of the ten shown are classified as non-violent offences. The most common police-reported offence committed by youth in 2009 was theft under $5,000. This, along with mischief, assault level 1, and administration of justice violations accounted for about half of all police-reported offences committed by youth in 2009.
On slide 6 we turn to what happens once charges laid by police move into Canada's youth courts. In 2008-09, theft was the most common type of case completed in youth courts, followed by Youth Criminal Justice Act infractions, break and enters, and common assaults. These 10 most common offences shown accounted for just over 75% of total youth court cases in 2008-09.
The composition of cases completed in youth court is changing. We are seeing fewer cases involving less serious offences, such as possession of stolen property, and an increase in more serious offences such as robbery, major assault, and uttering threats.
Please turn to the next slide. Since the introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, there has been a 23% decline in the cases completed in youth court. While there is variability in the magnitude of the decline in caseload, all provinces and territories have experienced a decline since the YCJA.
In addition to the decrease in the total number of cases, there has also been a decrease in the number of guilty cases stemming from youth courts. While the decline began in the early 1990s, the introduction of the YCJA coincides with the time where we see a decrease in both the total number of cases completed and the number of guilty cases.
Turning to slide 8, of the approximately 58,500 cases heard in youth courts in Canada in 2008-09, 59% resulted in a guilty finding. In half the cases where the youth was found guilty, probation was the most serious sentence imposed.
As seen in slide 9, in recent years, the proportion of violent cases resulting in a custodial sentence has been declining, and in 2008-09 they were at their lowest recorded levels. All provinces and territories have experienced large decreases in both the numbers and proportions of guilty youth cases receiving custodial sentences since the first year of the YCJA. The use of custody has also decreased across all offence categories.
On the next slide, in 2008-09 the median length of custody for all youth cases in Canada was 36 days, compared with 30 days for adults. When split by violent and non-violent offences, we see that there is a difference in the median lengths of the custodial sentence imposed: 65 days for violent cases versus 30 days for non-violent cases sentenced to custody. By far, the median length of custody was the longest for homicide, at two and a half years, followed by attempted murder and sexual assault.
On any given day in 2009-10, about 835 youth, aged 12 to 17, were in sentenced custody, down 7% from the previous year and down 46% from 2003-04. In fact, the number has been declining annually since 1995-96.
Looking at slide 11, youth in remand outnumbered those in sentenced custody. In 2009-10, 53% of all young people held in custody on any given day were in remand compared with 35% in 2003-04.
Youth continue to spend fairly short periods of time in remand. As seen in slide 12, four of the eight jurisdictions that provided data in 2008-09 indicated that youth spent, as a median number of days, one week or less in custody. Since the implementation of the YCJA, the median number of days spent in remand has varied across jurisdictions. Overall, in 2008-09, 54% of youth released from remand had spent one week or less in remand. This proportion has fluctuated between 53% and 56% since 2004-05.
For youth there are operationally two levels of custody: open custody, which is less restrictive, such as a halfway house; and closed custody, which means secure facilities and would include detention centres.
As shown in slide 13, among the reporting jurisdictions, the trend in time spent in open and secure custody has fluctuated.
Once again, thank you for the opportunity to present to the committee.