Framework

The SOCJS Framework

The State of the Criminal Justice System Framework (the Framework) was developed in 2019 by the Department of Justice Canada through extensive research and consultation with key federal, provincial, and territorial government partners, community organizations, academics, Canadians, criminal justice data holders, and other experts in criminal justice policy, performance measurement, Indigenous justice and Indigenous legal traditions. The Framework relies on data from numerous stakeholders and partners including the Department of Justice Canada (JUS), the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) at Statistics Canada, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI), and the Parole Board of Canada (PBC).

The Framework consists of nine broad expected outcomes for the Canadian CJS:

  1. Canadians are safe and individuals and families feel safe
  2. The CJS is fair and accessible
  3. Canadians understand the role of and express confidence in the CJS
  4. The CJS operates efficiently
  5. The CJS promotes and supports diversion, restorative justice, Indigenous justice, and tools for community-based resolution
  6. The CJS provides persons in the correctional system with services and supports to rehabilitate them and integrate them back into the community
  7. The CJS respects victims’ and survivors’ rights and addresses their needs
  8. The CJS reduces the number of Indigenous people in the system
  9. The CJS reduces the number of marginalized and vulnerable people in the system

Annex II provides an overview of the Framework, including each of the nine outcomes and associated indicators.

Framework Limitations

Canada’s CJS is designed to ensure public safety by protecting society from those who violate the law and holding these individuals accountable while also providing them support for rehabilitation. The CJS consists of several interrelated systems designed to work along a continuum to balance the needs of victims/survivors, accused/offenders, and communities. Police, courts and corrections work together within a broader social system to deliver fair and equitable justice. However, the administration of these systems differs across the provinces and territories, which makes it difficult to follow an individual’s path through the CJS and in particular, across jurisdictions. The purpose of the SOCJS Framework, Dashboard and Report is to provide a national picture of Canada’s CJS and as such, may not represent some of the differences in processes and practices across the country. Additionally, some jurisdictions are excluded from national figures for specific indicators, due to lack of available data.

While the current Framework is not exhaustive of all potentially relevant indicators that could measure the performance of the CJS, the Framework is evergreen and will integrate relevant information and data as they become available. The Department of Justice Canada is committed to working with its partners to further refine the Framework as new data are collected and statistical standards are developed.

Further, the Framework and online Dashboard encompass both the adult and youth CJS; however, these two systems have distinct processes. To that end, a youth-adapted framework will be added in the coming years. The current report refers to the adult population unless otherwise stated.

Data Limitations

Since this report focuses on the impact of an event that occurred at a specific time, only SOCJS indicators for which data were available before and after the onset of the pandemic were examined. SOCJS indicators for which 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 data were available were used to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the CJS. These annual data were supplemented with monthly police-reported calls for service data from select police departments across Canada, quarterly court data and monthly corrections data provided by Statistics Canada, as well as special data requests filled by the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board of Canada.

The data presented in this report represent a snapshot of the information that was accessible as of August 2022. Any data published after this date that cover the first two years of the pandemic are not reflected in this report.