1. National Victims Data in Canada: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going

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By Susan McDonald^{Footnote 1}

Over the past decade, there have been numerous calls from victim advocates, the Office of the Federal Ombudsperson (formerly Ombudsman) for Victims of Crime, and various parliamentary committees^{Footnote 2} for national victims data. This article unpacks what is meant by national victims data and traces the efforts of the Department of Justice Canada (JUS), in collaboration with federal, provincial, and territorial partners, to respond to these calls.

What is national victims data?

National victims data refers to information about victims of crime. It may include police-reported data, self-reported victimization data, or data collected through victim services, courts, Criminal Code review boards (review boards), corrections agencies, or parole boards. The information is collected from across Canada and can be compared within and between provinces and territories. It can be quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (descriptive using language) or a combination of both.

Why is national victims data important?

National victims data:

• informs the public and the decision-makers responsible for the criminal justice system about the prevalence and nature of crime and victims of crime;
• provides a way to monitor how key victim rights are being carried out in practice across jurisdictions;
• notes who is accessing services (does this align with police-reported data? Are there some victims who are not seeking, or are not able to access, help?);
• measures workload volume, number of victims served, and types of interventions;
• helps to monitor resources and trends over time, both within and across jurisdictions;
• allows regions to see whether they differ in who is served and how, and learn from this;
• helps to encourage using and enhancing best practices; and
• helps to inform officials about gaps in services.

What types of national victims data currently exist in Canada?

Statistics Canada – Current sources of national victims data

Statistics Canada, Canada’s national data agency, produces national justice data, including data relevant to victims of crime. Part of Statistics Canada, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) is the primary source for Canadian crime and justice data. CCJCSS develops, collects, integrates, and analyzes data on crime, policing, courts and corrections. It develops indicators at the national and provincial/territorial levels on the nature and extent of crime and victimization, and manages criminal and civil justice in Canada. While the CCJCSS does run a survey about the civil courts, most of its work focuses on criminal justice. It is governed by the 40-year-old National Justice Statistics Initiative, a federal-provincial-territorial structure. Today, CCJCSS manages several key surveys and administrative data sources that include some national data on victims. These are described below.

The purpose of the Uniform Crime Reporting Incident-Based Survey (UCR, starting with version 2.2)^{Footnote 3} is to measure the incidence and nature of crime that comes to the attention of the police in Canada. The UCR collects data on victims – e.g., age, gender, and relationship – for violent crimes that are reported to the police.^{Footnote 4} For suspected hate crimes, the motivating factors are also collected (e.g., race, religion, 2SLGBTQI+, disability, etc.). Data from the UCR can be reported by incident or by victim. Another survey, the Homicide Survey, also collects detailed data on the victims of each homicide. Both the UCR and the Homicide Survey can now be linked to other Statistics Canada data, including the Census, tax data, and healthcare data, to provide a more complete portrait of victims.

In 2018, CCJCSS released a series of victim fact sheets – one for each province and territory and one at the national level – based on 2016 UCR (2.2) data and the data from a pilot of the Canadian Victim Services Indicators (CVSI) survey (described further, below). An update of those fact sheets, based on 2023 UCR data are forthcoming in 2026.

The Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS)^{Footnote 5} for adult and youth accused in Canada’s criminal courts added some variables about victims around 2015–2016, on the Victim Impact Statement (VIS) and the Community Impact Statements (CIS). Reporting on these variables is voluntary. Currently, five jurisdictions report on the VIS, but none report on the CIS.

The ICCS now also includes a variable about the use of testimonial aids, such as a screen, video testimony, or support person. As with the VIS and CIS, reporting on this variable is also voluntary. No jurisdiction is doing so at this time.

All jurisdictions, except for Manitoba and Quebec, report on restitution and victim surcharge as part of the sentencing options section of the ICCS. This coverage allowed CCJCSS to prepare a report for JUS on monetary penalties, the first one ever.^{Footnote 6}

The Survey on Canadians’ Safety (SCS, better known by its former name, the General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization)^{Footnote 7} gathers self-reported data about victimization every five years or so. The SCS includes three violent-crime categories (sexual assault, physical assault, and robbery) and five property-crime categories. The results apply to the Canadian population aged 15 years and older in the provinces and the territories and complement the UCR’s police-reported data. After the 2019 GSS, the survey was reviewed and shortened to address declining response rates. Data collection began in 2025 for the latest version of the survey.

In 2018, Statistics Canada launched the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS),^{Footnote 8} sponsored by Women and Gender Equality Canada. The SSPPS measures how often specific types of victimization occur, including violent and non-violent crime and non-criminal acts in public spaces, online or at work. The second survey took place in 2025 and the first results were released in 2026.

Victim services: Pre-charge

The Survey of Residential Facilities for Victims of Abuse (SRFVA) is a census of Canadian residential facilities primarily mandated to provide residential services to victims of abuse. SRFVA’s objective is to produce statistics on the services offered by these facilities during the previous 12 months, as well as to provide a one-day snapshot of the clientele being served on a specific date (mid-April of the survey year).

The Victim Services Survey ran for five cycles from 2001–2002 to 2011–2012 and collected data on victim services across the country.^{Footnote 9} Significant data challenges plagued this biannual survey as well as the pilot Canadian Victim Services Indicators Survey, which ran only once, in 2016. These challenges are described in detail later in this report.

Most victim services organizations keep data on the number of victims they serve, their demographics, and how they were victimized. However, models of service delivery differ greatly across jurisdictions, making it difficult to compare data nationally. For example, there are different definitions of “direct victim” (target of crime) and “secondary victim” (e.g., witness to crime) as well as how service providers count those who seek services repeatedly. Those are some of the additional challenges of collecting national victims data.^{Footnote 10}

Victim services: Post-charge

Data collected after a charge has been laid refers to services and Criminal Code provisions that come into play once a charge has been laid against a person. Because there is only one Criminal Code for all of Canada, one would assume that the data collected would be more consistent and there would be more opportunities to collect and report on national numbers. This is the purpose of the ICCS, but it is only as good as the information provided by the provinces and territories.

Services for victims of crime post-charge are specific to their need for information, court preparation, victim impact statements, and restitution requests. Many of these programs are system-based (provided by the government) or court-based. Data^{Footnote 11} on these services – which services and how many are provided to victims in a given time period – are available from most jurisdictions.

Victim service: Post-sentence

If a federal sentence (two years of custody or more) is ordered, victims can access ongoing services after registering with Correctional Service Canada (CSC). These services include information about the offender, including restorative justice (RJ) opportunities, information about parole hearings, and the opportunity to submit victim statements. Both CSC and the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) keep data on victims who have registered: their demographics and offences, number and types of requests for information, and their victim statements and appearances at parole hearings. This data is published through annual reports on departmental results, as well as specific projects.^{Footnote 12}

Data on restitution and the victim surcharge (federal and provincial) – its imposition at sentencing and to a lesser extent, its enforcement – is gathered through the ICCS and the Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS).^{Footnote 13}

Data on restorative justice programs

Because restorative justice processes can take place before or after a charge is laid or after sentencing, a short discussion on data on RJ programs did not fit neatly under the sub-headings above. The Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Restorative Justice (FPTWG on RJ) and its subcommittees on data and evidence, and on victims, have made good progress on capturing victims’ referrals to, and participation in, RJ processes.^{Footnote 14} Many gaps remain; however, efforts continue to be made to collect and report on data on RJ programs and victims who participate in them.

The challenge

In Canada, the division of powers set out in the Constitution Act, 1867 means that the federal government shares responsibility for the criminal justice system with the provinces and territories. The federal government is responsible for criminal law, including the Criminal Code, as well as federal corrections and conditional release for offenders sentenced to two years or more. The provinces and territories are responsible for the administration of justice, including policing, prosecutions, courts, legal aid, restorative justice, victim services, and corrections for sentences less than two years.

In the three territories, federal prosecutors from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) are responsible for prosecutions for all Criminal Code offences. In the provinces, PPSC prosecutes drug offences (under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act), terrorism offences (under the Anti-Terrorism Act), and quasi-criminal offences, such as environmental or transport offences in federal legislation.

Because these responsibilities are shared, delivery models for victim services and information management systems vary significantly across jurisdictions.^{Footnote 15} At the same time, information management systems – their software, their age, the purpose of the system when set up – also differ from one jurisdiction to another.

Having ten provinces and three territories means that there are many different approaches to how the criminal justice system is organized and run – even with everyone following the same Criminal Code. This presents challenges in how to capture consistent and comparable data across the 13 jurisdictions, 14 if the federal services provided by CSC and the PBC are also included, when victim services programs differ and even the definition of who is a “victim” differs.

In some jurisdictions, a victim services program may serve victims of crime as well as victims of accidents or natural disasters. Other programs may only serve victims of crime as they go through the criminal justice system. This challenge is no different from that of capturing national data on restorative justice programs or national data on child and youth advocacy centres or any other criminal-justice-related programming (such as the Indigenous Courtwork Program, the Indigenous Justice Program, the Drug Treatment Court Program, and even Legal Aid).

The Federal Victims Strategy

When the Federal Victims Strategy (originally the Victims of Crime Initiative) began in 2000, research was identified as a core pillar. Over the past two and a half decades, research has remained important, although it is now considered part of the policy development process. While the Department of Justice Canada has always conducted social science research on victims of crime issues (see McDonald 2020a; McDonald 2020b), the Federal Victims Strategy has ensured somewhat stable annual funding and an ongoing commitment to address data gaps on victims and the criminal justice system.

Funding was first available in 2000 to count the number and types of victim services provided in the country. Statistics Canada, through the then-called Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS), developed the Victim Services Survey (VSS). This was to be a biannual census survey going out to all organizations – governmental and non-governmental – that provided services to victims of crime and that received funding from a justice or public safety ministry. The VSS was sent to government victim services as well as to any non-governmental organizations whose primary goal was serving victims. For example, it asked these organizations questions about the demographics of clients served, types of offences, types of services, and funding sources. There was also a snapshot day when on a single designated day, all victim services organizations would provide micro-level data about the clientele they served on that specific day. This would include how many women and men were served, their ages, and what victimization they had experienced.

Findings from the 2011/2012 VSS included:^{Footnote 16}

• Between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012, 760 victim service providers reporting to the Victim Services Survey helped almost 460,000 victims of crime.
• Police-based services (36%) were the most common, followed by community-based services (24%), sexual assault centres (14%), courts (10%), victim crisis and referral providers in Ontario (7%), and system-based services in other provinces (7%).
• The snapshot day was 24 May 2012. On that day, 696 victim service providers reported that they served over 10,000 clients. Most of these were women (78%). The majority of clients (80%) were victims of violence. Of all the victims served on that day, 49% had previously received services from the same victim service provider.

Because the survey was long, the VSS was perceived to be a burden for respondents, many of whom were small, front-line organizations. They also questioned how comprehensive the list of organizations to which the survey was sent was. Over its decade-plus history, the provinces and territories reviewed the VSS was many times to try and ease the burden by shortening the survey and focusing only on key information needs.

Funding for the VSS ended after the 2011/2012 survey cycle was completed. For a couple of years the idea of a national census of victim services was put on hold.

The Canadian Victim Services Indicators survey

With the coming into force of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights (CVBR) in July 2015, the former Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, Sue O’Sullivan, worked with CCJS to develop a framework to measure how well the rights were being implemented. The Policy Centre for Victim Issues at Justice Canada then contracted with CCJS to consult with the provinces and territories to determine the national data requirements (NDRs) on victims and the criminal justice system. This process ran from fall 2015 to 2019 and resulted in the Canadian Victim Services Indicators (CVSI) survey being pilot tested. The CVSI asked provinces and territories to provide aggregated data (i.e., from multiple sources) on five key variables:

1. A count of direct and secondary victims who received victim services in 2016, as new referrals, using the agreed upon victim definition based on the CVBR;
2. Victim counts by sex and age group;
3. Victim counts by type of offence, using agreed upon crime categories;
4. Caseload: A count of services offered or provided to victims (new referrals), by service type;
5. Number of victim or community impact statements: forms provided and forms submitted.

The final report, 2016 Canadian Victim Services Indicators: Pilot survey evaluation and recommendations (https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/2016cvsi-icsv2016/docs/rsd_rr2021-cvsi-final-report-eng.pdf), was presented to the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Victims of Crime and is available on JUS’s website.

Two significant issues surfaced while developing the Canadian Victim Services Indicators Survey and they continue to have an impact on collecting data at a national level. The first issue lies within the definition of victim; while the jurisdictions had agreed on a definition of a victim of crime, the nature (i.e. whether the data would be about individuals, so microdata, or about totals of individuals and services, aggregated data) of the available data, and the point in the criminal justice system process at which this data was collected did not permit a standard measure. Some jurisdictions were able to distinguish between primary and secondary victims, whereas others could not differentiate between the two.

• Victims of crime (the definition based on the CVBR):
  • Ranges from all victims of crime, whether or not they have reported to police, to victims of crime where a charge has been laid and who are participating in the criminal justice system process.
• Victims of non-criminal situations:
  • Victim service agencies may also serve victims of trauma and their families (e.g., wildfires, car accidents, suicide). Contracted agencies did not report these victims of trauma separately.
• Secondary victims:
  • Either not all jurisdictions collect information on secondary victims or the definition of secondary victims is not always consistent with the standard definition.

The second issue is about the different ways the number of victims who access victim services are counted. Some jurisdictions only have data on victims who were clients of the system-based victim services program. That data may be restricted to post-charge victims, and not include any information collected centrally on victims of crime served by other agencies. In other jurisdictions, information has been compiled from multiple data sources in an attempt to capture a full picture. Also, not all jurisdictions are able to provide a breakdown of the victims they serve by age and sex or other demographics.

CCJCSS recommended collecting information only for victims of crime (both direct and secondary victims) where a charge has been laid. The thinking is that this option will maximize how data is compared by jurisdiction. It will also allow governments, service providers, researchers and advocates to compare information collected from the ICCS. Yet challenges remain because how victim services for VIS and testimonial aids and restitution are provided differ considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.^{Footnote 17} In some jurisdictions, this data is collected by Crown prosecutors, but doing so is voluntary, so records are rarely complete. In other jurisdictions, this data is collected by court administration, but, again, doing so is voluntary so the information is not reported consistently to the ICCS. And sometimes this data is collected by victim services.

The subcommittee

In the spring of 2023, a new subcommittee on National Victims Data was established. Seven provinces and one territory participated as well as federal partners such as CCJCSS, the Parole Board of Canada, and the RCMP. Attendees included officials who were responsible for, or understood, the information management systems for each jurisdiction. The monthly meetings included presentations about other initiatives for national data collection, learning about each jurisdiction’s information management system, completing a needs assessment, and developing a workplan intended to address gaps in national victims data.

The projects

Four projects were selected for the workplan in fiscal year 2024/2025:

1. A report on restitution, surcharge, and fines, released by Statistics Canada in January 2025;^{Footnote 18}
2. An update of the 2016 victim fact sheets, using 2023 data (forthcoming);
3. A report on the use of victim and community impact statements at sentencing, and review boards and victim statements in federal corrections and at parole (forthcoming); and
4. A research study to gather data and report on the use of testimonial aids during the criminal process (2025/2026 to 2026/2027).

As JUS researchers embarked on the four projects, it quickly became clear that different organizations collect and hold data within each jurisdiction. For the project on victim and community Impact statements, information was sought on how the statements are submitted and presented to courts and review boards, as well as victim statements to CSC and the PBC.

While victims may prepare a VIS or CIS before a conviction, these statements are only considered by a court – and may only be recorded in administrative data – once a conviction has been entered.^{Footnote 19} Each jurisdiction has a slightly different approach to collecting VIS program data. Three jurisdictions do not collect any data on VIS in courts, although two of these do collect information on VIS in review board cases. Some jurisdictions track only whether a VIS form was provided to victims, rather than whether a statement was submitted or presented. As a result, the final report draws on multiple data sources – the ICCS, victim services, Crown prosecution services, court services, review boards, CSC, and the PBC. With these different sources of data, a story did unfold; however, it remains patchwork and incomplete, reflecting both the complexity of the system and the incremental nature of national data development, and laying groundwork for future improvements.

Collecting and reporting on national victims data has been an ongoing endeavour since the start of the Federal Victims Strategy in 2000. Significant resources – time, people, and money – have been allocated to do this work. These efforts have been led or funded by JUS in close collaboration with Canada’s national statistical agency (CCJCSS), other federal partners, and importantly, the provinces and territories.

Lessons learned

Since the first meeting of the subcommittee on national victims data, the group has noted two key points. The first is that undertaking any national data collection is resource-intensive, with JUS often reaching out to several different data holders in each jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions have more resources to pull data out of their systems than others, but for all of them the request from JUS for data and information is another one that goes into the queue. As evidenced by the final report on Victim Impact Statements (forthcoming), these efforts are worthwhile, but with current federal/provincial/territorial resources, it is not an exercise that could be done annually or even biannually.

The second key point is that the ICCS provides a mechanism to collect some victims data on a national scale. Importantly, the variables – testimonial aids, VIS, CIS, and restitution – put key rights in the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, such as the rights to participation^{Footnote 20} and to protection,^{Footnote 21} into action. The VIS is tied to the right to participation and testimonial aids are tied to the right to protection and the right to participation. Eleven out of thirteen jurisdictions report on restitution orders in sentencing. High-level national numbers generated annually would allow for more in-depth studies, for example by jurisdiction or court site.

Conclusion

National victims data is essential for understanding who accesses services and supports, where gaps remain, and how systems can improve, as well as how systems can prevent crime from happening in the first place. Jurisdictions can learn from one another and address ongoing challenges. These are good arguments, but at the end of the day, victim services provide just that – services. When resources are stretched between providing those services to those who really need them and recording numbers, providing services will always take precedence. Ultimately, victim services providers should not have to choose one over the other, especially where there is not already a culture of data collection and information management. Through the Federal Victims Strategy, including the Victims Fund, Justice Canada will continue to support jurisdictions seeking to enhance their data collection capacity.

It took decades to achieve near universal (99.7%) police reporting to the UCR. Getting there required significant collaboration between Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and its subcommittees, and included training, education, and human and financial resources. While Canada is not yet at the same point with national victims data, significant progress has been made, and efforts to improve the collection of national victims data will continue. Efforts will also continue to improve the availability of disaggregated data at the national level through Statistics Canada surveys and at the level of regional and local programs. There is no reason why Canada cannot, over time, achieve the same level of high-quality data on victims of crime in Canada.

References

• Allen, Mary. 2019. “2016 Canadian Victim Services Indicators: Pilot Survey Evaluation and Recommendations.” Department of Justice Canada. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/2016cvsi-icsv2016/docs/rsd_rr2021-cvsi-final-report-eng.pdf
• Bressan, Angela. 2026. “Victim Impact, Community Impact, and Victim Statements in Canada’s Criminal Justice System: A Baseline Study.” Department of Justice Canada. Forthcoming 2026.
• McDonald, Susan. 2020a. “Twenty Years and More of Victims Research: Learning from the Past – Part I.” Victims of Crime Research Digest, 13: 6–15. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rd13-rr13/p2.html
• McDonald, Susan. 2020b. “Twenty Years and More of Victims Research: Learning from the Past – Part II.” Victims of Crime Research Digest, 13: 16–25. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rd13-rr13/p3.html
• Research and Statistics Division. 2026. Victims of Crime Fact Sheets, 2023. Department of Justice Canada. Forthcoming 2026.
• Savage, Laura. 2026. “Online child sexual exploitation: Criminal justice outcomes of police-reported incidents in Canada, 2024.” Juristat, Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2026001/article/00002-eng.htm
• Statistics Canada. 2025. “Monetary Penalties in Adult Criminal Courts.” Daily article. Accessed 12 January 2026 at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250109/dq250109b-eng.htm
• Sutton-Preddie, Danielle. 2025. “Trafficking in Persons in Canada, 2024.” Juristat, Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2025001/article/00008-eng.htm

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