JustFacts

Child-Related Sexual Offences Subject to a Mandatory Minimum Penalty, 2014/2015 to 2019/2020

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January 2023

This fact sheet presents information on criminal court cases where the most serious offence in the case is a child-related sexual offence subject to a mandatory minimum penalty (MMP).Footnote1 Data were obtained through a request to the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) and cover the period from 2014/2015 to 2019/2020.Footnote2

The legislation related to the child sexual offences subject to an MMP include: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (protection of children and other vulnerable persons) and the Canada Evidence Act (2005), the Tackling Violent Crime Act (2008), and the Safe Streets and Communities Act (2012). Most mandatory minimums for the child-related sexual offences were set in the 2005 legislative enactment, with amendments made in 2008 and 2012.

Most child-related sexual offences subject to an MMP during the period from 2014/2015 to 2019/2020 were included in the study’s dataset, specifically:

Other child-related sexual Criminal Code offences subject to an MMP (sections 160, 170, 171.1, 172.2, 279.011, 279.02, 279.03, 286.1, 286.2, and 286.3) are also included in this dataset and each made up 1% or less of all cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP.Footnote3

The number of casesFootnote4 with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP increased, but represents a small proportion of all cases involving offences subject to an MMP

The number of cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP as the most serious offence in the case increased by 13% over the course of the study period, from 2,511 in 2014/2015 to 2,830 in 2019/2020. During this six-year timeframe, cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP as the most serious offence in the case comprised 7% of all cases with an MMP (most serious in the case).

The proportion of cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP with a guilty decisionFootnote5remained relatively stable

Over the course of the study period, the most common type of decision in cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP was a finding of guilt. The proportion of cases with a guilty decision remained relatively stable at around 58-59%, though there was a small drop in the proportion of guilty decisions in 2018/2019 (54%).

Withdrawn decisions were the second most common type of decision in cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP from 2014/2015 to 2019/2020. The proportion of cases with a withdrawn decision has fluctuated between 18% to 23% throughout the study period.

The proportion of cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP with a guilty decision receiving a custodial sentence fluctuated but remained high

Custody was the most common sentenceFootnote6 for cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP with a finding of guilt during the study period, fluctuating between 90% to 95% of cases.

Custodial sentence lengths for cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP were most often short (i.e., under 1 year), though a quarter of cases received a “1 to 2 year” custodial sentence length

The medianFootnote7 custodial sentence length for child-related sexual offences subject to an MMP saw an overall increase, from 215 (or 7 months) in 2014/2015 to 330 (or 11 months) in 2019/2020.

During the six-year study period, the majority of cases (59%) with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP sentenced to custody fell within the “less than 1 year” sentence length range.

Specifically, the sentence length range of “over 3 to 6 months” (28% of cases), followed by the “over 6 months to 1 year” range (22%). The next most common sentence length was the “over 1 to 2 year” range (26%).

The time to case resolution fluctuated throughout the study period, but overall averaged around 1 year

The median case processing time (i.e., how long it takes for a case to be resolved)Footnote8 for cases with a child-related sexual offence subject to an MMP has fluctuated between 360 days (or 11.8 months) and 381 days (or 12.5 months) throughout the study period.