Black people in criminal courts in Canada: An exploration using the relative rate index

There is a vertical bar graph with vertical columns above and below the x-axis line. The x-axis indicates “Guilty”, “Custody”, and “2+ years term.”  The y-axis shows percentages from -30% to +40% increasing in increments of 10%.

Below the graph there is a legend with a solid black line indicating “White” and a patterned blue line indicating “Black.”

The x-axis is indicated by a solid black horizontal line at 0% indicating “White.”

Three patterned blue columns all indicate “Black”.

The first column above “Guilty” falls below the solid black line at -24%.

The second column above “Custody” rises above the solid black line at +24%.

The third column above “2+ years term” rises above the solid black line at +36%

Below the legend are notes stating:

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Integrated Criminal Court Survey, 2005/06 to 2015/16; Statistics Canada, Census of population, 2016. Custom tabulation by Department of Justice Canada.

Note: Includes 11 provinces/territories. Quebec and Alberta were excluded as the requisite personal identifiers required for linkage were not available. Black accused includes all individuals who identified as Black on the 2016 Census long-form. White accused includes individuals identified as neither Indigenous, nor as a member of a racialized group. Guilty includes guilty findings by the court and guilty pleas. 2+ years term refers to the length of time that remains to be served at sentencing, and not the entire length of the custodial sentence. However, in certain jurisdictions, the length of custody represents the full sentence. The average RRI for 2+ years term should be used with caution as the average RRI was calculated based on a ten-year period due to the unavailability of data in a given year.