Table 4
Cases in adult criminal court by decision and by sex of the accused, 2003/2004

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Most serious offence Female accused Male accused
Total cases Conviction rates (guilty) Stayed/ withdrawn Acquitted Other1 Total cases Conviction rates (guilty) Stayed/ withdrawn Acquitted Other1
number percentage number percentage
Total offences 68,151 51 44 2 3 369,687 59 34 3 4
Total Criminal Code(excluding traffic) 54,215 50 45 2 2 326,439 58 36 3 3
Crimes against the person 15,954 41 51 5 3 101,188 50 40 6 5
Homicide 56 21 38 2 39 469 28 35 3 35
Attempted murder 47 17 47 2 34 361 12 58 4 26
Robbery 487 52 40 2 6 5,331 54 35 2 9
Sexual assault 43 23 70 2 5 4,385 38 44 7 11
Other sexual offences 50 30 50 8 12 2,327 36 43 8 13
Major assault 4,384 44 47 6 3 21,884 50 40 6 4
Common assault 8,000 42 53 3 2 40,650 54 39 5 2
Uttering threats 2,066 37 48 10 5 19,754 46 39 10 4
Criminal harassment 364 31 57 7 5 3,308 48 40 7 4
Other crimes against persons 457 30 55 6 9 2,719 33 52 6 9
Crimes against property 21,946 52 45 1 2 80,513 64 31 1 3
Theft 11,064 56 42 1 1 29,118 70 28 1 2
Break and enter 928 49 44 3 4 12,157 67 27 2 4
Fraud 5,508 58 38 1 3 13,403 61 33 1 5
Mischief 1,315 48 49 2 2 9,758 61 35 2 1
Possess stolen property 2,957 32 64 1 3 15,066 57 38 2 3
Other property crimes 174 49 43 3 6 1,011 55 37 2 6
Administration of justice 11,988 58 40 1 2 68,860 62 35 1 2
Fail to appear 2,160 46 52 0 2 9,675 46 51 0 2
Breach of probation 3,803 70 27 1 2 24,383 69 27 2 2
Unlawfully at large 302 78 20 1 1 2,826 77 20 1 2
Fail to comply with order 5,093 53 45 1 1 30,201 60 37 1 2
Other administration of justice 630 55 42 1 2 1,775 58 37 2 3
Other Criminal Code 4,327 51 44 1 4 25,291 56 37 2 5
Weapons 480 39 57 1 3 5,838 57 38 2 4
Prostitution 1,058 59 39 1 1 1,271 31 66 1 2
Disturbing the peace 396 54 44 1 1 2,402 60 39 1 0
Residual Criminal Code 2,393 50 43 2 6 15,780 57 34 2 7
Criminal Code traffic 7,242 71 24 4 1 50,587 69 25 5 2
Impaired driving 6,385 71 24 4 1 41,458 69 24 5 1
Other Criminal Code traffic 857 68 28 2 2 9,129 70 26 2 2
Other federal statute 6,694 40 52 2 6 43,248 54 37 2 8
Drug possession 1,842 37 57 0 6 13,903 39 52 0 9
Drug trafficking 2,996 31 62 1 6 12,781 47 45 1 7
Youth Criminal Justice Act 165 60 39 1 0 1,089 61 37 1 1
Residual federal statutes 1,691 59 30 6 5 15,475 72 17 3 8
0 true zero or a value rounded to zero
  1. 'Other' includes final decisions of found not criminally responsible, waived in province/territory, and waived out of province/territory. This category also includes any order where a conviction was not recorded, the court's acceptance of a special plea, cases which raise Charter arguments and cases where the accused was found unfit to stand trial. In jurisdictions not providing superior court data, the other decision category includes charges having a committal for trial in superior court as the decision on the final appearance in provincial court.
Notes: Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding. Excludes cases where the sex of the accused was not recorded or where the accused was a company. Excludes 77,812 cases, or 15%, in which the decision was coded as unknown. In Quebec, most drug offences are recorded under residual federal statutes, resulting in an undercount of drug possession and drug trafficking and an overcount of residual federal statute cases. Adult Criminal Court Survey data are not reported by Manitoba, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut and superior courts in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Adult Criminal Court Survey.