Most sex assault cases don’t go to court

Criminal charges laid in only 41 per cent of complaints filed, says Statistics Canada

Less than half of sexual assault cases reported to police forces have been brought before the justice system, an analysis made public Tuesday by Statistics Canada suggests.

A six-year study spanning 20092014 found that criminal charges were filed in only 41 per cent of sexual assault complaints made to Canadian police forces.

Statistics Canada also notes that its analysis focuses only on those assaults reported to police by an alleged victim and deemed to be founded by authorities — 117,238 over the six years studied — and that sexual assault is the violent crime least reported to police.

Another study by Statistics Canada has found that only one sexual assault out of 20 was reported to police in 2014.

“In this context, it has to be understood that an analysis of sexual assaults based solely on police statistics represents but a fraction of the actual scale of sexual assaults in Canada,” reads the analysis.

The study notes the low rate of criminal charges is explained in part by the victim’s difficulty in identifying the suspect, which was an issue in 60 per cent of cases that did not proceed. Another 19 per cent of files were closed “without charges filed,” which means the suspect was dealt with by some means other than an arraignment, including a decision in seven per cent of those cases by the victim not to file a complaint.

Statistics Canada also pointed out that lack of physical evidence, the harrowing nature of the crime, social stigma and delays in reporting an assault to police also played a role in whether cases went to court.

However the analysis adds “the more serious the nature of a sexual assault, the more likely it is charges will be filed in the case.” The analysis also found:

87 per cent of the victims during the period studied were female.

One victim out of four was 13 or younger.

Children are far more likely to be sexually assaulted by a family member than by a stranger.

The median age for male sexual assault victims was 13, while it was 18 for females.

Nearly all (98 per cent) sexual assaults reported by police to Statistics Canada were Level 1 offences — unarmed assaults that caused little or no physical injury to the victim. While psychological harm does not officially figure in that classification, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t occur.

In its analysis, Statistics Canada defines sexual assault as “any criminal offence with violence ranging from unwanted sexual touching to violent, non-consensual sexual relations, often characterized as rape.”