Title: Youth court survey (YCS)

Series title: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS)

Principal investigator(s): Statistics Canada. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS)

Producer: Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS)

Date of creation: varies

Funding agency:

Collector:

Distributor: Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada. Data Liberation Initiative.

Date of distribution: varies

Access conditions/restrictions: University of Toronto faculty, students and staff, for academic research and teaching purposes only. See DLI licence.

Summary:

The Youth Court Survey (YCS) is a census of Criminal Code and other Federal Statute offences heard in youth court for youths aged 12 to 17 years at the time of the offence. On each charge, data are collected which describe the nature of the offence, the court decision and disposition, and the age and gender of the accused. Data have been available since 1984-85 for all jurisdictions except Ontario and the Northwest Territories. YCS data for Ontario became available in 1991-92. Data for the Northwest Territories are not available for fiscal years 1986-87 through 1988-89.

The objective of the Youth Court Survey (YCS) is to produce a national database of statistical information on charges, cases and persons involving accused who are aged 12 to 17 years (up to the 18th birthday) at the time of the offence. The survey is intended to be a census of federal statute charges (Criminal Code, Narcotic Control Act, Food and Drugs Act, Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Young Offenders Act, and other federal statutes) heard in youth courts in Canada. The survey excludes appeals, reviews, provincial statutes, and municipal by-law infractions.

Geographic coverage: Canada, provinces and territories

Time period: 1990/91 - [latest]

Date(s) of collection:

Universe:

Data type: aggregate time-series statistics

Sample:

Mode of data collection: process-produced

Citation: Statistics Canada. Youth court survey: Cases by length of elapsed time, 1991/1992 - 2005/2006 [computer file]. Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics [producer]; Statistics Canada. Data Liberation Initiative [distributor], 2007-11-20

Extent of file: 14 data files (Beyond 20/20 format; number of logical records varies)

Notes:
2008-02-25:

• There are changes in the definition of some elements in this survey; therefore, the names of the tables have changed and the old tables are not comparable to the new tables.
• Statistics in this release should not be compared to statistics from previous released.
• The concept of a case has changed from previous releases to more closely reflect court processing. The new definition combines all charges against the same person having overlapping court dates into a single case. The previous definition combined all charges against the same persons disposed of in court on the same day into a case. This tended to undercount the number of charges in a case, overcount the number of cases and underestimate the length of time required to process a case through court because not all charges are necessarily disposed of on the same day.
• To account for the new case definition, youth court data dating back to 1991/1992 and adult court data dating back to 1994/1995 have been revised.

The following tables are terminated:
ycstime.ivt YCS - Cases by elapsed time, 1991/1992 to 2003/2004
ycschrg.ivt Youth Court Survey- Charges, Cases and Persons in Youth Court, 1991/92 to 2003/04
ycsfine.ivt YCS - Guilty cases by amount of fine, 1991/1992 to 2003/2004
ycslngth.ivt YCS - Guilty cases by length of custody, 1991/1992 to 2003/2004
ycsmsdsp.ivt YCS - Cases by type of decision, 1991/1992 to 2003/2004
ycscust.ivt Youth Court Survey - Mean and Median Length of Custody, 2003/04
ycsmss.ivt Youth Court Survey- Cases by Most Serious Sentence, 1991/92 to 2002/03
ycsprob.ivt YCS - Guilty cases by length of probation, 1991/1992 to 2003/2004
YCSrecid.zip (.ivt) Recidivism Data from 1990/91 to 1999/00 (case based).
ycssent.ivt YCS - Guilty cases by type of sentence, 1991/1992 to 2003/2004
ycssentl.ivt Youth Court Suvey - Mean and Median Length of Probation and Amount of Fine, 1991/92 to 2003/04
ycscases.ivt Youth Court Survey - Mean and Median Elapsed Time in Youth Court, 1991/92 to 2003/04

Related data:
Other files from Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS)
Also available in CANSIM
Miscellaneous demographic characteristics (from CCJS)

Status:

Documentation & data:

• Look-up table for selected criminal code offences and other federal offences: offen_e.pdf, offtext.pdf [1997 ed.]
• Graphical overview of the criminal justice indicators [1997 ed.]
• Selected justice data files [1997 ed.]

Bibliography