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Few Sexual Assaults Lead to Court Convictions

Using data from Statistics Canada, this infographic compares the rates of reported sexual assualts to the percentage of cases that result in court conviction.

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Few Sexual Assaults Lead to Court Convictions

Using data from Statistics Canada, Holly Johnson estimated the conviction rate for sexual assaults reported on victim surveys to be .3% to 1.6%.

The Attrition Pyramid

H. Johnson, (2012). Limits of a criminal justice response: Trends in police and court processing of sexual assault. In Sheehy, E. (Ed), Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice, and Women’s Activism. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, pp 633-654.

• 1,046 Convicted - 25% of those initially charged are convicted of sexual assault
  
  
• 2,824 Prosecuted - <50% of suspects were prosecuted
  
  
• 5,544 Charges laid - 50% of recorded sexual assault crimes result in the suspect being charged
  
  
• 13,200 Recorded as crime - 85% of police reported sexual assaults are recorded as a crime
  
  
• 15,200 Reported to police - <10% of sexual assaults reported on Victim Surveys were reported to the police460,000 Reported to survey interviewers - 460,000 estimated sexual assaults in one year based on 2004 General Social Survey
  
  
• Actual incidence of sexual assault: Likely will never be known