NCJ Number
81423
Date Published
1981
Length
45 pages
Annotation
This overview of major trends related to Canadian criminal justice covers trends in crime and its impact, in persons processed, in criminal justice expenditures and workloads, criminal justice research, and public opinions.
Abstract
The overview of the impact of crime on society examines victim injury and loss, fear of crime, indirect expenditures, costs of operating the criminal justice system, and adverse effects on the quality of life. Statistics are provided to show trends in property offenses, violent crime, homicide, and marijuana offenses. Data on violent offenses are compared with those of the United States for 1965-1979. In discussing trends in persons processed by the Canadian criminal justice system, information and statistics are provided for the attrition of events through the criminal justice system, the number of adults and juveniles charged for selected offenses, persons incarcerated in adult correctional institutions, native and nonnative prison populations, and an international comparison of persons imprisoned in adult Federal and provincial institutions. Trends in criminal justice expenditures and workloads are explored though an analysis of expenditures for some criminal justice services; police, court, and correctional expenditures; staff in the criminal justice system; and the average direct cost of maintaining Federal inmates in institutions. International trends in criminal justice research are discussed, and some indications of Canadian public opinion on criminal justice are presented. An historical overview of the Canadian Federal justice system from 1867 to 1981 is appended.