What’s New
On May 25, 2023, Justice Canada published an update to the State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard. This includes the addition of a new outcome monitoring the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system and a new population-based theme on youth.
Canada’s State of the Criminal Justice System
The Department of Justice Canada created the first performance monitoring framework for Canada’s criminal justice system in 2019. The State of the Criminal Justice System Framework (“the Framework”) identifies Canada’s goals for the criminal justice system (expected outcomes), measured by key national indicators. The Framework was built through extensive research, in consultation and collaboration with criminal justice system partners, stakeholders, experts and other Canadians.
We took on this work as part of our commitment to review the criminal justice system and to identify and address data gaps that hinder evidence-based decision-making. The Framework is presented through the State of the Criminal Justice System Report and online Dashboard, in order to:
- Underscore the importance of having the right data to make decisions that can meaningfully affect the lives of Canadians.
- Improve accountability and transparency about the criminal justice system to Canadians.
- Promote Open Government by making information about the criminal justice system easier to access.
- Identify information gaps that limit the ability to monitor the performance of the criminal justice system.
- Respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 30th Call to Action, to monitor, evaluate, and report on the progress made in addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system.
- Support the implementation of Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy and access to justice issues.
- Support the implementation of the Indigenous Justice Strategy and Canada’s Black Justice Strategy to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous and Black people in the criminal justice system.
The Framework includes nine broad expected outcomes for the youth and adult criminal justice systems. Progress on these expected outcomes are measured by 33 indicators for youth and 48 national indicators for adults. Click on the link below to access the State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard or the latest State of the Criminal Justice System Reports.
What is the State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard?
The State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard presents data and contextual information to better understand the performance of the criminal justice system. Indicators are organized into nine expected outcomes. Data are presented for the total population and by population-based theme. The population-based themes currently available are: Indigenous Peoples, Women and Youth. Each theme presents the reader pre-filtered views of data by sub-population, such as by Indigenous identity, sex/gender or age (where data are available). Under each theme, data users can also find contextual information on how different populations interact with the criminal justice system as victims, survivors, accused and offenders.
The State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard will be updated regularly as more data and information become available.
Does the State of the Criminal Justice System include both youth and adult criminal justice systems?
Yes. The State of the Criminal Justice System presents performance monitoring data on both the youth and adult criminal justice systems; systems that differ in important ways.
Information on the adult system is presented on the online Dashboard in the All Population theme, while the data and contextual information about the youth justice system is presented in the Youth theme.
What is the State of the Criminal Justice System Report?
The State of the Criminal Justice System Report presents quantitative data on indicators from the performance monitoring Framework. The inaugural State of the Criminal Justice System Report (2019) provided a comprehensive analysis of criminal justice system performance across key indicators. The same type of report will be released every five years, with reports focusing on specific populations, topics or issues being released on an as needed basis. These reports will help situate performance data in broader social contexts, by drawing from different sources of information.
What is performance monitoring?
Performance monitoring refers to the ongoing regular collection of information to monitor how a system is doing, such as whether and to what extent it is achieving its expected objectives. Performance monitoring helps identify trends, benchmarks, strengths, and areas for improvement. It also highlights areas that could benefit from more data collection, monitoring, and analysis.
Future data development
The Department will continue to work with stakeholders to further refine the Framework as new needs and opportunities for performance monitoring arise. The Framework is a work in progress, with modifications expected as performance measurement capacity and the criminal justice system change.
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