Just Facts: Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system (2019)

Indigenous people are overrepresented in Canada's criminal justice system as both victims and as people accused or convicted of crime.

There are only a few national data sources that provide criminal justice statistics disaggregated by Indigenous identity. National data that does exist to identify Indigenous people in the criminal justice system include the General Social Survey (GSS) on self-reported victimization, police-reported homicide statistics, and data on provincial/territorial and federal custody.

This fact sheet uses data from the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization. Every five years, the GSS on Criminal Victimization presents data on Canadians aged 15 years and older who report having been victimized in the previous twelve months. For comparison’s sake, the survey focuses on eight specific categories of crime: sexual assault, robbery, physical assault, theft of personal property, break and enter, theft of motor vehicle or parts, theft of household property, and vandalism. This fact sheet also uses data from special studies conducted by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics at Statistics Canada, Statistics Canada’s Homicide Survey, and the correctional surveys from Statistics Canada: Adult Correctional Services Survey (ACS); Integrated Correctional Services Survey (ICSS); and Canadian Correctional Services Survey (CCSS).