NCJ Number
140416
Journal
Justice Research Notes Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1991) Pages: 1-3
Date Published
1991
Length
3 pages
Annotation
In 1983, Canada's House of Commons enacted the Act to Amend the Criminal Code in Relation to Sexual Offences and Other Offences Against the Person; sexual assault provisions of this Act made fundamental amendments to the Criminal Code with respect to substantive, procedural, and evidentiary aspects of Canadian rape and indecent assault laws.
Abstract
Laws relating to the offenses of rape, attempted rape, and indecent assault were expunged from the Criminal Code and replaced with a trilogy of sexual assault offenses: sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, threats to a third party or bodily harm, and aggravated sexual assault. The definition of a sexual assault was left for the courts to resolve. Maximum penalties established by the Act ranged from 10 years to life imprisonment. The impact of the Act's sexual assault provisions was evaluated between 1985 and 1991. Data from six sites included in the evaluation revealed an increase in the number of sexual assault reports across the country. There was some consensus among key respondents that sexual assault was underreported and that victims' reasons for not reporting included fear of the assailant, shame, dread of the criminal justice process, and a sense that the incident was not worth reporting. Clearance rates for sexual assault were similar to those for other crimes involving violence. According to information gathered in 1987, very few sexual assault victims knew that the law had been amended.