Research Note: Revisiting the Collection of “Justice Statistics by Race” in Canada

Introduction

The debate over the collection of justice statistics by race¹ continues to hinge on the same key issues that were central to the debate when it arose in the early 1990s.² There has been one major change, however: whereas racial minority groups were once vehemently opposed to the collection of justice statistics by race, for fear that such statistics would be used to justify discriminatory policies, many minority groups are now advocating for the collection and publication of this data as a means to redress racial discrimination in the administration of justice.³ Having discussed the lack of available data on racial and ethnic statistics in the Canadian justice system, the authors sought support from the Canadian Law and Society Association (CLSA). At the 2009 annual general meeting of the CLSA, a motion for the association to take an official position in support of the collection of justice statistics by race was put forth by the authors and accepted by the association. At this time it was also decided that a committee would be established to conduct relevant research and to lobby for the collection of pertinent data. At present we are asking interested individuals or organizations who fall into one or more of the following categories to contact the first author:

1. 1. Those with arguments relating to the collection of justice statistics by race that have not been articulated in the debate that has taken place over the past two decades.

2. 2. Those with information pertaining to the collection of justice statistics by race that is not readily available or that has not been documented in the academic work referenced herein.

3. 3. Those who are interested in participating in the work of the committee outlined at the end of this paper.

Background

Research has consistently shown that minorities, and racial minorities in particular, are over-represented in the official crime and justice statistics in all Western nations.⁴ Two explanations are frequently given for this phenomenon. First, it is argued that minorities tend to occupy social positions that put them at greater risk for criminal offending and, as a result, criminal victimization. Second, it is claimed that minorities are over-represented both as victims and as accused in the justice system as a result, at least in part, of unequal treatment at the hands of the police and the courts.⁵ In countries such as Great Britain and the United States, policy makers and researchers have access to tools that allow for a greater understanding of the processes that ultimately lead to the over-representation of minorities in their criminal justice systems. In these countries, official statistics on arrests, charges, prosecutions, convictions, sentencing, and correctional data include information on race. Researchers are also able to examine minority victimization, fear of crime, and perceptions of the police, courts, and correctional institutions. These capabilities allow for the eventual improvement of policing, prosecution, judgment, and correction by reflecting where outcomes are related to social characteristics of the offender rather than to the factors present in an individual case. In Canada, on the other hand, with the exception of statistics on Aboriginal people in the federal correctional system, very little race-relevant justice data on the social characteristics of victims or offenders is readily available to researchers. Thus, we cannot know the true numbers of any given minority group processed by the Canadian justice system, nor how the system deals with them. Lack of available data is a problem to which the authors of this paper seek a resolution. What follows is a brief history of the debate over the collection of justice statistics by race in Canada and a proposed course of action for improving information on the racial origins of persons dealt with by the criminal justice system so that the role of race in the production of justice outcomes can be reduced in the long term.

The Persistent Debate

The debate over the collection of racial data within the justice system is an inherently political and highly sensitive matter. While discussion about the [End Page 98...