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. 2020 Jul 26;10(7):e034895. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034895

Table 3.

Criminal justice system variables

Variable Definition
Type of involvement The following involvement types were defined as ‘Accused’:

  •  Accused

  •  Cautioned/warned

  •  Co-accused

  •  Crown opinion

  •  Crown caution

  •  No charges laid

  •  Intoxicated Persons Detention Act (IPDA)

  •  Warrant, cautioned (Youth Criminal Justice Act)

  •  Referred to a community programme (Youth Criminal Justice Act)

  •  No action taken (Youth Criminal Justice Act)

  •  Warned (Youth Criminal Justice Act)

The following involvement types were defined as ‘Victim’:

  •  Complainant

  •  Protected person

  •  Victim

  •  Deceased victim

The following involvement types were defined as ‘Witness’:

  •  Eye witness

  •  Material witness

  •  Witness

Charges Charges were grouped into the following categories:

  •  Violent

  •  Property

  •  Administrative

  •  Liquor Control Act

  •  Automobile theft

  •  All others (regulatory)

  •  Highway Traffic Act leading to a criminal conviction

  •  Highway Traffic Act offences

  •  No charge (included here are blank entries and any entry ending in no charge laid, discharged, stayed, crown opinion, pending)

Charge type A charge is classified as ‘proceeding’ if the charge type ends in any of the following words/phrases:

  •  Laid

  •  Disposed

  •  Diversion (postcharge diversion)

  •  Crown appeal

  •  Accused appeal

A charge is classified as ‘not proceeding’ if the charge type ends in any of the following words/phrases:

  •  No charge laid

  •  Precharge, precharge diversion

  •  Discharged

  •  Stayed

  •  Crown opinion, crown opinion diversion

  •  Pending