Property, violent crimes drive increase in youth charges: StatCan
In 2025-2026, 56,956 Canadian youth between the ages of 12 and 17 at the time of their offences were charged with a crime, 12,891 of those being a crime 'against property.'
Statistics Canada has reported a rise in the number of Canadian youth being charged with crimes between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026, surpassing numbers from the past four years. In total, 56,956 youths aged 12 to 17 at the time of their offenses were charged. Nearly 13,000 of these cases involved crimes against property, including theft, break and enter, and fraud.
Male youths were significantly more likely to be charged in such cases, with 10,000 compared to 2,301 female youths. Another 22,042 youths were charged with crimes against the person, which encompass violent offenses like assault and homicide. Over 1,000 traffic charges and 6,684 charges under the Criminal Code were also laid during this period.
The highest recorded year for youth offenses was 2019-2020, with 74,551 total offenses, of which 18,024 were property crimes. Since then, property crimes have not exceeded this number, with a low of 7,227 in 2022-2023. Despite a 51% drop in youth crime rates between 2009 and 2019, Quebec has seen a significant increase in youth crime, particularly violent offenses, since 2015.
The trend among Canadian youth has shifted from property crimes to more violent crimes, with repeat offenses being common.
Written by urgent.news from Global News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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