Concept: Charge Category - Justice System

Introduction

This concept contains information about a variable that was developed to provide high-level information on the types of charges that are found in the Justice Prosecution Information and Scheduling Management (PRISM) data.

This concept contains information relating to the categorical organization of charges found in the Justice System (drug, property, administrative, etc.). The charge category variable, SECTION_NO, was developed to help group and organize common charges into smaller subcategories. The Manitoba Centre for Health Policy created 9 meaningful charge categories that charges can fall into.

The concept includes information on the data source(s) for developing this indicator, background information on where the information came from, a table containing the various charge categories and the acts and section numbers that make up each category, a SAS macro that links all charges to an accused, and the SAS code that will generate the values for the charge categories.

Data Sources

The Charge Category indicator is derived from values in the section number (SECTION_NO) and Legislative Acts and Regulations (ACT) variables in the Charges file found in the Prosecution Information and Scheduling Management (PRISM) System data. (internal access only).

In the data, there are over 250 values for the Legislative Acts and Regulations (ACT) variable and over 500 values for the section number (SECTION_NO) variable.

Background Information

The description of "charges" from the PRISM data has evolved over time.

In the Mental Illness Among Adult Manitobans Deliverable (2018), they reported on the most common categories of criminal charges by diagnosed mental disorders for adults who were accused of a crime, and who were victims of a crime. See Appendix Table 5.4 and Appendix Table 5.5 in the Deliverable for a list of the Charge categories used in this research.

In the Health and Social Outcomes Associated with High-Risk Alcohol Use Deliverable (2018), they investigated 3 categories of "charges" related to outcomes associated with high-risk alcohol use: 1) - Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), 2) - Domestic / Family Violence, and 3) - Any Charge.

The following information in this concept comes from discussions relating to "charges" in the research done for the The Overlap Between the Child Welfare and Youth Criminal Justice Systems: Documenting "Cross-Over Kids" Deliverable by Brownell et al. (2020) , and from the PRISM database information available in the Metadata Repository.

Methods - Charge Category from the PRISM Data

For The Overlap Between the Child Welfare and Youth Criminal Justice Systems: Documenting "Cross-Over Kids", in order to organize all of the detailed charges that exist in the Justice system, a Charge Category variable was derived from the PRISM data. The following table identifies all the combinations of values from the ACT and SECTION_NO variables that categorize all of the detailed charge-related data into the appropriate CHARGE_CATEGORY.



Charge Category	ACT	Specific SECTION_NO for ACT='CC'
Administrative	All YCJA, all YOA, CC	CC (1-43, 145, 811, 468-840)
Assault	CC	CC (264.1 – 270.1)
Drug	All NCA, all CDSA, CC	CC (462.1-462.2)
Other	CC	CC (46-83, 118-144, 146-149, 183-209, 463, 465)
Property	CC	CC (321-462 and 462.3-462.5)
Sexual	CC	CC (150-182, 210-213, and 271-278.91)
Violent	CC	CC (83.01-117.11, 214-264 and 279-320.1)
Highway Traffic Act (HTA)	HTA	.
All other (All non-Criminal Code)	All other ACTS not listed above ( LCA, DVA, ORVA, PPA, PTA, WA, etc.)	.

NOTE:


• Administrative charges are laid when youth have breached the conditions of probation, conditional supervision or bail. Examples of these charges include: staying out after curfew, associating with certain individuals, or consuming alcohol - the kinds of activities that would not normally be considered "criminal".
  
• In The Overlap Between the Child Welfare and Youth Criminal Justice Systems: Documenting "Cross-Over Kids" research, they excluded the HTA and the "All Other" charge categories, as offences under these two categories are not considered "criminal" by most people. Other research may want to consider the inclusion / exclusion of these or other categories.

List of Acronyms in the Above Table

Acronym	Description
CC	Criminal Code
CDSA	Controlled Drug and Substances Act
DVA	Drivers and Vehicle Act
HTA	Highway Traffic Act
LCA	Liquor Control Act
NCA	Narcotic Control Act
ORVA	Off-Road Vehicle Act
PPA	Provincial Park Act
PTA	Petty Trespasses Act
WA	Wildlife Act
YCJA	Youth Criminal Justice Act
YOA	Young Offenders Act

SAS Macro - Accused Linked to Charges

This macro takes all records with an involvement type of "accused" from the Incidents dataset and links them to the associated charges from the Charges dataset.

NOTE:

• limit the age of the Accused to 12 and over
  
• the reason for linking is to create a single dataset which contains details about both the incident and the resultant charges; a single incident may generate multiple charges.
  
• the macro also outputs the Act the charge falls under, which may include Acts other than the Criminal Code
  
• not all charges proceed through the justice system. Some are stayed or otherwise disposed, and this information is in the CHARGE_STATUS variable.

** Macro to assign all of the associated charges (from the charges dataset) linked to the ACCUSED (from the incident dataset). **;

%_accused_linked_to_charges (cohort = , acqset_year = , accused_output = accused_linked_to_charges);

cohort = this dataset contains the PHINs of interest. NOTE: the phin must be named scrphin.
acqset_year = The acqset year of interest using the justice.mj_prism_mhcw_2002sep_new dataset.
keep_cw = list of additional variables specific to the link dataset to keep.
keep_incid = list of additional variables specific in the incident dataset to keep.
keep_chrg = list of additional variables specific in the charges dataset to keep.
accused_output = The name of the final accused_output dataset - default is accused_linked_to_charges.

Default list of "keep" vars: scrphin individual_id involvement_type_code involvement_type_cat incident_ID incident_create_dttm incident_from_dt incident_to_dt police_incident_type police_agency prism_recnmbr prism_charge charge_cnt charge_status first_appearance_dttm ACT section_no

SAS Code for CHARGE_CATEGORY Variable

The following SAS code example will create the CHARGE_CATEGORY values from the PRISM Charges file:

NOTE: the original structure of the following SAS code program has been modified to fit within the Concept Dictionary formatting capabilities.

data charges;
set CHARGES_dataset;

length charge_category $20.;

charge_category = 'ALL_OTHER';

if (ACT in ('YCJA', 'YOA') OR
(ACT in ('CC') AND
(section_no in (145, 811) or
1 <= section_no <= 43 or
468 <= section_no <= 840))) then do;
charge_category = 'ADMINISTRATIVE';
end;

else if (ACT in ('CC') and 264.1 <= section_no <= 270.1) then do;
charge_category = 'ASSAULT';
end;

else if (ACT in ('NCA', 'CDSA') OR
(ACT in ('CC') and 462.1 <= section_no <= 462.2)) then do;
charge_category = 'DRUG';
end;

else if (ACT in ('CC') AND
( 46 <= section_no <= 83 or
118 <= section_no <= 144 or
146 <= section_no <= 149 or
183 <= section_no <= 209 or
section_no in (463, 465))) then do;
charge_category = 'OTHER';
end;

else if (ACT in ('CC') AND
( 321 <= section_no <= 462 or
462.3 <= section_no <= 462.5)) then do;
charge_category = 'PROPERTY';
end;

else if (ACT in ('CC') AND
(150 <= section_no <= 182 or
210 <= section_no <= 213 or
271 <= section_no <= 278.91)) then do;
charge_category = 'SEXUAL';
end;

else if (ACT in ('CC') AND
(83.01 <= section_no <= 117.11 or
214 <= section_no <= 264 or
279 <= section_no <= 320.1)) then do;
charge_category = 'VIOLENT';
end;

* NOTE: in the 'ALL_OTHER' charge category move all records where ACT = 'HTA' to charge_category = 'HTA';

if charge_category = 'ALL_OTHER' and ACT = 'HTA' then do;
charge_category = 'HTA';
end;

* NOTE: the 'All_OTHER' charge category should not contain any ACT = 'CC' records
--> Move these records to the 'OTHER' charge category.;

if charge_category = 'ALL_OTHER' and ACT = 'CC' then do;
charge_category = 'OTHER';
end;

run;