Some of the major changes included a shift in the definition of rape from a crime of sex to a crime of violence, a shift in policy to eliminate the victim's reputation as a legal consideration, and the elimination of spousal immunity provisions. To assess the influence of law reform related to sexual assault in Canada and the influence of macroeconomic conditions and social control on arrest and charge rates for sexual assault, a time series analysis was conducted for the years 1962-1990. Trends were contrasted with those for comparable nonsexual assault rate. Overall, results suggested that the impact of law reform in relation to general legal trends for all violent crimes was moderate for arrest rates and negligible for charge rates. Arrest and charge rates for sexual assault were much less predictable than those for other violent crimes. The author concludes that variations in arrest and charge rates resulted from general trends in social control policy and not from specific law reform. Additional information is appended on changes in Canada's sexual assault law. 35 references, 2 notes, 6 tables, and 2 figures