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About 400,000 victims of crime sought assistance from 589 victim services agencies between April 1, 2005, and March 31, 2006, according to a new report.
These agencies reported having served about 161,000 female and 48,000 male victims. The victim's sex was not provided for the remaining 190,000 victims.
Data came from the Victim Services Survey (VSS), which enumerated a total of 830 victim service agencies and 9 criminal injuries compensation programs identified as providing formal services to victims of crime. While responses were received from 697 of these agencies, some agencies did not respond to certain questions because the information was either not applicable or not available.
The VSS also captured information on the characteristics of direct and indirect victims seeking formal services on a specific snapshot day, April 19, 2006. On this day, just over 8,000 victims were served by 636 agencies.
The majority (72%) were victims of violent crime, such as sexual and physical assaults. Another 24% of clients experienced other types of incidents, such as property crimes, other criminal offences, or non-criminal incidents including suicides, drownings or motor vehicle collisions.
Over two-thirds (68%) of victims who sought assistance on the snapshot day were female, roughly the same as in 2002/2003, when the survey was last conducted.
Among female victims who had experienced a violent crime, 53% had experienced violence by a spouse, ex-spouse or intimate partner. A further 24% had been victimized by a family member other than a spouse. The remaining 23% had experienced violence at the hands of a non-family member, such as a friend, a neighbour or a stranger.
In contrast, 49% of males had been victimized by a non-family member, and 28% were victimized by a family member other than a spouse. The remaining approximate one-quarter had experienced violence at the hands of a spouse, ex-spouse or intimate partner.
A large proportion of the 697 victim service agencies were police-based (42%). Community-based organizations accounted for 19%; sexual assault centres, 17%; court-based agencies, 8%; Ontario's Victim Crisis Assistance and Referral Services, 7%; and system-based agencies, 7%. The remaining 1% comprised criminal injuries compensation programs.
Almost 8 in 10 victim service agencies used the services of nearly 9,000 volunteers between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2006. These volunteers each worked an average of four hours per week during this period, the equivalent of 912 full-time volunteers.
The estimated cost of providing services to victims of crime, based on responses from 628 agencies, totaled $152.2 million in 2005/2006, excluding compensation programs.
Available on CANSIM: tables 256-0018 to 256-0020.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5035.
CANSIM table 256-0021 will soon be available.
The Juristat: "Victim Services in Canada, 2005/2006," Vol. 27, no. 7 (85-002-XIE, free) and the publication, Victim Services in Canada: National, Provincial and Territorial Fact Sheets, 2005/2006 (85-003-XWE, free), are now available from our website. From the Publications module, under Free Internet publications, choose Crime and justice, then Juristat. A paper version (85-002-XPE, $11/$100) is also available.
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.
