Residents of Canada's shelters for abused women, 2008 - ARCHIVED

This Juristat article presents a profile of abused women in all shelters in Canada that provided residential services in 2007-2008. Selected characteristics of residents are presented including reasons for coming to the shelter, parenting responsibilities, relationship to abuser, repeat stays as well as departures. The data represent a snapshot day, April 16, 2008. Data for this Juristat article come primarily from the Transition Home Survey (THS). The THS, which consists of a biennial census of all residential facilities for female victims of domestic violence, is conducted by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics as part of the federal government's Family Violence Initiative. Questionnaires are mailed to all shelters known to provide residential services to abused women in every province and territory. The THS collects information on the characteristics of shelter residents on a specific day, as well as the characteristics of facilities during the previous 12 months (April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008). Comparisons using time-series data from the THS Trend File are also included. The THS Trend File contains only those facilities that participated in each cycle of the survey beginning in 1999-2000.