Section 3: Police-reported intimate partner violence in Canada, 2019

Intimate partner violence—also known as domestic violence—has been identified as a widespread public health issue (Stewart et al. 2012). While it most often presents as physical violence between current and former dating or spousal partners, verbal, sexual, emotional and financial abuse are also possible forms of this type of violence. It can range from unhealthy and destructive behaviour to criminal conduct, even homicide. Victims of intimate partner violence may experience injury and chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and challenges with relationships and maintaining stable employment (Public Health Agency of Canada 2014).

Intimate partner violence affects people from all types of demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds; however, victims are most often women and the violence is commonly perpetrated by men (Women and Gender Equality Canada 2020). The issue of intimate partner violence gained increased attention with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related public health restrictions. With people required to stay home, concern has been raised about those who would be unable to leave abusive environments. In addition, the nature of the virus has created unique challenges for vital social supports like shelters for victims of abuse.

In the coming months, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada will release a series of analytical reports about intimate partner violence based on self-reported data from the 2018 Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces. These will include an overview of intimate partner violence, and additional reports profiling intimate partner violence among Indigenous women, ethno-cultural minority women, women with disabilities, young women, and sexual minority women and men.

In this section, intimate partner violence refers to violence committed by current and former legally married spouses, common-law partners, dating partners and other intimate partners. Victims refer to those aged 15 to 89 years.^Note

Three in ten victims of police-reported violence victimized by an intimate partner

In 2019, there were 358,244 victims of police-reported violence in Canada (Table 3.1). Of these victims, three in ten (30%) were victimized by an intimate partner, which represented 107,810 victims.

Intimate partner violence that came to the attention of police was most often perpetrated by a current partner; that is, a current boyfriend or girlfriend (36%) or a spouse (29%). Former partners like an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend (21%) or an ex-spouse (12%) were less common, likely reflecting the reality that these victims and accused were not living together.

While just over half (53%) of victims of violence were female, the large majority (79%) of victims of intimate partner violence were women, and this held true regardless of the type of intimate partner relationship. Nearly half (45%) of all female victims of violence were victimized by an intimate partner.

Intimate partner violence increases for the fifth year in a row, larger increase among men

The rate of police-reported intimate partner violence increased 6% in 2019 from the previous year (Chart 3.1).^Note Between 2018 and 2019, the rate of intimate partner violence increased more for men than women (+10% versus +5%). This marked the fifth consecutive annual increase overall, up 14% from 2014. Between 2009 and 2019, intimate partner violence had a smaller decrease than non-intimate partner violence (-6% versus -14%).

Chart 3.1 Victims of police-reported intimate partner and non-intimate partner violence, by gender of victim and year, Canada, 2009 to 2019

Data table for Chart 3.1

Data table for Chart 3.1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 3.1. The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), Intimate partner violence, Non-intimate partner violence, Female victims, Male victims and Total victims, calculated using rate per 100,000 population units of measure (appearing as column headers).
	Female victims	Male victims	Total victims	Female victims	Male victims	Total victims
	Intimate partner violence			Non-intimate partner violence
	rate per 100,000 population
2009	579	145	365	725	1,139	929
2010	576	148	365	729	1,094	909
2011	545	140	345	668	1,022	843
2012	520	137	331	643	986	813
2013	489	131	312	592	886	738
2014	471	129	302	558	841	699
2015	483	132	309	569	858	712
2016	485	134	311	573	852	712
2017	494	135	316	601	863	731
2018	508	135	323	620	880	749
2019	536	149	344	663	937	799
Note: Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population aged 15 to 89 years. Populations based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Victims refer to those aged 15 to 89 years. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Excludes victims where the gender or the age was unknown or where the accused-victim relationship was unknown. Based on the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Trend Database, which, as of 2009, includes data for 99% of the population in Canada. As a result, numbers may not match those presented elsewhere in the report. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Trend Database.

More than half of victims of intimate partner violence suffer a physical injury

In 2019, the rate of police-reported intimate partner violence was 347 victims per 100,000 population (Table 3.2). The most common type of intimate partner violence was physical assault^Note (accounting for 75% of victims, a rate of 261 per 100,000 population) followed by other offences involving violence or the threat of violence^Note (68) and sexual assault^Note (17). Given that the large majority of victims of intimate partner violence were women, rates for these types of violations were notably higher for women specifically (391, 115 and 33, respectively).

Overall, intimate partner violence rates peaked for victims aged 25 to 34 (715 per 100,000 population), and this applied to both women and men (1,173 and 277, respectively). In contrast, the rate of non-intimate partner violence was highest for younger victims—those aged 15 to 24—and declined with age. Among victims of intimate partner violence, sexual assault was the only type of violation that did not peak among those aged 25 to 34; instead, victims aged 15 to 24 had the highest rate of sexual assault (48 overall and 97 for women). Whether related to intimate partner violence or not, the rate of sexual assault was highest for young women and men.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of victims of intimate partner violence were assaulted using physical force (Table 3.3).^Note An additional 15% of these victims were assaulted with a weapon present, such as a knife, club or firearm. Over half (54%) of victims of intimate partner violence suffered a physical injury, more common than those who experienced non-intimate partner violence (40%).^Note Among those who were physically injured as a result of intimate partner violence, nearly all (96%) had minor injuries. Physical injury resulting from intimate partner violence was slightly more common for men than women (56% versus 53%).

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Intimate partner homicide

Between 2014 and 2019, there were 497 victims of intimate partner homicide, and—similar to intimate partner violence in general—eight in ten (80%) victims were female.^Note Most (75%) female victims were killed by a current or former spouse or common-law partner while a non-spousal intimate partner—such as a current or former boyfriend or girlfriend, or an extra-marital lover—was less common (25%). Similarly, a larger proportion of male victims were killed by a spouse (65%) than a non-spousal partner (35%).

Indigenous people—that is, those who are First Nations, Métis or Inuit—are overrepresented as victims of violent crime in Canada and, more specifically, Indigenous people are over twice as likely to experience spousal violence as non-Indigenous people (Boyce 2016; Perreault 2015). When looking at the most severe form of intimate partner violence, homicide, a similar pattern emerges: while about 5% of the population is Indigenous (Statistics Canada 2020), one-quarter (26%, 125 victims) of intimate partner homicide victims between 2014 and 2019 were Indigenous.^Note The issue of Indigenous victimization is complex, and violence experienced by Indigenous people—both in the family and in the community—stems from historic and ongoing colonialism in Canada. Intimate partner violence among the Indigenous population is the result of many compounding factors. For instance, intergenerational trauma—from the residential school system, the Sixties Scoop and the child welfare system—can lead to many issues, such as addiction and poverty, which contribute to the conditions for conflict and violence (Hoffart and Jones 2018; National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 2019; O’Neill et al. 2018).

Regardless of Indigenous identity, a similar proportion of homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner (14% of Indigenous and 13% of non-Indigenous victims). Overall, one-quarter of victims killed by a spouse (26%) or a non-spousal partner (25%) were Indigenous. Of the 125 Indigenous victims of intimate partner homicide, 66% were female and 34% were male. While nearly four in ten (37%) Indigenous female homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner, it was somewhat more common among non-Indigenous female victims (43%). Inversely, it was more common for Indigenous male homicide victims than non-Indigenous male victims to be killed by an intimate partner (7% versus 3%). Considered another way, a larger proportion of male victims of intimate partner homicide were Indigenous while this was less common for female victims (44% versus 21%).

In 2019, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada began collecting information on visible minority identity as part of the Homicide Survey. Of the 72 victims of intimate partner homicide in 2019, police reported that 25% belonged to a group designated as visible minority.^Note Similar to intimate partner violence broadly, the large majority of these intimate partner homicide victims were female.^Note Among homicide victims in general, intimate partner homicide was less common for visible minority victims than non-visible minority victims (9% versus 13%).

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Saskatchewan and Manitoba have highest rates of intimate partner violence among the provinces

Similar to crime in general, rates of police-reported intimate partner violence were generally highest in the prairies and territories. Among the provinces, the rate of intimate partner violence was highest in Saskatchewan (724 per 100,000 population) and Manitoba (607) (Table 3.4).^Note Meanwhile, it was lowest in Ontario (251) and Prince Edward Island (270). Compared with the provinces, rates were notably higher in the territories, with Nunavut reporting the highest rate (5,249) followed by the Northwest Territories (4,083) and Yukon (1,365).

Women experienced a higher rate of intimate partner violence than men in every province and territory. The largest differences were noted in Nunavut, where the rate for women was 6.7 times higher than men (9,303 versus 1,390), and in Saskatchewan (1,175 versus 281, 4.2 times higher for women), Manitoba (979 versus 235, 4.2 times higher) and Ontario (398 versus 99, 4.0 times higher).

In every province and territory in 2019, the rate of intimate partner violence increased from the previous year, with the exception of Prince Edward Island (-13%).^Note The largest provincial increases were noted in New Brunswick^Note (+25%), British Columbia (+19%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+18%).

In the provinces, the rate of intimate partner violence was 1.8 times higher in rural areas than urban areas (548 versus 300 per 100,000 population), and this pattern was the same for women and men (Chart 3.2).^Note In rural areas, women had a rate of intimate partner violence that was 3.5 times higher than men (860 versus 246). Notably, the difference between rural and urban rates was larger for intimate partner violence than non-intimate partner violence (1.8 versus 1.4 times higher in rural areas).

Chart 3.2 Victims of police-reported intimate partner and non-intimate partner violence, by gender of victim and urban or rural area, provinces, 2019

Data table for Chart 3.2

Data table for Chart 3.2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 3.2. The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), Intimate partner violence, Non-intimate partner violence, Female victims, Male victims and Total victims, calculated using rate per 100,000 population units of measure (appearing as column headers).
	Intimate partner violence			Non-intimate partner violence
	Female victims	Male victims	Total victims	Female victims	Male victims	Total victims
	rate per 100,000 population
Urban area	467	128	300	597	887	740
Rural area	860	246	548	975	1,148	1,063
Note: An urban area is defined as a census metropolitan area (CMA) or a census agglomeration (CA). A CMA consists of one or more neighbouring municipalities situated around a major urban core. A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000, of which 50,000 or more live in the urban core. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census data. A CA must have a core population of at least 10,000. Rural areas are all areas outside of CMAs and CAs. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population aged 15 to 89 years. Populations based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Victims refer to those aged 15 to 89 years. Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Excludes victims where the gender or the age was unknown or where the accused-victim relationship was unknown. Excludes data from the territories. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

The rate of intimate partner violence was 2.0 times lower in Canada’s largest cities—referred to as census metropolitan areas^Note or CMAs—than it was in non-CMAs (273 versus 538) (Table 3.5).^Note Of the CMAs, rates were highest in Lethbridge (618), Moncton (527) and Thunder Bay (459). Meanwhile, rates were lowest in St. Catharines–Niagara (153), Sherbrooke (208) and Ottawa^Note (211).

Among the CMAs, the largest differences in the rate of intimate partner violence between women and men were noted in Abbotsford–Mission (524 versus 86, 6.1 times higher for women), Winnipeg (549 versus 91, 6.0 times higher) and Greater Sudbury (486 versus 86, 5.7 times higher).

Detailed data tables

Table 3.1 Victims of police-reported intimate partner and non-intimate partner violence, by gender and age group of victim, and relationship of accused to victim, Canada, 2019

Table 3.2 Victims of police-reported intimate partner and non-intimate partner violence, by gender and age group of victim, and type of violation, Canada, 2019

Table 3.3 Victims of police-reported intimate partner and non-intimate partner violence, by gender of victim, type of weapon present and level of injury, Canada, 2019

Table 3.4 Victims of police-reported intimate partner and non-intimate partner violence, by gender of victim and province or territory, 2018 to 2019

Table 3.5 Victims of police-reported intimate partner and non-intimate partner violence, by gender of victim and census metropolitan area, 2019

References

Boyce, J. 2016. “Victimization of Aboriginal people in Canada, 2014.” Juristat. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 85-002-X.

Hoffart, R. and N. A. Jones. 2018. “Intimate partner violence and intergenerational trauma among Indigenous women.” International Criminal Justice Review. Vol. 28, no. 1.

National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 2019. “Reclaiming power and place: The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.”

O’Neill, L., Fraser, T., Kitchenham, A. and V. McDonald. 2018. “Hidden burdens: A review of intergenerational, historical and complex trauma, implications for Indigenous families.” Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma. Vol. 11, no. 2.

Perreault, S. 2015. “Criminal victimization in Canada, 2014.” Juristat. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 85-002-X.

Public Health Agency of Canada. 2014. Family Violence Initiative.

Statistics Canada. 2020. Aboriginal peoples highlight tables, 2016 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-402-X2016009.

Stewart, D. E., MacMillan, H. and N. Wathen. 2012. “Intimate partner violence.” The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Vol. 58, no. 6.

Women and Gender Equality Canada. 2020. Intimate partner violence.

Notes

Note

Victims aged 90 years and older are excluded from analyses due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Excludes victims where the gender or the age was unknown. Counts represent the number of victims involved in incidents of violence. It is possible that individual victims may have experienced more than one incident, and would therefore be counted more than once here. For type of relationship, percentages have been calculated excluding unknown relationships.