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Table 2
Victims of homicide, by gender-related criterion and accused-victim relationship, Canada, 2011 to 2021

Table 2
Victims of homicide, by gender-related criterion and accused-victim relationship, Canada, 2011 to 2021
Table summary
This table displays the results of Victims of homicide. The information is grouped by Accused-victim relationship (appearing as row headers), Gender-related homicides of women and girls and Non-gender-related homicides, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Accused-victim relationship	Gender-related homicides of women and girls^{Table 2 Note 1}		Non-gender-related homicides
Accused-victim relationship	number	percent	number	percent
Intimate partner	738	66	194	5
Spouse^{Table 2 Note 2}	545	49	121	3
Non-spousal intimate partner^{Table 2 Note 3}	193	17	73	2
Non-spousal family	313	28	665	17
Child^{Table 2 Note 4}	154	14	185	5
Other^{Table 2 Note 5}	159	14	480	12
Non-family	71	6	3,108	78
Friend^{Table 2 Note 6}	25	2	1,355	34
Acquaintance^{Table 2 Note 7}	30	3	943	24
Stranger	16	1	810	20
Unknown	3	Note ...: not applicable	188	Note ...: not applicable
Solved homicide total^{Table 2 Note 8}	1,125	100	4,155	100
Unsolved homicide total	Note ...: not applicable	Note ...: not applicable	1,669	Note ...: not applicable
Homicide total	1,125	Note ...: not applicable	5,824	Note ...: not applicable
... not applicable Note 1 Gender-related homicides of women and girls are solved homicides committed by a male accused who was an intimate partner or family member of the victim, inflicted sexual violence on the victim as part of the killing or killed a victim who was identified as a sex worker. Non-gender-related homicides are all those that do not contain the above qualifiers. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Includes current and former legally married spouses and common-law partners. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Includes current and former dating partners (i.e., boyfriends and girlfriends) and other intimate partners (e.g., extra-marital intimate partner, one-night stands). Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes children and step-children. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes parents, step-parents, siblings and extended family members. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes close, casual and family friends as well as roommates. Return to note 6 referrer Note 7 Includes other household members, temporary house guests, current and former intimate partners of family members, neighbours, business relationships, authority and reverse authority figures, criminal relationships, co-substance users, co-institutional facility members and other acquaintances. Return to note 7 referrer Note 8 Includes homicides with a known accused. Return to note 8 referrer Note: There may be a small number of homicides included in a given year's total that occurred in previous years. Homicides are counted according to the year in which they are reported to Statistics Canada. Excludes victims and accused where gender was coded as unknown. The year 2019 marked the first cycle of collection of the Homicide Survey data for which information on gender identity was reported for victims and persons accused of homicide. Gender refers to the gender a person publicly expresses in their daily life, including at work, while shopping or accessing other services, in their housing environment or in the broader community. Prior to 2019, Homicide Survey data was presented by the sex of the victims and accused persons. Sex and gender refer to two different concepts. Caution should be exercised when comparing counts for sex with those for gender. Given that small counts of victims and accused persons reported or were identified as being non-binary, the aggregate Homicide Survey data available to the public has been recoded to distribute these counts to either "men" or "women" in order to ensure the protection of confidentiality and privacy. Victims and accused persons who reported or were identified as being non-binary have been distributed to either men or women categories based on the regional distribution of victims’ or accused persons’ gender. Percent calculations are based on solved homicides only and exclude unknown relationships. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Homicide Survey.

Date modified:: 2023-04-05