Table 3
Prior police-reported violence against victims of homicide, by gender-related status and incident characteristic, Canada, 2009 to 2022

Table 3
Prior police-reported violence against victims of homicide, by gender-related status and victim characteristic, Canada, 2009 to 2022 Table summary
The information is grouped by Incident characteristic (appearing as row headers), Gender-related homicides of women and girls1, Non-gender-related homicides of women and girls, Homicide of men and boys and Total, calculated using number, percent, number, percent, number, percent, number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Incident characteristic Gender-related homicides of women and girls Table 3 Note 1 Non-gender-related homicides of women and girls Homicide of men and boys Total
number percent number percent number percent number percent
Note ...

not applicable

Note 1

Gender-related homicides of women and girls are solved homicides committed by a man or boy 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 of women and girls are all those that do not contain the above qualifiers but involve a woman or girl as the victim and have a known accused. The homicide of men and boys exclude unsolved incidents.

Return to note 1 referrer

Note 2

Includes incidents that did not involve the use of a weapon or physical force as well as those in which a weapon or physical force was used but no visible physical injury was noted by police.

Return to note 2 referrer

Note 3

Refers to injuries that required no professional medical treatment or only some first aid (e.g., bandage, ice).

Return to note 3 referrer

Note 4

Refers to injuries that required professional medical attention at the scene or transportation to a medical facility.

Return to note 4 referrer

Note 5

Includes no threat, physical force or weapon.

Return to note 5 referrer

Note 6

Includes threats that are construed to imply that death or injury is possible.

Return to note 6 referrer

Note 7

Includes other piercing or cutting instruments, such as hatchets, razor blades and arrows.

Return to note 7 referrer

Note 8

Includes other types of weapons such as explosives, rope, fire, motor vehicles, poison and weapons not otherwise classified.

Return to note 8 referrer

Note 9

Includes all non-firearm-related incidents in Quebec. In Quebec, the information management system used by the majority of police services produces a relatively high proportion of unknown values for the variable “most serious weapon present” when the incident does not involve a firearm. For that reason, the sum of categories displayed will not add up to the total. Data from the Québec City Police Service are also excluded regardless of the most serious weapon present.

Return to note 9 referrer

Note 10

The history of victimization counts each victim only once and captures police contacts that occurred prior to the homicide. If one victim was involved in multiple police contacts, the one perpetrated by a person accused of a gender-related homicide is counted.

Return to note 10 referrer

Note 11

Includes current spouses, common-law partners, dating partners (i.e., boyfriends, girlfriends) and other intimate partners (e.g., one-night stands, mutual sexual attraction, extramarital affairs).

Return to note 11 referrer

Note 12

Includes former spouses, common-law partners, dating partners (i.e., ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends).

Return to note 12 referrer

Note 13

Includes all other family members that are not intimate partners (e.g., biological, step, adoptive and foster parents, children, siblings as well as extended family members related to the victim by blood or marriage).

Return to note 13 referrer

Note 14

Includes all other relationship types not otherwise specified.

Return to note 14 referrer

Note 15

Police services can report up to 4 violations per incident. Includes data where a sexual assault was recorded anywhere on the incident (violations 1-4).

Return to note 15 referrer

Note: Based on victims of homicide who had at least one other contact with police as a victim of a violent offence. 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. Percent calculations exclude incidents where the level of injury and presence of weapon was unknown. Excludes victims where gender was coded as unknown.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Gender-related homicide record linkage file.
Level of injury  
No physical injury Table 3 Note 2 377 37.4 214 39.6 782 31.2 1,373 33.9
Physical injury 632 62.6 327 60.4 1,721 68.8 2,680 66.1
Minor physical injury Table 3 Note 3 594 58.9 312 57.7 1,466 58.6 2,372 58.5
Major physical injury Table 3 Note 4 38 3.8 15 2.8 255 10.2 308 7.6
Unknown 66 ... not applicable 42 ... not applicable 143 ... not applicable 251 ... not applicable
Total 1,075 100.0 583 100.0 2,646 100.0 4,304 100.0
Weapon present  
No weapon Table 3 Note 5 39 4.1 11 2.1 63 2.7 113 3.0
Threats Table 3 Note 6 41 4.3 21 4.0 110 4.8 172 4.5
Physical force 723 76.5 385 73.5 1,216 52.5 2,324 61.4
Weapon present 142 15.0 107 20.4 926 40.0 1,175 31.1
Firearm 19 2.0 8 1.5 106 4.6 133 3.5
Knife or other piercing instrument Table 3 Note 7 40 4.2 25 4.8 421 18.2 486 12.8
Club or other blunt instrument 16 1.7 8 1.5 108 4.7 132 3.5
Other weapon Table 3 Note 8 67 7.1 66 12.6 291 12.6 424 11.2
Unknown 42 ... not applicable 31 ... not applicable 181 ... not applicable 254 ... not applicable
Total Table 3 Note 9 1,075 100.0 583 100.0 2,646 100.0 4,304 100.0
History of victimization Table 3 Note 10  
Different accused 183 51.3 163 92.1 1,160 93.8 1,506 85.0
Same accused as in homicide 174 48.7 14 7.9 77 6.2 265 15.0
Total 357 100.0 177 100.0 1,237 100.0 1,771 100.0
Closest accused-victim relationship  
Current intimate partner Table 3 Note 11 460 42.8 190 32.6 295 11.1 945 22.0
Former intimate partner Table 3 Note 12 141 13.1 46 7.9 77 2.9 264 6.1
Other family Table 3 Note 13 148 13.8 101 17.3 373 14.1 622 14.5
Other relationship Table 3 Note 14 326 30.3 246 42.2 1,901 71.8 2,473 57.5
Total 1,075 100.0 583 100.0 2,646 100.0 4,304 100.0
Sexual assault  
No sexual assault 1,007 93.7 535 91.8 2,623 99.1 4,165 96.8
Sexual assault occurred Table 3 Note 15 68 6.3 48 8.2 23 0.9 139 3.2
Total 1,075 100.0 583 100.0 2,646 100.0 4,304 100.0
Date modified: