Findings

Prevalence and severity of violence against women

Estimating the prevalence of violence against women—the number of women in the population who are affected by violence—is challenging due to the very private nature of these experiences. [Full text]

Impact of violence against women

One of the challenges of measuring the impact of violence against women is the difficulty in adequately reflecting the broad range of impacts on individual women in psychological and physical terms, as well as the broader societal-level costs of supplying services to victims. [Full text]

Risk factors associated with violence against women

Certain socio-demographic characteristics of victims and offenders are associated with higher rates of violence. These risk factors cannot be said to be causes of violence; instead they are factors that help identify the context in which violence occurs. [Full text]

Institutional and community-based responses

Thirty years ago, violence against women in the home was regarded by many as a private “family matter.” In the early 1980s, charging and prosecution policies for spousal assault were introduced in Canada starting with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) federal guidelines. [Full text]

Victims’ use of services

Knowledge about victims’ use of services can help answer questions about where victims turn for help, what types of violent events are reported to the police or other services, and perhaps more important, what types are not reported. [Full text]

Violence against Aboriginal women

Family violence has been identified as one of the most important issues facing Aboriginal people in Canada (Lane et al. 2003; LaRocque 1994). In the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples (RCAP 1996), a number of factors that are linked to violence in Aboriginal communities were identified. [Full text]

Violence against women in the territories

In 2004, the General Social Survey (GSS) was conducted in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut as part of a pilot test. For the first time, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women and men in the northern territories were interviewed about their experiences of spousal violence, in addition to other crimes. [Full text]

Conclusion

Violence against women affects all of Canadian society.  It occurs in public, family and intimate contexts and can be experienced by women at any stage of their lives. [Full text]