National Fact Sheet

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The Victim Services Survey (VSS) was conducted for a second time in 2005/2006 through funding by Justice Canada’s Policy Centre for Victim Issues. The questionnaire was sent to 870 service agencies¹ in Canada understood to provide services or programs to victims of crime and 837 were deemed eligible to respond. We received responses from 697 victim services agencies and 8 criminal injuries compensation programs for a participation rate of 84%.

Responses were received from 100% of system-based agencies,² 86% of court-based agencies, 84% of police-based agencies, 82% of community-based agencies, 83% of sexual assault centres, 20% of other types of agencies and 89% of criminal injuries compensation/financial benefit programs.

• Between April 1^st 2005 and March 31^st 2006, 589 agencies reported serving 400,017 people.³

Profile of victims on April 19, 2006

• In a snapshot taken on April 19, 2006, 636 victim service agencies in Canada reported serving 8,080 people. Of these, 68% were female and 20% were male. The gender of 12% of the victims who received services was unreported.

• Seventy-two percent of the people who received services were victims of crimes against the person. Among them, 32% were victims of sexual assault, nearly 4% were victims of criminal harassment, 3% were secondary victims of homicide, nearly 3% were secondary victims of other offences causing death and 59% were victims of other violent offences, including physical assault.

• On the day of the snapshot, 1,851 victims of sexual assault received assistance. Among them, 19% were victimized by a spouse, an ex-spouse or an intimate partner, 42% were victimized by another family member and 39% were victimized by a non-family member such as a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.

• Of the 3,411 victims of other violent offences 63% were victimized by a spouse, an ex-spouse or an intimate partner, 17% by another family member and 21%, by a non-family member such as a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.⁴

Profile of victim service agencies in 2005/2006

• Among the 702 agencies that participated in the survey, 42% were police-based, 19% were community-based, 17% were sexual assault centres, 8% were court-based, 7% were victim crisis assistance and referral service (Ontario only), 7% were system-based and one was another type of agency. Eight of the agencies that participated in the survey were criminal injuries compensation or financial benefits programs for victims of crime.

• The majority (92%) of the agencies reported being able to provide services to people with mobility impairments. Furthermore, 67% of the agencies reported being able to provide services to people who are deaf or hearing impaired, while 66% reported being able to accommodate clients who are blind or visually impaired.

• The most commonly reported direct services provided by victim service agencies were: general information (96%), emotional support (95%), liaising with other agencies on behalf of a client (90%), and immediate safety planning (90%).

• In 2005/2006, 662 agencies reported employing the equivalent of 1,784 paid full-time staff. Between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2006, 556 agencies indicated having used the services of 8,918 volunteers.

Footnotes

1. Agency is the unit of count for the Victim Services Survey and refers to the organization or office through which victims services are provided. It should be noted that in cases where victim service programs are offered by the provincial government through a number of locations or offices, each office is counted as one agency. This approach was taken in order to avoid under estimating the extent of victim services in some jurisdictions.
2. Services under the system-based model assist victims throughout their contact with the criminal justice system from the police right through to the corrections stage. This model can be characterized as “one-stop” service delivery.
3. The precise reporting period may vary. Agencies were asked to provide information for the twelve-month period ending March 31, 2006 or their own twelve-month fiscal period. Agencies that were unable to provide annual counts or that did not answer the question are excluded from the number of agencies reporting.
4. The relationship between the victim and the offender was not collected for homicide, other offences causing death and criminal harassment.