NCJ Number
152227
Date Published
1994
Length
116 pages
Annotation
Statistics Canada undertook seven projects -- a national household survey on violence against women, a national survey of transition homes, a survey to examines cases of child abuse reported to pediatric hospitals, an inventory of residential services for abused women, an inventory of programs for abusive men, a descriptive study of legislation and services provided by provincial child welfare systems, and an examination of provincial criminal justice statistics -- to identify the nature and extent of domestic violence in Canada.
Abstract
The study found that 29 percent of ever-married Canadian women had experienced either physical or sexual violence by a current or previous marital or common-law partner. Thirty-eight percent of adult female homicide victims had been killed by their husbands, compared to 6 percent of husbands who had been killed by their wives. Women most likely to be battered were young, newly married, and with low household income levels. The results showed that 14 percent of all physical assaults and 65 percent of sexual assaults reported to police were perpetrated against children. Girls were more likely to be abused by a parent, while boys were equally at risk of assault by a parent or other family member. The report studied the nature of senior abuse, finding that between 4 and 10 percent of Canadian elderly persons are abused by family members. This report also examined the criminal justice processing of family violence cases, focusing on innovations implemented by the Family Violence Court in Winnipeg. 1 appendix and 59 references