STATISTICS ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
In Canada, there are two main sources of information on victims of crime (Mahony, 2011):
1. The General Social Survey on Victimization (GSS)
2. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey
General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization (Brennan, 2011)
• Every five years, Statistics Canada conducts a General Social Survey cycle on victimization that collects information from a random sample of Canadian women and men aged 15 years and older about their experiences of criminal victimization, including spousal violence in the preceding 12-­‐month and 5-­‐
year periods.
• It captures information on criminal incidents that do not come to the attention of police. Research indicates that for many reasons people do not always disclose their experiences of violence to the police.
• In order to track changes over time, Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey on Victimization was adapted to include a module on spousal violence which was modeled on the 1993 Violence Against Women Survey.
• The special module includes questions designed to measure the prevalence and consequences of spousal violence against both women and men. Measuring spousal violence:
• All respondents (married or living in a common-­‐law relationship) at the time of the survey, or had contact with their ex-­‐partner within the previous five years, are asked 10 questions about spousal violence. This includes legally married, common-­‐law, same-­‐sex, separated and divorced spouses.
• The questions measure both physical and sexual violence as defined by the Criminal Code that could be acted upon by the police: acts such as being threatened with violence, being pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped, kicked, bit, hit, beaten, choked, threatened with a gun or knife or forced into sexual activity.
• Respondents are also asked about emotional and financial abuse that they had experienced at the hands of a current or ex-­‐partner within the previous five years.
• While incidents of emotional and financial abuse are not used to calculate the overall proportion of spousal violence victims, information about these other forms of abuse help to create a better understanding of the context in which physical or sexual violence may occur.
• Unless otherwise stated, the differences stated are statistically significant.
• Sexual assault is covered as one if the eight crime types addressed routinely on the survey.
• Experiences of sexual assault are measured over the previous 12 months only.
Limitations of the General Social Surveys (GSS) on Victimization (Johnson, 2006)
• The surveys are conducted in Canada’s two official languages, thus presenting a significant barrier for the full inclusion of Aboriginal women (particularly those living in the territories) as well as immigrant women. • It does not allow for the inclusion of households without telephones or households with cellular phones only.
• By excluding households without telephones, the GSS may under-­‐represent certain groups, such as people with lower income, people living in traditional communities in the north, rural people, or women living in shelters or on the street as a direct result of violence. • Excluding households with only cellular phones may under-­‐represent young, single adults and transient people.
The Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS), 1993 (Johnson, 2006)
• The VAWS involved telephone interviews with a random sample of 12,300 women about their experiences of sexual and physical abuse by men, including male partners, friends, acquaintances or strangers (Johnson, 2006).
• It also included questions about non-­‐criminal forms of sexual harassment and women’s fears of violence in public places.
• The VAWS was the first survey conducted by Statistics Canada with a single focus on acts of male violence against women.
• This survey was important because, it included a wide range of in-­‐depth questions and it established a baseline for examining violence against women in Canadian society.
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey (Johnson, 2006)
• The UCR Survey was developed by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (a division of Statistics Canada) in cooperation and support of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
• The UCR Survey data are based on reported crimes that have been substantiated through police investigation. The Incident-­‐based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2 Survey) (Johnson, 2006)
• The UCR2 Survey allows detailed examination of the characteristics of the accused, the victim, and the incident itself.
• Collection began in 1988.
• By 2004, 166 police agencies in 9 provinces, representing 53% of the national volume of reported crime, were responding to the UCR2 Survey.
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The sample of police forces is not nationally representative, as the largest percentage of cases come from Ontario and Quebec.
The UCR2 Trend Database contains historical data, which allows for the analysis of trends in the characteristics of incidents, accused and victims (i.e., weapon use or victim/accused relationship).
This database currently includes 68 police services that have reported to the UCR2 Survey consistently since 1998, accounting for 37% of the national volume of crime in 2004.
NATURE, PREVALENCE & SEVERITY Self-­‐reported (Mahony, 2011 & Brennan, 2011)
PREVALENCE
• According to the 2009 GSS, approximately 7.4 million people living in the ten provinces aged 15 years and older reported being a victim of one of the 8 types of crimes measured by the GSS (Mahoney, 2011).
• Although most of these incidents were property related crimes, approximately 1.6 million violent crimes involved a female victim and 1.7 million involved a male victim.
• Females were most likely to report being a victim of physical assault, followed by sexual assault and robbery.
• Women and men were equally likely to report some form of physical or sexual violence by a current or former common-­‐law or marital partner.
• In 2009, approximately 600,600 women and 585,100 men aged 15 and over reported spousal violence in the five years prior to the survey.
NATURE & SEVERITY
• Although incidence rates of spousal violence are similar, the nature and severity of the violence experienced by women and men differ (Mahoney, 2011).
• In 2009, females who reported spousal violence were about three times more likely than males (34% vs. 10%) to report they had been sexually assaulted, beaten, choked or threatened with a gun or knife by their partner or ex-­‐partner in the previous 5 years (Brennan, 2011).
• Women were more likely than men to report a physical injury (42% vs. 18%) or fearing for their lives as a result of the spousal violence (33% vs. 5%), and were more likely to report chronic violence defined as 11 or more incidents of violence (20% of women, compared to 7% of men) (Mahoney, 2011).
• Females were more likely than males to report multiple victimizations (57% vs. 40%) (Brennan, 2011). • In general, women are more frequently subjected to severe forms of violence from men than men are from women (Johnson, 2006). •
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In 2004, twice as many women than men were beaten by their partners, and four times as many were choked.
16% of women who were victimized by a spouse were sexually assaulted, and twice as many female as male victims of spousal assault reported chronic, ongoing assaults (10 or more).
Assaults on women are more serious; the impact in terms of injury and other consequences is more severe for women.
Women were 2.5 times as likely as men to report the most serious forms of violence (being beaten, choked, threatened with a gun or knife, and sexually assaulted).
TRENDS
• Overall, females reported similar rates of physical assault and sexual assault in 2009 as reported in 1999 (Mahoney, 2011).
• Rates of sexual assault were approximately half those of physical assault, at 33 and 34 incidents per 1,000 population in 1999 and 2009 respectively.
• Females were slightly more likely to report being a victim of a robbery in 2009 than they were ten years earlier (with rates increasing from 7 per 1,000 to 10 per 1,000 population).
• Overall rates of self-­‐reported spousal violence have decreased over the past decade from 7.4% in 1999 to 6.2% in 2009
• Similar rates of spousal violence were reported in 2009, 2004 and 1999.
• As in previous cycles of GSS, many victims of spousal violence reported recurring incidents (Brennan, 2011).
• While the percentage of women assaulted by a current spouse has changed little from 1999 to 2009, the number of women reporting spousal violence by a former spouse has declined, from 25% in 1999 to 17% in 2009 (Mahoney, 2011 & Brennan, 2011).
• In 2009, the proportion of Canadians who reported experiencing spousal violence was similar among the provinces, with the exceptions of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, where the proportions of spousal violence victims were significantly lower than the national average (Brennan, 2011).
• The proportion of Canadians who reported at least one incident of spousal violence in the previous five years ranged from 4% in Newfoundland and Labrador to 8 % in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
• Reflecting the overall national trend, the provincial proportions of spousal violence have remained stable since 2004. • Victimization data (Violence Against Women Survey, 1993; GSS 1999 and 2004) indicate a decline in spousal assaults since 1993 (Johnson, 2006).
• Similar to previous GSS victimization cycles, the 2009 GSS showed that females continued to report more serious forms of spousal violence than males (Brennan, 2011).
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The findings indicate a reduction across the 3 time points (1993, 1999 and 2004) in the percentage of female victims of spousal violence subjected to the most severe types of assault (being beaten, choked, threatened with a gun or knife, or sexually assaulted), from 50% in 1993 to 39% in 2004 (Johnson, 2006).
There were also declines in the percentage of victims experiencing chronic, ongoing assaults (10 or more) and in the percentage who feared for the lives from a violent spouse.
The percentage of victims who suffered physical injury increased slightly.
Police-­‐reported
• Using police-­‐reported data collected through the Incident-­‐based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR2) Survey, as well as some data from the Homicide Survey, Valliancourt (2010) examines the nature and extent of gender differences in police-­‐reported violent victimization between male and female adults aged 18 years and over.
Overall rates of violent victimization are comparable between males and females
• Police-­‐reported data as reported through the UCR Survey shows that female victims accounted for half of all victims of violent crimes reported to police in 2009 (Mahony, 2011).
• According to a report based primarily on 2008 police-­‐reported data obtained from the Incident-­‐based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR2) Survey and data from the Homicide Survey, in 2008, the rate of violent victimization for female and male victims was comparable, at 1155 and 1150 per 100,000 population, respectively (Valliancourt, 2010).
• In addition, throughout the preceding 5-­‐year period from 2004 to 2008, the rates of violent victimization for men and women remained relatively stable. Female rates of violent victimization higher in a majority of jurisdictions (Valliancourt, 2010)
• In 2008, female rates of violent victimization were higher than rates for males in 10 of the 13 provinces and territories, most notably Nunavut, the North West Territories and Saskatchewan.
• Male rates of violent victimization were higher than female rates in British Columbia, Quebec and Nova Scotia, while for New Brunswick there was almost no difference in the rate of victimization between the sexes.
Rates of violent victimization higher for women than for men in many of Canada’s largest cities (Valliancourt, 2010)
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In 2008, Thunder Bay reported the greatest difference in the rate of violent victimization for women compared to men.
Also, in the Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA) of Peterborough, Kitchener, Brantford, Windsor, Greater Sudbury and Regina, female rates of violence were considerably higher than male rates.
In 2008, male rates of victimization were higher compared to female rates in the CMAs of Trois-­‐Rivieres, Victoria, Sherbrooke, Vancouver and Quebec. Overall in 2008, the highest rates of violent victimization against men were found in the CMAs of Saskatoon, Saint John and Halifax, while for women, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay and Regina were cities with the highest rates of violent victimization.
Age makes a difference in the rate of victimization between the sexes (Valliancourt, 2010)
• Females between the ages of 18 and 44 reported higher rates of violent victimization compared to male victims within the same age categories, with females 18 to 24 years of age having the highest rate of victimization of all victims, regardless of age or sex.
• However after age 44, the rates of violent victimization were higher for males compared with their female counterparts.
Profile of the accused
• Women most often reported being victimized by men regardless of crime type, and this was the case as well for male victims (Valliancourt, 2010).
• Men were considered the accused in 81% of cases of violent victimization against women, and in 79% of cases of violent victimization against males; whereas females accounted for 10% of victimizations against females and 10% against males.
• Consistent with self-­‐reported victimization data, police statistics show that females are most likely to be victimized by someone they know (Mahoney, 2011).
• According to 2009 police-­‐reported data, spouses (current or former) and other intimate partners committed more than 41% of violent incidents involving female victims.
• Other family members and acquaintances account for another 42% of violent incidents.
• Sexual assault against females that are brought to the attention of police are more likely to be committed by an acquaintance (46%), a family member (24%), or a stranger (18%) than either a spouse (5%) or other intimate partner (8%).
• The same findings were reported for “other sexual violations”, with a family member (39%) or an acquaintance (38%) accounting for the majority of perpetrators.
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Current and former husbands make up the largest number of intimate partner assault offenders recorded by the police and the number in this group has declined since 2001 (Johnson, 2006).
The number of current and former boyfriends reported to police for IPV has increased since 1998 to become the second highest category, surpassing the number of assaults perpetrated by wives.
Men and women are victims of different types of violent crime
• Gender differences in police-­‐reported victimization are seen in the types of violent offences experienced by male and female victims (Valliancourt, 2010).
• Males, for example, are more likely to be the victims of physical assault and homicide, while sexual assault victims are overwhelmingly female.
• Beyond the differences in the types of violent victimization they suffer, there are also gender-­‐based distinctions in the characteristics surrounding the violent crime such as the relationship between the victim and accused, the involvement of weapons, and where the crime took place.
• Assault Level 1 was the most common offence perpetrated against females, accounting for 46% of all incidents reported to police (Mahoney, 2011).
• Other offences perpetrated against females included uttering threats (13%), assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (9%), sexual assault (9%), and criminal harassment (7%).
• Offences perpetrated against males were similar, with assault level 1 (42%) and assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (17%) accounting for the majority of incidents.
• Females are the most common victims of sexual assault (87%) and “other sexual violations” (80%) (Mahoney, 2011).
• Other offences reported to police that are committed primarily against females include forcible confinement and related offences (76%), criminal harassment (76%), as well as threatening and harassing phone calls (68%).
• Males, on the other hand, accounted for three quarters of victims of homicide, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and approximately two thirds of victims of robbery.
• Police data on spousal assault incidents from the Incident-­‐based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2) indicate that women represented 87% of victims of partner assault from 1998 to 2004 in the jurisdictions of the 68 participating police agencies (Johnson, 2006).
• The findings suggest that incidents involving female victims are more likely to approach the level of severity requiring police intervention.
Physical Assault (Valliancourt, 2010)
Men were more likely to be victims of more serious forms of physical assault reported to police
• In 2008, although the rate of police-­‐reported physical assaults against men was slightly greater than that for women, male and female victims reported different types of physical assault.
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Females were more likely than males to be victims of common assault, the form of assault resulting in the least serious physical injury, whereas males were more likely than females to be victims of more serious forms of physical assault.
The rate of assault with a weapon or assault causing bodily harm (level 2) among men was nearly double that for women.
The most significant difference between male and female victims of assault was found for aggravated assault, where the police-­‐reported rate for male victims of aggravated assault was more than 3 times higher than the rate for female victims.
While physical force was more common in incidents of physical assault against female victims (54%) compared to males (44%), men were more frequently the victims of an assault involving a weapon (16% of incidents against men vs. 8% for women).
More than twice the proportion of male victims (5%) of physical assault sustained major injuries compared to their female counterparts (2%).
Men are physically assaulted in a public place outside the home more often than women
• For both male and female victims of physical assault, the most common location for the assault was in a residential setting.
• ¾ of physical assaults against women and 42% of assaults against men occurred in a residential setting.
• 29% of male victims were assaulted in a public place (parking lot, a transit bus/bus shelter or in the street), while this was the case for a smaller proportion of female victims (13%).
Women more often physically assaulted by a spouse, and men by a stranger
• Female victims of physical assault were more often victimized by someone with whom they had a current or former intimate relationship.
• 29% of women physically assaulted in 2008 had been victimized by a current or former spouse versus 7% of male victims.
• 22% of female victims were physically assaulted by someone they were currently dating or had formerly dated vs. 5% of male victims.
• Male victims were most often physically assaulted by a stranger (32%) or by someone else outside of the family (29%), such as a friend, acquaintance or business partner.
• Overall, there was a female victim in 81% of physical assaults committed by a spouse, while males accounted for about the same proportion of physical assaults committed by a stranger.
Sexual Assault
• Using data from the 1999 and 2004 General Social Surveys (GSS) on victimization and police-­‐reported data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) and the incident-­‐based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2), Brennan and Taylor-­‐Butts (2008) examine the prevalence and nature of sexual assault in Canada.
TRENDS IN SEXUAL OFFENCES
Fewer than one in ten sexual assault victims report crime to police (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008)
• Of the three types of violent offences recorded by the GSS, sexual assault was the least likely to be reported to the police: Less than one in ten incidents of sexual assault were reported to the police, compared to 47% of robbery and 40% of physical assault.
• According to the 2004 GSS, just 8% of sexual assault victims reported the crime to the police (Johnson, 2006).
• Incidents of sexual touching were less likely to be reported to police than incidents of sexual attack, with 94% incidents of sexual touching going unreported versus 78% of sexual attacks.
• Victims of both forms of sexual assault generally had similar reasons for not reporting the incident to the police: They felt it was not important enough (58%); the incident was dealt with in another way (54%); they felt that it was a personal matter (47%); or they did not want to get involved with the police (41%).
• However, a significant difference was found between the proportion of sexual assault victims (47%) and those experiencing other forms of violent crime (39%) who indicated that they did not involve the police because they felt the incident was a personal matter.
• Sexual assaults go unreported to police more often than other types of violent offences, regardless of whether the victim is female or male (Valliancourt, 2010).
Police-­‐reported data show lower sexual assault rates compared to victimization data (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008)
• Police-­‐reported data show that in 2007, an estimated 24,200 sexual offences were brought to the attention of police, accounting for 8% of all police-­‐
reported violent crime in 2007.
• Police-­‐reported data over the past 25 years indicate that rates of sexual offences have fluctuated, rising notably for about the first decade, and then declining steadily thereafter.
• After the amendments to the Criminal Code in 1983, there was a steady rise in the overall rate of police-­‐reported sexual offences, which continued until 1993.
• During this time, rates for police-­‐reported sexual offences nearly doubled.
• After peaking in 1993, the overall rate for police-­‐reported sexual offences declined, paralleling the downward trend for violent offences in general (Kong et al., 2003 cited in Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008).
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This trend was largely influenced by level 1 sexual assaults (the category with the least physical injury to the victim), as they account for the majority (90%) of sexual offence incidents reported to the police (Johnson, 2006).
Compared to level 1 sexual assault rates, rates for level 2 and level 3 sexual assaults, as well as other sexual offences were relatively stable throughout the period from 1983 to 2007.
Police reported rates of levels II and III sexual assault have declined significantly since the legal reform in 1983 that abolished the crime of rape (Valliancourt, 2010).
The amendments to the Criminal Code in 1983 along with other social changes contributed to the increase in the rate of police-­‐reported sexual offences.
The social changes include: Social, economic and political status of women; a heightened focus on victims of crime and a growth in victim’s services such as sexual assault centres; as well as special training of police officers and hospitals staff to respond to victims of sexual assault and gather evidence to be used at trial Roberts and (Gebotys, 1992; Roberts and Grossman, 1994; Department of Justice, 1985; Clark and Hepworth, 1994; Kong et al., 2003 cited in Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008).
Rates of sexual assault reported to the police vary across provinces and territories (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008)
• According to police-­‐reported data, in 2007, Saskatchewan and Manitoba had the highest rates, while Ontario and PEI had the lowest.
• Total sexual offence rates for Quebec, and Alberta were also below the national average.
• Overall, rates of sexual offences were highest in Nunavut, followed by NWT and Yukon.
• Like the overall pattern for rates of all sexual offences combined, level 1 sexual assault rates were highest in SK and lowest in PEI.
• Rates of sexual assault with a weapon (level 2) and aggravated sexual assault (level 3) were relatively low across all provinces, while rates for other sexual offences ranged from lowest in Ontario to highest in NB.
• Possible explanations for the disparity in police-­‐reported sexual assault rates among the provinces and territories include: variations in public attitudes towards sexual assault which may influence reporting among victims, differences in age demographics, the availability of victim services in the area, or police training (Kong et al., 2003 cited in Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008).
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSE TO SEXUAL OFFENCES
Sexual offence less likely than other violent crimes to be cleared by police (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2010)
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In 2007, charges were laid in over a third of sexual offences reported to police compared to almost half of other types of violent crime.
Conviction rates lower but custodial sentences more likely for sexual offences versus other violent crimes tried in adult courts (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008)
• In adult courts, sexual offences are less likely than other violent crime types to result in a finding of guilt.
• However, those found guilty of sexual offences in adult court are more likely to receive custodial sentences compared to those found guilty of other violent crimes.
• For example, in 2006/2007, prison terms were issued in more than half of adult-­‐court convictions for sexual offences, compared to less than a third of convictions for other types of violent offences.
• Unlike in adult courts, conviction rates for sexual offence cases in youth courts were higher compared to cases involving other types of violent crimes.
• In addition, sexual offenders sentenced in youth courts were less likely than other violent offenders to receive a custodial sentence.
• The differences in conviction and sentencing patterns between adults and youth can be partly explained by the fact that adults in general tend to be charged with more serious types of sexual offences which carry more serious penalties.
THE NATURE OF SEXUAL OFFENCES (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008)
• Both victimization and police-­‐reported data indicate that less severe forms of sexual assault are most common.
• According to the 2004 GSS, 81% of self-­‐reported sexual assault incidents took the form of unwanted sexual touching while sexual attacks accounted for 19% of the incidents.
• Police also report that least serious types of sexual assault (level 1) comprise the majority of sexual offences (86%), while the more serious forms of sexual assault and other sexual offences (invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation) made up the remaining 14%.
• The percentage of women who reported being sexually assaulted in the previous 12-­‐month period was 3% in both 1999 and 2004 (Johnson, 2006).
Females and young people experience higher rates of sexual assault (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008)
• Both police and victimization data indicate that rates of sexual victimization are higher among females, regardless of the type of sexual assault experienced.
• The 2004 GSS show that sexual victimization rates for females were almost 5 times the rate for males.
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Police-­‐reported data for 2007 indicate that female rates of sexual victimization were 5.6 times higher than male rates.
In 2007, female victimization rates for levels 1 and 2 sexual assault were each about 6 times higher than the rates for males.
Aggravated sexual assault (level 3) rates were 4 times greater for women versus men, and for other sexual offences, the rate for females was about 3 times higher than the rate for males.
Both victimization surveys and police-­‐reported data indicate that age is a risk factor for sexual victimization.
According the 2004 GSS, the rate of sexual assault for Canadians aged 15 to 24 was almost 18 times greater than the rate recorded for Canadians aged 55 years and older.
Police reported data show that in 2007, 58% of sexual assault victims were under the age of 18, with children under 12 accounting for 25%; 81% of these young victims were female.
Nearly all young victims, regardless of sex, experienced a level 1 sexual assault (82%) or a crime recorded under the category of “other sexual offences” (17%).
Higher rates of sexual assault were also reported to victimization surveys by students and those who frequently engaged in evening activities, such as going out to restaurants, bars or the movies or visiting friends.
The 2004 GSS found that students had significantly higher rates of sexual assault in comparison to those whose main activity consisted of working and that those who participated in 30 or more evening activities per month had rates of sexual victimization that were 4.5 times higher than those who engaged in less than 10 evening activities in a month.
In 2008, the rate of police-­‐reported sexual assault against females was more than 10 times the rate for males, with females accounting for 92% of sexual assault victims in Canada (Valliancourt, 2010).
Overall rates of sexual assaults for female victims are significantly greater than males across each age group.
Accused most likely to be male, young, and known to victims (Brennan & Taylor-­‐
Butts, 2008)
• According to 2007 police-­‐reported data, 97% of persons accused of sexual offences were male, higher than the representation of males among persons accused of all other types of violent crime (78%).
• Rates of sexual offending were highest among persons aged 12 to 17, followed by 18 to 34 year olds, and 35 to 44 year olds.
• 55% of the sexual assaults reported to the GSS in 2004 involved an offender who was a friend or acquaintance of the victim, with stranger assaults accounting for 35% of incidents.
• In police-­‐reported data for 2007, where the relationship between the victim and accused could be determined, show that the victim and accused were •
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known to each other in 82% of the sexual assault incidents, and in 18% of incidents, the accused was a stranger to the victim.
Police-­‐reported data indicate that the accused was a family member in 31% of sexual offences that came to the attention of law enforcement in 2007, with extended family members (10%), the victim’s parents (10%), or some other immediate family member (7%), current/former spouses (4%) identified as the accused most frequently.
28% of police-­‐reported sexual assaults involved offenders who were casual acquaintances; friends (8%); current/former boyfriends/girlfriends (5%), and business acquaintances (4%) of the victims.
Important note: The GSS data on sexual assaults exclude incidents involving spouses.
In 47% of police reported sexual assaults against men and 44% of police-­‐
reported sexual assaults against women, the accused was known to the victim (e.g., friend, acquaintance, or current/former dating partner but not a family member (Valliancourt, 2010).
Strangers were the perpetrators in 19% of police-­‐reported sexual assaults committed against men 24% of police-­‐reported sexual assaults against women.
There were notable gender differences in the relationship between the victim and the accused in cases of sexual assaults brought to the attention of police.
Women were more likely than men to have been sexually assaulted by a current or former spouse.
In 2008, the accused was a current or former spouse in 8% of police-­‐
reported sexual assaults against females compared to 1% of sexual assaults where the victim was a male.
A current or former dating partner was identified as the accused more often in sexual assaults against women (7%) compared to men (1%).
Male victims of sexual assault were more often victimized by family members other than spouses or ex-­‐spouses and by friends and acquaintances, in comparison to female sexual assault victims.
More serious sexual offences most likely to occur in private residences (Brennan & Taylor-­‐Butts, 2008)
• According to the 2004 GSS, 51% of sexual assault incidents occurred in a commercial or institutional establishment, followed by a residence or surrounding location (31%), a street or other public place (12%), or in another location (6%).
• 56% of sexual attacks occurred in and around a residence; 57% of incidents of unwanted sexual touching occurred in a commercial establishment.
• Police-­‐reported data indicate that 68% of aggravated sexual assaults occurred in or around a residence, compared to 65% of the less serious offence, level 1 sexual assault.
Higher proportion of sexual assaults against male victims occur in institutional settings (Valliancourt, 2010)
• Sexual assaults most often occurred in residential settings. • Nearly 2 out of 3 (59%) sexual assaults against females and 48% of sexual assault against males occurred in a private.
• For male victims of sexual assault, the proportion of those victimized in an institutional setting (16%) (e.g., a school, university or college or other non-­‐
commercial or corporate place) was more than 2.5 times greater than the proportion of females sexually assaulted in this type of setting .
More than one-­‐quarter of female victims of sexual assault suffered a physical injury (Valliancourt, 2010)
• Regardless of whether the victim was male or female, physical force was used against the victim in 95% of sexual assaults.
• While 60% of police-­‐reported sexual assaults against females did not result in a physical injury, 24% resulted in minor physical injuries requiring some first aid but no professional medical treatment.
Criminal Harassment
• In 2004, ¾ of incidents of criminal harassment reported to the police were directed at female victims (Johnson, 2006).
• In ½ of these incidents, women were stalked by a person with whom they had an intimate relationship.
• The most common situations involved male ex-­‐spouses (including former common-­‐law partners) and ex-­‐boyfriends.
• The number of male spouses and boy friends known to police for stalking has risen in recent years, including ex-­‐partners.
• 9% of persons 15 years of age and older reported having experienced at least one stalking incident in the 5-­‐year period prior to the survey.
• Rates were higher for women than for men: 11% compared with 7%.
• The majority of stalking victims were stalked by a male (80%).
• Stalkers were male in 80% of cases involving female victims and 73% of those involving male victims.
• Only 5% of all cases involved a female stalking a male.
• 21% of female victims were stalked by current for former or intimate partners (spouse or boyfriend / girlfriend) compared with 10% of male victims.
• Men were more likely to be stalked by other people known to them, such as neighbours, friends, co-­‐workers and people known by sight only.
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Not only do women report higher rates of stalking, they also report experiencing most of the specific stalking behaviours at a higher frequency -­‐ for example, they were more likely to be harassed with repeated telephone calls, repeated requests for a date, unwanted messages and gifts or letters, and were more likely to receive other forms of unwanted communication.
Women were also more likely to be followed and spied on, and to have stalkers waiting outside their homes, workplace or other locations.
Men reported higher prevalence of two behaviours: intimidation or threats to a third party, and damage to pets or property.
The link between partner violence and stalking is confirmed by the GSS: ¾ of women who were stalked by an ex-­‐partner within the previous 5 years also had been physically or sexually assaulted by an ex-­‐partner.
Results of the GSS indicate that ex-­‐partners are more likely than other stalkers to intimidate or threaten their victims and more likely to grab or attack them. Although a high percentage of stalking victims in all relationship categories feared their lives were in danger, this increased to 60% for women who were stalked by former spouses.
Other Violent Offences (Valliancourt, 2010)
Men more often the victims of robberies, while women more likely to be victims of criminal harassment
• Police-­‐reported data a indicate that notable gender differences exist among other categories of violent crime such as robbery, criminal harassment and uttering threats.
• According to police-­‐reported rates, women were the victims of robbery about half as often as men, but were almost 3 times more likely to suffer criminal harassment.
• In 2008, while males accounted for 65% of robbery victims, females were victims in 73% of criminal harassment crimes.
• While rates for uttering threats were more similar for men and women, there were some differences between the sexes in terms of who was identified as the perpetrator: Similar to patterns seen among physical and sexual assaults, female victims of criminal threats were more often victimized by a spouse or dating partner than were male victims. • The proportion of females (18%) threatened by a spouse or ex-­‐spouse was 6 times higher compared to their male counterparts (3%).
• The proportion of female victims threatened by a current or former dating partner (12%) was also about 6 times higher than for male victims (2%) of uttering threat offences.
• Males (24%) were about twice as likely as females (12%) to be threatened by a stranger.
Female Victims of Homicide
Female victims of homicide were often killed by a spouse
Canada’s Homicide Survey Data, 2004 -­‐ 2008 (Valliancourt, 2010)
• From 2004 to 2008, homicides accounted for less than 1% of all violent crimes reported to police in Canada.
• Adult males were more likely than adult females to be a homicide victim, accounting for 74% of victims of homicide during this 5-­‐year period.
• Compared to men, women were more often killed by a current or former spouse (38% of female homicides vs. 4% of male homicides) and were at greater risk of being the victim of a spousal homicide.
• From 2004 to 2008, females accounted for more than ¾ of spousal homicide victims.
• 28% of female homicide victims were killed by a current spouse, compared to 3% of male victims, and another 10% of female homicides were perpetrated by an ex-­‐spouse (vs. 1% of male homicide victims). • Females were also more often killed by an intimate partner such as a boyfriend or girlfriend (8%) than male homicide victims (2%).
• About 18% of female homicide victims were killed by a friend or acquaintance and 5% were killed by a stranger.
• Men, in comparison, were much more likely to be killed by someone other than a spouse.
• In 4 in 10 homicides involving male victims, the accused was either a friend or an acquaintance and in 15% of male homicides the accused was a stranger.
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According to Statistics Canada’s Homicide Survey data for 1991 to 2009, overall rates of homicide against females were approximately half those of men (Mahoney, 2011).
Females are most likely to be killed by a spouse or other intimate partner.
In 2009, the likelihood of being killed by a spouse remained more than double for females than for males.
In 2009, females accounted for 71% of victims of homicides perpetrated by a current spouse, 88% by a former spouse, and 78% involving other intimate partners.
Women continue to be about 3 times more likely to be victims of spousal homicide than men (Beattie & Cotter, 2010).
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In 2009, 49 women and 15 men were killed by a current or former spouse (excludes one same-­‐sex spousal victim).
Men were more likely to be killed by a common-­‐law spouse, while women were more often killed by a legally-­‐married spouse.
Women also continue to be at greater risk than men of being killed by an ex-­‐
spouse.
In 2009, 14 of 49 female spousal victims were killed by a separated or divorced spouse, compared to 2 of 15 male spousal victims.
In addition to the 65 spousal homicides, there were 23 homicides committed by a current or former boyfriend/girlfriend or intimate partner in 2009, 4 fewer than the previous year -­‐ the majority of these victims (78%) were female.
Females represent a smaller proportion of persons killed by other family members (37%), strangers (17%), and acquaintances (9%) (Mahoney, 2011).
Female victims also accounted for 19% of unresolved homicides in 2009.
Homicides with male victims more likely to involve firearms and gangs
• Between 2004 and 2008, weapons were involved in a majority of male homicides (84%) and in a substantial proportion (72%) of female homicides.
• While firearms were more commonly used than other weapons in homicides, they were more likely used against male versus female homicide victims.
• 38% of male victims of homicide were killed with a firearm, compared to 20% of female homicide victims.
• From 2004 to 2008, more men were killed using a firearm than women by any other method.
• Female victims, on the other hand, were more likely than male victims to have a “other weapon” used against them.
• Female homicide victims were 3 times more likely than males to have been killed by explosives, motor vehicle, fire, or any devised used to poison (12% vs. 4%).
• A larger proportion of female homicide victims (18%) were killed as a result of physical force compared to male victims (13%).
• Homicides involving gang-­‐related activity were also more common among male victims compared with female victims.
• From 2004 to 2008, 24% of homicides involving a male victim were either gang-­‐related or suspected of being gang-­‐related, compared with 3% of female homicides.
Motives surrounding a homicide vary according to the sex of the victim (Valliancourt, 2010)
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While the apparent motive for homicide was more commonly an argument or quarrel, regardless of the victim’s sex, there were some gender-­‐based variations.
For example, compared to male victims, female victims were about 3 times as likely to be killed out of frustration, anger, despair (21%), and nearly 4 times as likely to be the victim of a homicide motivated by jealousy (12%) or sexual violence (4%).
In contrast, a settling-­‐of-­‐account (drug or gang-­‐related) (20%) was the apparent motive in nearly one-­‐fifth of male homicides compared to 3% of female homicides.
Male homicide victims (7%) were about twice as likely to be killed out of revenge as female victims (3%).
Nature of Female Homicide
• In 41% of spousal killings of men in which the police had the requisite information, the police determined that the male victim initiated the violence whereas the victim initiated the violence in only 5% of spousal killings of women (Johnson and Hotton, 2003 cited in Johnson, 2006).
• Statistics Canada’s Homicide Survey reports indicated that with respect to initial charges laid, women accused of homicide against intimate partners were more likely than men to be charged with second degree murder and manslaughter while men were more likely to be charged with first degree murder.
• In a majority of spousal homicides, there is a history of violence between the victim and the accused person.
• Between 1991 to 2004, there was a history of domestic violence in 59% of homicides against women by their male partners and 70% of homicides against men by their female partners.
• History of violence was less common for legally married women and men and higher for those in common-­‐law, separated and divorced relationships.
• The Homicide Survey does not specify who the perpetrator and the victim of the violence that preceded the homicide. It only indicates that there was a known history of domestic violence in the relationship.
Rates vary across provinces and territories
• In 2009, spousal homicide rates were lowest in Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI, NS and the Yukon.
• The highest rates were found in Nunavut, NWT, Manibota, SK and BC.
• Over the period from 1975 to 2004, rates of spousal homicide against women were lowest in Newfoundland and Labrador and PEI, while rates of spousal homicide against men were relatively low in NB and QC (Johnson, 2006).
• The highest rates for both men and women are shown in the Western provinces and the territories.
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In almost all provinces and territories, homicides of women outnumbered homicides of men by a ratio of 2 to 1. These provincial variations mirror overall rates of homicide and violence in the general population, which tends to be higher in the territories and the Western provinces.
Trends
Female Homicides:
• There has been a general decline in the rate of female homicide victims since the late 1960s (Beattie & Cotter, 2010).
• Rates of homicide have declined substantially over the past 30 years, particularly for females (Mahoney, 2011).
• There were 160 female homicide victims in 2009, 14 more than in 2008 (Beattie & Cotter, 2010).
• However, 2009 represented the second lowest proportion (26%) of female homicide victims since data were first collected.
• The rate for women decreased by 39% between 1991 and 2004 (Johnson, 2006).
• The rate for men decreased 59% during the same time period.
Spousal Homicides:
• Much of this decrease in homicides can be attributed to a drop in homicides perpetrated by spouses.
• Rates of spousal homicide against both female and male victims have fluctuated over the past 30 years but show a general overall decline (Johnson, 2006).
• The rate of spousal homicide has generally been declining since the mid-­‐
1970s (Beattie & Cotter, 2010).
• In 2009, there were 65 spousal homicides, 3 more than the previous year.
• Despite this increase, spousal homicide rates in 2007, 2008 and 2009 were the lowest reported since the mid 1960’s.
• There were four more female spousal homicide victims than in 2008 and two fewer male spousal homicide victims.
• There was also one more same-­‐sex spousal homicide than in 2008.
• The percentage of men who were charged with first degree murder in spousal killings has risen over the past 30 years from 24% in the period from 1975 to 1984 to 49% in the most recent decade.
• The percentage of women who were charged with first degree murder also rose from 16% to 25%.
Other victim-­‐offender relationships: • A decline in the homicide rate was also seen for other victim-­‐offender relationships, particularly among women (Mahoney, 2011).
• From 1991 to 2009, the rate of females killed by an acquaintance declined 73%, homicides perpetrated by other intimate partners declined 53%, and those perpetrated by strangers declined 39%.
References
Beattie, S. and Cotter, A. (2010). Homicide in Canada, 2009. Retrieved October 10, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-­‐002-­‐x/2010003/article/11352-­‐
eng.htm.
Brennan, S. (2011). Self-­‐reported spousal violence, 2009. Retrieved September 7, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-­‐224-­‐x/2010000/parts-­‐parties-­‐
eng.htm.
Brennan, S. and Taylor-­‐Butts, A. (2008). Sexual assault in Canada. Retrieved October 11, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85f0033m/85f0033m2008019-­‐
eng.htm.
Johnson, H. (2006). Measuring violence against women: Statistical trends. Retrieved October 9, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-­‐570-­‐x/85-­‐570-­‐
x2006001-­‐ eng.PDF.
Mahony, T.H. (2011). Women and the criminal justice system. Retrieved September 7, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-­‐503-­‐
x/2010001/article/11416-­‐ eng.htm.
Statistics Canada. (2011a). Women in Canada: A gender-­‐based statistical report. Retrieved September 7, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-­‐503-­‐x/89-­‐503-­‐
x2010001-­‐eng.htm.
Statistics Canada. (2011b). Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile. Retrieved September 7, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-­‐224-­‐x/85-­‐224-­‐
x2010000-­‐eng.htm.
Valliancourt, R. (2010). Gender differences in police-­‐reported violent crime in Canada, 2008. Retrieved October 10, 2011, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85f0033m/85f0033m2010024-­‐
eng.htm