Violence against Women & Children in Canada

Let’s Learn Some facts about Violence against Women & Children in Canada.

Here are some of their overall statistics by the Canadian Women’s Foundation 

• Every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
• On any given night in Canada, over 6000 women and children sleep in shelters because it isn’t safe for them at home
• Each year, over 40,000 arrests result from domestic violence—that’s about 12% of all violent crime in Canada. Since only 22% of all incidents are reported to the police, the real number is much higher.
• In addition to sexism, there are many other forms of society inequality that compound abuse and violence, including racism, homophobia, classism, ageism, and religious persecution. Women who experience multiple forms of oppression are even more vulnerable to violence.
• Domestic violence carries over into the workplace, threatening women’s ability to maintain economic independence. More than half (53%) of respondents who had experienced domestic violence said that at least one type of abusive at happened at or near their workplace. Almost 40% of those who had experienced domestic abuse said it made it difficult to get to work, and 8.5% said they lost their jobs because of it.
• Women are at greater risk of experiencing elder abuse from a family member, accounting for 60% of senior survivors of family violence.
• Cyber violence, which includes online threats, harassment, and stalking, has emerged as an extension of violence against women. Young women (age 18-24) are most likely to experience online harassment in its most severe forms, including stalking, sexual harassment and physical threats.
• Although research shows links between alcohol consumption and domestic violence, there is disagreement about whether alcohol can be considered a cause of violence. When it comes to use of alcohol, there is often a double standard: while alcohol consumption by an offender may be used to excuse their behaviour, victims who have been drinking are often blamed for their own victimization.
• Indigenous women are killed at six times the rate of non-Indigenous women. As of 2010, there were 582 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada, but it is believed to actually be much higher. Both Amnesty International and the United Nations have called upon the Canadian government to take action on this issue, without success.
• Newly immigrated women may be more vulnerable to domestic violence due to economic dependence, language barriers, and a lack of knowledge about community resources. Newcomers who arrive in Canada, traumatized by war or oppressive governments, are much less likely to report physical or sexual violence to the authorities, for fear of further victimization or even deportation.
• Women who identified as lesbian or bisexual were three to four times more likely than heterosexual women to report experiencing spousal violence. Studies show that when women of colour report violence, their experiences are taken less seriously within the criminal justice system.
• Women living with physical and cognitive impairments experience violence two to three times more often than women living without impairments. 60% of women with a disability experience some form of violence.
• Domestic violence increases during times of crises, and national GBV rates increase following natural disasters like floors, wildfires, and hurricanes.
• In just one year in Canada, 427,000 women over the age of 15 reported they had been sexually assaulted. Since only about 10% of all sexual assaults are reported to the police, the actual number is much higher.
• Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
• About 80% of sex trafficking victims in Canada are women and girls.
• 67% of Canadians know a woman who has experienced physical or sexual abuse.
• More than one in ten Canadian women say they have been stalked by someone in a way that made them fear for their life.
• Violence against women costs taxpayers and the government billions of dollars every year: Canadians collectively spend $7.4 billion to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence alone.