Face the Facts

Facts about Victims

• Male on female violence accounted for 46.5% of all crime in Canada in 2000. 37.8% of violent crime was male on male violence. 8.1% was female on female violence. 7.6% was female on male violence. (Canadian crime statistics)
• The risk fo sexual abuse for persons with disabilities is at least 150% of that for individuals of the same sex and similar age without disabilities. (Disabled Women's Network, Ontario)
• Between 1997 and 2000, homicide rate of Aboriginal females were almost 7 times higher than non-aboriginal females. ( Native Women's Assoc. of Canada, 2010)
• Women accounted for 8 in 10 dating violence victims in 2008. About 57% of incidents reported involved a former partner, (Stacan, 2010)
• Approximately 10% of male victims and 1% of female victims were harmed by a same-sex partner. (Statcan, 2009)

Facts about offenders

• Of the 10,121 incidents of spousal abuse reported in B.c. in 2000, 78.2% of the accused were male. 12.9% of the accused were female. 8.9% of reports involved both spouses assaulting each other. (Crime summary statistics for B.C.)
• Female family members were accused in 29% of cases involving physical assault on children or youth in the family. (Statcan, 2007)
• Male family members were accused in 96% of cases involving sexual assault within the family. (Satcan, 2007)

The numbers are alarming.

• Women continue to be the most likely victims of police reported domestic violence, accounting for 83% of victims compared to 17% to men. In the Comox Valley women are the victims in 97% of Domestic Violence calls.
• 51% of women in Canada have experienced at least one incidence of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
• 40% of women with disabilities have been assaulted, raped or abused.
• A sexual assault can have serious health implications for women, both physically and emotionally. In 9 out of 10 sexual assaults, women report feeling anger, fear, being more cautious and less trusting. 30% of sexually assaulted women contemplate suicide.
• 61% of rape victims are under the age of 18, and one third of them reported being victimized by someone they dated.
• More than one third of women who work outside the home have been sexually harassed on the job, and almost one half of female students at Canadian universities report having been sexually harassed on campus.
• 21% of abused women are assaulted during pregnancy.
• Almost 40% of women assaulted by spouses said their children witnessed the violence against them, and in many cases the violence was severe.
• Aboriginal women are three times more likely to experience spousal violence than non-Aboriginal women.
• 36% of female victims of spousal violence and less than 10% of victims of sexual assault reported these crimes to the police.
• 1 in 5 homicides in Canada involves the killing of an intimate partner.
• In 50% of all ex-partner homicides against women, the woman was killed within two months of leaving the relationship. 
• Spousal violence is twice as common among homosexual couples compared to heterosexual couples.

These facts are taken from Statistics Canada's Measuring Violence Against Women: Statistical Trends 2006.