December 6, 1999
http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/

HIGHLIGHTS

Fact! A higher proportion of women than men are victims of crimes against persons, especially sexual assault, robbery, attempted robbery and assault.¹

Fact! Half of Canadian women (51%) have been victims of at least one act of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.⁴


SEXUAL ASSAULT

Fact! In 1998*, over 28,952 cases of sexual offence were reported in Canada, including 25,493 sexual assaults and 3,459 other types of sexual offence (such as sexual touching, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, incest, sodomy and bestiality). Women made up the vast majority of victims of sexual assault (85%) and other types of sexual offence (75%).³

* 169 police forces in 6 provinces participated in the Revised Uniform Crime Reporting Survey in 1998, covering only 46% of crimes at the national level.

Age of victims
Fact! In 1998, the majority (56%) of female victims of sexual assault in cases reported to the 169 police forces that participated in the survey were under age 18 (25% were under age 12 and 31% were from 12 to 17 years old). Adult women aged 18 and over accounted for 44% of the victims.³

With regard to other types of sexual offence, 50% of female victims were under age 12, 36% were from 12 to 17 years old, and 14% were adults.³

Relation to offender
Fact! In 1998, 33% of female victims of sexual assault aged 18 and over were assaulted by a friend or a casual acquaintance, 26% by a stranger and 25% by a family member (including a spouse or ex-spouse). As for girls aged 12 and under, sexual assault was committed by a family member in 44% of cases and by a casual acquaintance in 35% of cases.³


SPOUSAL VIOLENCE

Fact! Over 22,254 cases of spousal violence were reported in 1997*. Women accounted for 88% of the victims (19,575) and men for 12% (2,679). Women were 8 times more likely than men to be assaulted by a spouse. ⁵
* 179 police forces in 6 provinces participated in the Revised Uniform Crime Reporting Survey in 1997, covering only 48% of crimes at the national level.

Relation to offender
Fact! Of all reported cases of spousal violence against women in 1997, 70% were committed by a current spouse (married or common-law spouse) and 30% by an ex-spouse.⁵

Fact! According to the 1993 Violence Against Women Survey, 24% of single women aged 18 to 24 reported having been victims of date rape, while the figure was 29% in the case of single women aged 25 to 34.⁵

Type of assault
Fact! Out of the 19,575 reported cases of spousal violence against women in 1997, 75% of the women were victims of assault, 13% suffered assault with a weapon or assault causing bodily harm and aggravated assault, 7% were victims of criminal harassment, and 5% suffered other types of violent offence, such as sexual assault, intentional firearm shooting, abduction, hostage-taking, robbery, extortion, homicide and attempted homicide, criminal negligence and other offences causing death.⁵

Number of incidents
Fact! Among women aged 18 and over in 1993, almost two out of three victims of assault by a current or former spouse had been assaulted on more than one occasion: 35% of the victims had been assaulted once, 22% from 2 to 5 times, 9% from 6 to 10 times, and 32% had been assaulted 11 times or more (the number of incidents was not determined in the case of 2% of victims).¹

Admission to shelters
Fact! In 1997-98, 90,792 persons (47,962 women and 42,830 children) were admitted to 413 shelters for abused women in Canada.⁶


HOMICIDE

Fact! Women made up one third of the victims in the 555 cases of homicide committed in 1998. Data on solved crimes (i.e., the 410 cases in which a person was accused) indicate that women were almost five times more likely to be killed by a spouse than by a stranger.⁷

Spousal homicide
Fact! In 1998, 57 of the 70 persons aged 18 and over who were killed by a spouse (or an ex-spouse) in Canada were women (a proportion of almost four out of five). Forty-six of the women victims were killed by a current spouse (married or common-law spouse) and 11 by an ex-spouse (after separation or divorce).⁷

Fact! Young women are most at risk of being killed by their spouse. During the 1990s, the rate of spousal homicide where the victim was a woman under age 25 who was married, separated or living in a common-law relationship was 29 per one million couples. The rate of homicide per one million couples was 12 in the case of women aged 25 to 34, 8 in the case of women aged 45 to 54, and 6 in the case of women aged 55 and over.⁵

Fact! From 1978 to 1997, men who killed their spouses used a firearm in 40% of cases, a knife in 25% of cases, physical beating in 18% of cases, strangling (including drowning) in 13% of cases, and other methods (such as poisoning, smoke inhalation or burning) in 4% of cases.⁵

Sources

1. Statistics Canada (1995). Women in Canada: A Statistical Report. 3^rd ed., Ottawa: Housing, Family and Social Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, 180 p.
2. Statistics Canada (March 1999). "Sex Offenders," Juristat 19(3). Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, 16 p.
3. Tremblay, S. (July 1999). "Crime Statistics in Canada, 1998," Juristat 19(9). Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, 25 p.
4. Statistics Canada (1993). "The Violence Against Women Survey," The Daily. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 10 p.
5. Fitzgerald, R. (1999) Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, 51 p.
6. Trainor, C. (June 1999). "Canada's Shelters for Abused Women," Juristat 19(6). Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, 10 p.
7. Fedorowycz, O. (October 1999). "Homicide in Canada - 1998," Juristat 19(10). Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, 15 p.