NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE AND ACTION ON VIOLENCE

[HA]

NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE AND ACTION ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
December 6, 2004
Fact Sheet: Statistics On Violence Against Women In Canada

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HIGHLIGHTS - Women as victims of crime

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Half of Canadian women (51%) have been victims of at least one act of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. 1


Of all victims of crimes against the person in 2000*, females made up the vast majority of victims of sexual assaults (86%), criminal harassment (78%) and kidnapping/hostage-taking or abduction (67%). 2


Of all female victims of violent crimes in 2000*, 47% were victims of common assault, 9% of sexual assault, 9% of assault with a weapon causing bodily arm, 7% of robbery and 6% of criminal harassment. 2


Women are much more likely to be victimized by someone they know than by a stranger. In 2000*, 77% of all female victims were victimized by someone they know (37% by a close friend or an acquaintance, 29% by a current or past partner, 11% by other family members - including parents) while 19% were victimized by a stranger. 2
* The 2000 data are based on a non-representative sample of 166 police departments, representing only 53% of the national volume of reported crime.



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FEAR OF CRIME

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Women tend to be more fearful of being victims of crime than men. In the General Social Survey of 1999, nearly two-thirds (64%) of women reported feeling somewhat or very worried while waiting for or using public transportation alone after dark, more than double the proportion of 29% for men. About 29% of women reported being somewhat or very worried if they were home alone in the evening (compared to 12% of men) and 18% of women felt somewhat or very unsafe when walking alone in their area after dark (compared with 6% of men). 3

Information source and to continue with these statistics see Satus of Women in Canada
http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/dec6/facts_e.html

 

[Ash]

Thank you for posting that. I probably harp on this too much but it seems that as women we aren't as far along as one would like to believe.

 

[HA]

Ash,

I just happened on a display about vioence against women this morning. It is set up for this day of remembrance. I asked these women who work in the field if things have changed in the last 15, 10 or 5 yrs since the issues of violence and abuse have become topics in public for education.

Thier answer was that it has not changed at all. I was so disappointed and now a little more fearful.

Perhaps some psychology courses, in particular relationship classes, starting in elementary school would be an important solution.

 

[Ash]

I'm afraid things won't change for the best until women are honestly looked at as just as good as men. For all the "equal rights", a lot hasn't changed even in counties like Canada and the US. It makes me terribly angry that my daughter will have to grow up fighting for what by rights should be hers.

There are still too many countries where women are still seen as chattle, where they are raped and have no recourse, where they are married off against their will, or are condemned to death for having a baby outside of wedlock. It's 2004! We have to make things change. I almost hate bringing up a word like revolution but something must be done.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I wish we could finally get to a society where we aren't having anti "violence against women" campaigns but just antiviolence against ANYONE.

Without detracting at all from the serious and significant issue of violence against women, those are statistics from police reports. What is given less attention are statistics concerning domestic or intimate violence of women against men, men against men, and women against women. For one thing, men assaulted by women (physically or sexually) are far less likely to report it out of shame. The actual statistics, also from Statistics Canada, indicate that in fact men are assaulted by women in intimate relationships much MORE frequently than women are assaulted by men. On the other hand, when women are the victims, the assaults and injuries tend to be more severe and much more likely to be reported to the police.

What does this tell us? Well, add to it the alarming statistics on child abuse and it should tell us that our families are in trouble and that we need desperately to learn more about why that is happening and how to identify high risk families and intervene early.

 

[Cat Dancer]

The actual statistics, also from Statistics Canada, indicate that in fact men are assaulted by women in intimate relationships much MORE frequently than women are assaulted by men.

That's horrible. I did not know that. My husband is always telling me how much more evil women are than men.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

No. Women are not more evil. With some of the couples I see, maybe they are more frustrated -- a Venus and Mars thing maybe?

The point, to me, is that human beings as a species resort to violence far too quickly -- men and women alike.

But it's still a fact that women and children are seriously assaulted more often then men are seriously assaulted -- that may be because men on average are bigger and stronger or it may mean something else.

 

[HA]

I wish we could finally get to a society where we aren't having anti "violence against women" campaigns but just antiviolence against ANYONE.

Yea, I do believe an Anti-violence campaign would be beneficial but I also feel that if we discontinued violence against women campaigns it would diminish the help that women receive. If it is fact that violence and women campaigns are not decreasing the incidence of violence towards women then at least we know they are receiving help. If the incidence cannot be reduced then damage control would be the best approach.

So these stats are just police reports and not actual cases of acts of violence? It would be very disappointing if our government was not using the best methods of data collection and interpretation for accuracy!

I struggle with the issue of violence where severe and persistent mental illness is concerned and those who are Not Criminally Responsible (NCR). Finding facts and hoping to bring it to light in a venue and such a way as to help towards our understanding of what, why and how to prevent it is not an easy task.

This actual national day of remembrance and campaign began just a few years ago with the killing of 6(?) women engineering students at a university in Montreal. I have not read details about the case but I do believe the man who killed these women had a psychotic illness. So was it an issue of violence against women or was it something other than that and if so, what a shame that the act is used for something it was not.

How we define violence is a consideration.

We seemed to believe that boys were the only aggressive creatures but now know that girls are just as aggressive but in a different way. While boys may use physical aggression girls use emotional and psychological aggression by exclusion from groups for example.

I can see where men being *abused* would go unreported and did not know that women are physically aggressive to men more often. Wow.

We do need balance when dealing with these issues, that's for sure, and to exclude any form of violence would not be the answer. It would be interesting to look at violence in all cultures and compare the findings.

If anything, addressing the issue on a societal level rather than leaving it to the privacy of families to deal with should have a postive impact.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

HeartArt, I am certainly NOT suggesting that we should be giving less prominence to violence against women -- I was basically (1) just sighing out loud about how much violence there is in general in our world, and (2) pointing out that part of the fight against violence against women should, I think, include consciousness raising about family and intimiate violence of all kinds -- one needn't hijack the violence against women campaign to do that, though -- running parallel campaigns to highlight other intimate violence scenarios would accomplish the mission.