Keep in mind that most victims don’t call the police and that because definitions of abuse are tricky, statistics don’t necessarily represent the range of domestic violence that is possible.  Still, some notable stats include:

  • Approx. 653,000 Canadian women (15+) would have reported at least one incident of domestic violence between 1999-2004 – 34% of those women feared for their lives at one point2
  • 2007: almost 40,200 cases of domestic violence were reported to police (accounts for approx. 12% of all crimes reported to police in Canada)
  • 2007: majority of victims continue to be female (83% of victims)
  • 2007: Common assaults are the most frequent type of domestic violence reported to police, followed by major assaults, then uttering threats and criminal harassment or stalking3
  • Between 2002-2007, there were 230 domestic violence deaths in Ontario (of which, 142 were women, 23 children, and 65 men – though the “majority of male deaths were suicides by the perpetrator”)4

 

1Unless otherwise noted, the below information has been adapted from Linda Baker and Allison Cunningham’s Professor’s Resource Guide to Teaching about Woman Abuse and Its Effects on Children (2005), Learning to Listen, Learning to Help: Understanding Woman Abuse and Its Effects on Children (2005), and Little Eyes, Little Ears: How Violence Against a Mother Shapes Children as They Grow (2007).

2Source: General Social Survey on Victimization, Statistics Canada, 2005.

3Source: Statistics Canada.  Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile. 2009

4Source: Sixth Annual Report of the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee.  Office of the Chief Coroner, Province of Ontario: 2008.

5Permission to reproduce this diagram is provided by the Queen’s Printer for Manitoba.  The Queen’s Printer does not warrant the accuracy or currency of the reproduction of this information.

6The above notes on the cycle of violence have been adapted from publication “The Cycle of Violence and How to Break It,” published by the Manitoba Department of Justice’s Victim Services Branch.

7Source: Domestic Violence Death Review Committee.

8Source: adapted from the London Abused Women’s Centre website, available at http://www.lawc.on.ca/ResourceWhyWomenStay.htm

9Source: Domestic Violence Death Review Committee.