Domestic Violence

 

The use of the word "violence" is inclusive of all misuse of power, be it verbal, emotional, spiritual, etc. Domestic Violence and other forms of abuse are behaviours used by one person in a relationship to control the other.

• Domestic violence occurs in families from all walks of life.
• The worst physical abuses usually occur in the most intimate relationships.
• Abuse tends to escalate, becoming increasingly more frequent and severe.
• Spousal abuse is a crime.

 

Statistics

• 51% of women in Canada have experienced at least one incidence of physical/sexual violence since the age of 16.
  (Based on information from the Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS) 1993 and reported in Assessing Violence Against Women: A Statistical Profile (Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women, 2002), page 10.)

• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the United States; more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined. ("Violence Against Women, A Majority Staff Report," Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 102nd Congress, October 1992, p.3)
• In both Canada and the U.S., women account for the majority of victims (85%) of spousal violence reported.
  (Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2002, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, 2002, www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/dec6/, and Intimate Partner Violence, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, May 2000.)
• In many cases of spousal violence reported in the five years prior to the 1999 General Social Survey, the violence or the threat of violence was so severe that almost four female victims in ten (38%) feared for their lives, while the rate for male victims was less than one in ten (7%).
  (Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2000, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada 2000)

 

Am I being abused?