Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] Battered Mothers Rights - A Human Rights Issue.

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New 2009 StatCan Family Violence Report: Women and Children are the Big Losers at the Hands of Husbands and Fathers

Filed under: Activism, Best interest of the child,Canada, Child Abuse, Child Custody, Child Custody Battle, Child Custody Issues, Child Custody for mothers, Child Rape, Child custody for fathers, Children and Domestic Violence,Children who witness abuse, Children's rights,Domestic Abuse, Domestic Violence, Familicide,Family Court Reform, Family Courts, Family Rights, Fathers who murder their children,Fathers who rape their children, Husbands who murder wives, Violence against women — justice4mothers @ 5:33 pm

Study well Barbara Kay, Mike Murphy and Arun Sehgal…this is from your government and matches pretty well with United States and Australian data.  Nothing here in this report or on this site denies that domestic violence happens to men also, but women and children are far more impacted.  Wake up to the reality of it…instead of damning women for it. The whole report can be seen at the StatCan sitehere.  These are this years highlights:

This is the twelfth annual Family Violence in Canada report produced by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics under the Federal Family Violence Initiative. This annual report provides the most current data on the nature and extent of family violence in Canada, as well as trends over time, as part of the ongoing initiative to inform policy makers and the public about family violence issues.

Each year the report has a different focus. This year, the focus of the report is a profile of shelters that provide residential services to women and children fleeing abusive situations. Data for this profile come from the Transition Home Survey, a biennial census of residential facilities for female victims of family violence in Canada.

In addition, using police-reported data, the report also presents fact sheets, data tables and figures examining spousal violence, family violence against children and youth, family violence against seniors (aged 65 years and older), and family-related homicides.

Police-reported spousal violence in Canada

1. In 2007, nearly 40,200 incidents of spousal violence (i.e., violence against legally married, common-law, separated and divorced partners) were reported to police. This represents about 12% of all police-reported violent crime in Canada.
2. Police-reported spousal violence has steadily declined over the past 10 years, decreasing 15% between 1998 and 2007.
3. The majority of victims of spousal violence continue to be females, accounting for 83% of victims.
4. Spousal violence is twice as common between current partners (legally married or common-law) as ex-partners.
5. Accounting for nearly two-thirds of offences, common assault was the most frequent type of spousal violence according to police-reported data, followed by major assault, uttering threats and criminal harassment or stalking.
6. Police laid charges in more than three-quarters of spousal violence incidents reported in 2007. Incidents involving female victims were more likely to result in charges being laid than those involving male victims.

Police-reported family violence against children and youth

1. Police-reported data for 2007 indicate that children and youth under the age of 18 were most likely to be physically or sexually assaulted by someone they know (85% of incidents).
2. Nearly 53,400 children and youth were the victims of a police-reported assault in 2007, with about 3 in 10 incidents of assaults against children and youth perpetrated by a family member.
3. When children and youth were victims of family violence, a parent was identified as the abuser in nearly 6 in 10 incidents.
4. Girls under the age of 18 reported higher rates of both physical and sexual assault by a family member than boys. In 2007, the rate of family-perpetrated sexual assault was more than 4 times higher for girls than for boys.
5. Male family members were identified as the accused in a sizable majority of family-related sexual (96%) and physical assaults (71%) against children and youth.

Family homicides

Spousal homicides

1. Rates of spousal homicide, which involve persons in legal marriages, those who are separated or divorced from such unions, and those in common-law relationships, declined over the 3 decades from 1978 to 2007. In 2007, the spousal homicide rate of 4 per million spouses was the lowest in over 30 years.
2. Women continue to be more likely than men to be victims of spousal homicide. In 2007, almost 4 times as many women were killed by a current or former spouse as men.
3. During the most recent decade, between 1998 and 2007, about 41% of spousal homicides involved common-law partners and more than one-third involved legally married persons.
4. Spousal homicide rates were highest for persons in the 15 to 24 year-old age group.

Family homicides against children and youth

1. Homicides of children and youth (under the age of 18) represented about 9% of all homicides in 2007. Most child and youth homicide victims were killed by someone they knew. In 2007, 41% of child and youth homicides were committed by a family member, 27% by someone known to the victim but other than a family member, 20% by strangers and the remaining 13% of child and youth homicides were unsolved.
2. Parents were the perpetrators in the majority of child and youth homicides committed by family members. Fathers (54%) were more likely than mothers (34%) to be the perpetrators.
3. Infants under the age of one experienced higher rates of family homicide compared to older children. From 1998 to 2007, baby boys (35 per million population) had somewhat higher rates than baby girls (27 per million population).
4. In family homicides of infants, half of victims (51%) were killed by their mother and 47% by their father, whereas in family homicides of older children fathers were the most likely perpetrators.

Family homicides against older adults

1. The overall homicide rate was lower among adults aged 65 years and older (9 per million population) compared to persons under 65 years of age (23 per million population). However, rates of family-perpetrated homicide for seniors (3.8 per million population) and non-seniors (4.5 per million population) were comparable.
2. Senior female victims killed by a family member were most commonly killed by their spouse (40%) or adult son (36%). In nearly two-thirds of family homicides of senior men, an adult son was the accused killer.
3. Most often, frustration, anger or despair was the apparent motive for family-perpetrated homicides against seniors. In contrast, financial gain was the most commonly identified reason behind senior homicides committed by non-family members.

As a final note, domestic violence against anyone is just WRONG.