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Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Children and youth as victims of violent crime

2003

Children and youth are over represented as victims of police reported sexual assaults. Although they represent only 21% of the population, 6 out of every 10 sexual assaults reported to police involved a child or youth.

They were also victims of 21% of physical assaults and 17% of other crimes involving violence or the threat of violence reported to police in 2003.

One-fifth of all violent crimes reported to a set of 122 police services in 2003 were committed against children and youth aged 17 and under, according to a new report on young people as victims of violent crime. These violent crimes include sexual and physical assaults as well as other incidents involving violence or the threat of violence such as robbery, uttering threats and extortion.

The report found that the risk of violent victimization for children and youth increases with age and that the perpetrators of violent crimes against children and youth change as children get older. The majority of physical and sexual assaults against children under the age of six were committed by a family member, most often a parent.

In contrast, older youth aged 14 to 17 were more likely to be assaulted by a peer or a stranger.

Police data showed that during the 2003 school year children aged 6 to 13 were at the greatest risk of physical assault during the four-hour period between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. About 4 out of every 10 physical assaults occurred during this interval.

In 2003, just under 28,000 physical assaults and over 9,000 sexual assaults against children and youth aged 17 and under were reported to the 122 police services in this study. The majority of these assaults were classified as common assault which do not include the use of a weapon or result in serious injury.

It should be noted that the 122 police services in this study represent 61% of the national volume of crime. As such, the data are not nationally representative.


Note to readers

This release is based on the Juristat: Children and youth as victims of violent crime, wich is available today. This report uses police-reported data to examine physical and sexual assaults and other violent crime against children and youth.

For the purposes of this release, data on characteristics of victims and accused persons, as well as the location and time of incidents, came from the 2003 Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2) that includes 122 police agencies representing 61% of Criminal Code incidents.

Trend analysis is based on the Trend Database of the UCR2 which is comprised of data collected between 1998 and 2003 from 71 police services representing 46% of the national volume of crime. These data are primarily from urban police departments and are not nationally representative.

In addition, national data from the Homicide Survey are included for the period between 1998 and 2003.


Victimization rates highest for older children

According to police reported data, in 2003, the risk of violent victimization for children and youth is highest for older children. Rates of victimization for both male and female children are under 500 per 100,000 population for children under 8 years of age. By age 14, rates are four fold higher at 2,000 per 100,000 for both male and female youth.

It is important to note that differences in rates based on police-reported data may to some extent reflect differences in detection and reporting behaviour. Research suggests young children are less likely to bring the offence to the attention of the police because of the lack of understanding of what constitutes abuse, dependence on the offender and unawareness of how or to whom to report the incident.

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Older youth more likely to be physically assaulted by someone outside the family

As children grow up, the number of people and places with which they come in contact widens. As a result, the location of the assaults and the people who commit them become more varied.

For example, 63% of physical assault victims under 6 years of age were assaulted by a family member, most often a parent. Only 18% of these youngest victims were physically assaulted by a close friend or acquaintance, 8% were physically assaulted by stranger, and for 11% of victims the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim was unknown.

In contrast, teenagers experienced a larger proportion of assaults committed by people outside the family circle. More than half of teenage victims between 14 and 17 were physically assaulted by a close friend, acquaintance or co-worker and over one-fifth were physically assaulted by a stranger, while 16% were physically assaulted by a family member.

Similarly, children under 11 years of age were more likely to be physically assaulted in a private dwelling (75% of victims under 6 and 45% of victims aged 6 to 10). As they get older, however, the proportion of physical assaults that occurred outside a home increased.

Close to one-third of victims aged 11 to 13 and 14 to 17 were physically assaulted on a street, in a parking lot or in an open area. A further one-quarter of victims aged 11 to 13 and one-fifth of victims aged 14 to 17 were physically assaulted at school. Less than one-third of victims aged 11 to 17 years were assaulted in a private dwelling.

Police data showed that during the 2003 school year, children aged 6 to 13 were at the greatest risk of physical assault during the four-hour period between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. About 4 out of every 10 physical assaults occurred during this interval.

While youth aged 14 to 17 years were more likely to be victims of physical assaults during the afternoon hours of noon to 4 p.m.

The time period at greatest risk of physical assault for school aged children and youth (6 to 17 years) during the school months was between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. — when many school aged children are on the way home from school and may be unsupervised.

Girls aged 11 to 17 are at highest risk of sexual assaults

Sexual assaults are largely crimes committed against children and young people.

Of the 15,000 sexual assaults reported by the 122 police services, 61% of victims were aged 17 and under. About four-fifths of these victims were girls, and more than two-thirds of these females were between 11 and 17 years old.

Younger victims were more likely to be sexually assaulted by a family member. Half of victims under the age of 6 were sexually assaulted by a family member, while this was the case for about 44% of victims aged 6 to 10, 28% of victims aged 11 to 13 and 20% of victims aged 14 to 17. Only 4% of victims under the age of 6 and about 10% of victims aged 6 to 13 were sexually assaulted by a stranger while this was the case for almost one-fifth of victims aged 14 to 17.

Older youth more at risk of robberies, extortion and threats

Older youth are more at risk of other crimes involving violence or the threat of violence, such as robbery, extortion and threats.

Teenagers aged 14 to 17 were victims in 17% of reported robberies, 14% of extortion cases, and 9% of uttering threat cases. Yet this age group represented only 5% of the population.

A family member was implicated in only 5% of these other crimes involving violence or the threat of violence against youth aged 14 to 17 in 2003. The majority of offenders were close friends, acquaintances or co-workers and strangers.

Homicides: Infants under one at highest risk

Infants under the age of one were at highest risk of homicides, according to national data on homicides collected between 1998 and 2003.

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During this six-year period, the average homicide rate for infants under the age of one was 25 for every million of population. This was about double the second highest rate of 14 for males aged 14 to 17.

During this six-year period, 401 children aged 17 and under were victims of homicide. Two-thirds of the 350 solved homicides against children and youth were committed by a family member. Over one-half of these were committed by the victim's father followed by the mother (32%) and other family members (9%).

Police data showed that the youngest victims, those under 6 years of age, were usually the victims of some form of physical force, such as strangulation or suffocation, beatings or forceful shaking.

The motive most often reported in homicides of young children was frustration. Conversely, teenagers aged 14 to 17 were most often killed as a result of an argument.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey numbers, including related surveys, 3302 and 3315.

The Juristat: Children and Youth as Victims of Violent Crime, Vol. 25, no. 1 (85-002-XIE20050018064, $9/$75; 85-002-XPE20050018064, $11/$100) is now available.

For further information on this release, contact Information and Client Services (613-951-9023 or 1-800-387-2231), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.



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Date Modified: 2005-07-19 Important Notices