Police-reported family violence in Canada, 2017

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Release date: December 5, 2018
Police-reported family violence in Canada, 2017
Police-reported family violence in Canada, 2017

Police-reported family violence in Canada, 2017

Trends

Rates of family violence against children and youth and of intimate partner violence have declined since 2009. Rates for these types of violence, however, have increased in recent years.

Victims of family violence against children and youth and of intimate partner violence, Canada, 2009 to 2017
  2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Intimate partners 365 365 344 330 311 300 307 309 313
Children and youth 266 272 265 259 244 237 232 233 247

Youth victims

Rates of physical assault were similar for girls and boys. Meanwhile, the rate of sexual offences was much higher for girls.

Rate of family violence, by victim sex and type of violation per 100,000 children and youth
  Physical assault Sexual offences
Girls 138 134
Boys 142 27

Victims of intimate partner violence

1/3 of police-reported violence involved intimate partners.

Intimate partner violence, by sex of victim and accused to victim relationship
Type of relationship Female victims Male victims
Intimate partner 45% 14%
Family member other than a spouse 12% 10%
Friend, acquaintance, etc. 27% 39%
Stranger 16% 37%

People aged 25 to 34 were most vulnerable to intimate partner violence, which affected 640 people per 100,000 in that age group.

Senior victims

Among senior victims of police-reported family violence, almost six in ten (58%) were female and four in ten (42%) were male.

Senior victims of family violence, by accused to victim relationship
Relationship of accused to victim (family violence only) Proportion
Child 32%
Spouse 27%
Sibling 12%
Other family 30%

One in three senior victims was subjected to violence by their child.

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

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