Impact of violence against women

One of the challenges of measuring the impact of violence against women is the difficulty in adequately reflecting the broad range of impacts on individual women in psychological and physical terms, as well as the broader societal-level costs of supplying services to victims. A single incident of physical or sexual assault can be a life-shattering experience and can have negative impacts on a victim’s physical and emotional well-being. The impacts on children living in a violent home can stay with them over the longer term and can result in a continuation of violence through generations. This section examines four dimensions of the impact of violence on women: psychological, physical, societal and economic.

Psychological impacts of violence

Whether or not they have personally experienced violence, women report higher levels of fear for their personal safety. The 2004 General Social Survey (GSS) indicates that among public transit users, 58% of women were worried about their safety after dark while waiting for or using public transport, compared with 29% of men. Another 16% of women felt unsafe walking alone after dark compared with 6% of men. Even in their homes, 27% of women were worried about their safety alone at night as opposed to 12% of men.

As illustrated in Figure 19, female victims of spousal assault responding to the 2004 GSS often described the psychological consequences of the assaults in negative terms, including:

• being upset and confused;
• suffering lowered self-esteem;
• suffering depression and anxiety attacks;
• suffering shame and guilt;
• suffering sleeping problems;
• fearing for themselves and their children.

While substantial percentages of male victims of spousal assault also reported negative psychological consequences, they were much more likely than women to say the experience had little or no effect on them (30% of male victims compared with 6% of females) (Figure 19).

Physical consequences

Acts of spousal assault against women are more likely to result in physical consequences for victims than assaults against men (Figure 20). Women are:

• more than twice as likely as male victims to be physically injured by partners;
• six times more likely to receive medical attention;
• five times more likely to be hospitalized due to injuries;
• three times more likely to have to take time off paid or unpaid work to deal with the consequences of the violence;
• twice as likely to report chronic, ongoing assaults (10 or more).

Perhaps the most salient indicator of seriousness is the woman’s fear that her life is in danger from a violent spouse. Again, women were more than three times as likely as men to say they feared for their lives from a violent spouse. This represents approximately 224,000 women. This is consistent with the data that indicate that women suffer from more severe acts of spousal assault and are more likely to be killed by a spouse.

There are indications that the impact of spousal violence for women is lessening in some respects. The percentage of victims who experienced 10 or more incidents of violence and those who feared for their lives declined between 1999 and 2004. However, at the same time, the percentage of women who were physically injured by a violent spouse increased from 40% to 44% of all female victims.

Societal-level costs

The societal costs of spousal violence in terms of supplying and maintaining medical services, counselling and shelter services, and criminal justice services are also greater for female victims. Women are more likely to suffer serious spousal assaults, and as a result they are more likely to require and to use the services of social services agencies, such as counsellors, crisis lines, family centres and shelters. They are also twice as likely to look to the police for protection from a violent spouse (Figure 21). (The section Victims’ use of services explores in greater detail factors associated with reporting spousal violence to the police).

The costs to families and to society that result from children being exposed to violence against a parent can be severe and can include psychological, social, cognitive and behavioural maladjustment problems (Fantuzzo et al. 1991; Graham-Bermann and Levendosky 1998; Moore and Pepler 1998; Berman et al. 2004).

As Figure 21 shows, children witnessed spousal assaults in a substantial number of cases reported to the 2004 GSS. “Witnessing” violence on this survey includes seeing or hearing incidents of violence. As well, children were more often present in assaults against women than in assaults against men. It is estimated that over a five-year period at least 258,000 children were aware of spousal violence against their mothers (reported by 40% of female victims of spousal violence) and 136,000 knew of assaults on their fathers (reported by 25% of male victims). Some children witness particularly severe assaults on their mothers: in half of incidents witnessed by children, the woman was injured and in half she feared her life was in danger.

These may be conservative estimates, as research suggests that parents may minimize or discount the extent to which their children are aware of the spousal violence committed against them (Jaffe et al. 1990; O’Brien et al. 1994).There is evidence from the Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS) that violence can contribute in the long run to the formation of single-parent families: 68% of all single mothers reported experiencing violence in previous marriages and common-law unions. This places them at risk of economic hardship (see Appendix 1 for an overview of economic equality indicators).

Economic costs

Economic or financial costs of violence to victims and society are another measure of its impact, but they are difficult to gauge. There are no studies that have examined the total economic cost of all types of violence against women. Four Canadian studies have estimated partial economic costs (Table 3). They cannot be directly compared due to differing methodologies and assumptions inherent in the research, and none is completely comprehensive. They provide indications that the economic impact of violence on victims and Canadian society in a single year, including costs related to health, criminal justice, social services and lost productivity, can range in the billions of dollars.

The only study that examined the economic cost of child abuse to victims and adult survivors estimates the cost to be $15 billion with $11 billion associated with lost earnings alone (Bowlus et al. 2003).

Summary of impact of violence against women

The impact of violence on women and on society as a whole can be a complex matter to quantify. In this section, the impact of this problem was assessed on various levels, including psychological, physical and societal impacts and economic costs for individual women and society as a whole.

Female victims, in comparison with male victims, are more likely to report negative emotional and psychological consequences of spousal violence, and less likely to report that the assault had little or no effect on them. Female victims were also more than twice as likely as male victims to be physically injured and six times more likely to receive medical attention. Children were witnesses in greater numbers to the violence inflicted on their mothers, and they witnessed more serious types of violence against their mothers.

Four Canadian studies documented that the economic costs associated with violence against women related to health care, criminal justice, social services and lost income are substantial. These indicators show that violence has a range of negative impacts that extend beyond victims and their families to society as a whole.