Trends in police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence in Canada, 2023

Rates for police-reported family violence (+3%) and intimate partner violence (+1%) increased in 2023. There were 139,020 victims of family violence and 123,319 victims (aged 12 years and older) of intimate partner violence that came to the attention of police—a rate of 350 victims of family violence and 354 victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 population.

Today, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada is releasing a series of downloadable data tables detailing the number and characteristics of victims of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence (see Note to readers). This release presents high-level trends for these types of violence and reflects only incidents brought to the attention of the police. Past research has highlighted that these types of violence are often not reported to authorities. Younger and older victims—that is, children and youth and seniors—in particular may be unaware that they are being victimized, may not know how to seek help, may be unable to report their victimization, and may be dependent on the perpetrator. As such, the data presented here likely underestimate the full scope of the issue.

In this release, family violence and intimate partner violence include physical and sexual assault, harassment, uttering threats and other forms of violence that reach the criminal threshold. Family violence is violence committed by spouses, parents, children, siblings and extended family members, while intimate partner violence is violence committed by current and former legally married spouses, common-law partners, dating partners and other intimate partners. Victims of family violence and victims of intimate partner violence are not mutually exclusive groups, as victims of a current or former spouse or common-law partner are included in each group.

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