Section 3: Police-reported intimate partner violence Section 3: Police-reported intimate partner violence

Four out of five victims who reported intimate partner violence were women

• In 2014, victims of intimate partner violence accounted for more than one quarter (27%) of all victims of violent crime reported to police or 88,600 incidents of violent crime. Four out of five victims of police-reported intimate partner violence were women (Table 3.1).
• Intimate partner violence was the most common form of police-reported violent crime committed against females at 42% compared to 12% of male victims. In contrast, more males than females were victimized by a friend or an acquaintance (40% versus 28%, respectively) or by a stranger (35% versus 15%) (Table 3.1).
• More than half (52%) of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence were victimized by a dating partner, while a spouse was the perpetrator for 46% of victims. A current dating partner (33%) or current spouse (33%) was more often the perpetrator in instances of intimate partner violence than a former dating partner (19%) or former spouse (13%) (Table 3.1).
• A current dating partner was most often the perpetrator among youth aged 15 to 19 years (51%) and young adults aged 20 to 24 years (44%) victimized by an intimate partner (Table 3.2).
• Victimization by a current spouse increased with age. Seniors, 65 years and older, had the highest proportion of victimization by a current spouse. Of all the intimate partner victims in this senior age group, 7 out of 10 were victimized by a current spouse (68%) (Table 3.2).

Major and common assault more common among male victims of police-reported intimate partner violence

• Physical assault (77%) was the most common offence experienced by victims of police-reported intimate partner violence, followed by uttering threats (8%), and criminal harassment (6%) (Table 3.3).
• Male victims of intimate partner violence were more likely than female victims to have experienced major (levels 2 and 3) assault (21% versus 12%) or common (level 1) assault (65% versus 62% respectively). In contrast, female victims were more likely than males to have experienced uttering threats (9% versus 6% respectively) or criminal harassment (7% versus 4%). Sexual offences were ten times more common among female victims of intimate partner violence (4%) than male victims (0.4%) (Table 3.3).
• In 2014, more than 7 out of 10 victims of police-reported intimate partner violence experienced physical force (71%). In a smaller proportion of incidents, a knife (4%) a club or blunt instrument (2%) or a firearm (0.7%) was present. In an additional 7% of incidents, other types of weapon such as fire, motor vehicles, or explosives were present. Threats without a weapon present were reported in 15% of incidents (Table 3.4).
• Similar to previous findings, the majority of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence in 2014 were involved in incidents that were cleared^{Note 1} by police through the laying or recommendation of a charge (72%). Approximately 15% of victims of intimate partner violence were in incidents which were cleared by means other than the laying of a charge, for example at the request of the complainant that charges not be laid (6%). The remaining 13% of victims were involved in incidents which were not cleared. (Table 3.5).

Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported the highest rates of intimate partner violence among the provinces

• In 2014, rate of police-reported intimate partner violence in Canada was 301.1 per 100,000 population. Like police-reported crime rates in general (Boyce 2015), rates of intimate partner violence were highest in the territories and were more than double that of the provinces. Nunavut (3,578.0 per 100,000 population) had the highest rate of police-reported intimate partner violence in Canada, more than five times that of Saskatchewan (652.1) which had the highest rate among the provinces. Manitoba (499.9) followed Saskatchewan as the province with the second highest rate of intimate partner violence, while Prince Edward Island (207.6) had the lowest (Table 3.6).
• Although females across Canada were generally at a higher risk of intimate partner violence than males, this was particularly the case in Nunavut, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan where a female's risk of being victimized by a spouse or a dating partner was more than four times that of their male counterparts. Ontario (89.6 per 100,000 population) had the lowest rate of police-reported intimate partner violence against males (Table 3.6).

Police-reported intimate partner violence declined from 2009

• According to police records, in 2014, the overall rate of police-reported intimate partner physical assault was 230.2 per 100,000 population, a decline of 2% from 2013 and 12% from 2009. In contrast, the rate of intimate partner sexual assault increased 18% from 7.3 in 2009 to 8.6 in 2014, due primarily to an increase in level 1 sexual assault, the most common type of sexual assault (Table 3.7).
• Among female victims of police-reported intimate partner violence, there was a 28% decline in the rate of attempted murder and a 14% decline in the rate of physical assault from 2009 to 2014. Rates of sexual assault among female victims of intimate partner violence, however, increased 19% from 13.9 per 100,000 population in 2009 to 16.6 in 2014 (Table 3.7).
• Among male victims of police-reported intimate partner violence, the rate of attempted murder increased 3% and the rate of sexual assault increased 4% from 2009 to 2014. During the same time period, there was a slight decline in the rate of physical assault against male victims of intimate partner violence (down from a rate of 115.0 in 2009 to 110.8 in 2014) (Table 3.7).

Females 25 to 29 years old at the highest risk of intimate partner homicide

• Police data indicate an overall declining trend in the rate of intimate partner homicide over the past two decades. In 2014, at a rate of 2.8 per 1 million population, intimate partner homicide had dropped 40% from 1994, and 26% from 2004 (Table 3.8).
• While rates of intimate partner homicide have declined for both men and women over the past two decades, women continued to be at a higher risk of intimate partner homicide than men. In 2014, the rate of intimate partner homicide among female victims (4.4 per 1 million population) was about four times higher than male victims (1.1) (Table 3.8).
• According to police-reported data, there were a total of 967 intimate partner homicides between 2004 and 2014, of which most were at the hands of a spouse (74%), followed by a dating partner (23%) (Table 3.9).
• From 2004 to 2014, females between the ages of 25 and 29 were at the highest risk of intimate partner homicide with a rate of 8.0 per 1 million population (compared to 2.5 per 1 million for similarly aged males), followed by females in the age group 35 to 39 (7.2 per 1 million) (Table 3.10).
• Female victims in the age group of 15 to 19 years (2.7 per 1 million population) were more than 13 times more likely to be victims of intimate partner homicide than their male counter parts (0.2 per 1 million (Table 3.10).