The circle of police-reported family violence has increased for the fifth year in a row in Canada, according to a new report, and some experts say COVID-19 lockdowns are one of the main reasons.
Statistics Canada released a report on Oct. 19 indicating that there were 127,082 victims of police-reported violence committed by spouses, parents, children, siblings or extended family members in 2021, a rate of 336 victims per 100,000.
“This is the fifth consecutive year of increase,” the firm said, with women accounting for two-thirds (69%) of domestic violence victims.
Statistics Canada also added that “the rate of family violence was more than twice as high among women and women as among men and boys (457 victims versus 212 out of a population of 100,000). “
Pamela Cross, legal director of Luke’s Place Women’s Support and Resource Center, said the main explanation for the increase in violence is the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures that accompany it.
“It meant that women in relationships with men who abused them were caught up with this abuser 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Cross said.
“Even for women who had left the abusive relationship, maybe they exchanged their children at the public library for visits, or maybe the visits were supervised. None of those were available,” he added.
Cross said the pressure on families has increased COVID-19 and many women in the personal sector have begun to leave the workforce.
“They couldn’t work from home and manage the kids they were homeschooling, so there were economic pressures on families as well,” Cross said.
In addition, women were reluctant to enter a women’s shelter because of the concept of living in close proximity to many other people, and feared the option of getting sick with COVID-19, according to Cross.
StatCan reported that in 2021, “police reported 114,132 victims of spousal violence (violence committed through existing and former spouses, domestic partners, domestic partners, and other intimate partners) over the age of 12 (344 victims consisting of 100,000 inhabitants). “
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This is also the seventh consecutive year of slow increases in this type of violence, according to the report, with the rate of intimate spousal violence expanding by 2% between 2021 and 2020.
Eight out of 10 victims of violence (79%) were women and women, and the victimization rate was almost 4 times higher for women and women than for men and boys (537 vs. 147).
Cross said others want to keep in mind that the knowledge provided through StatCan is only found in police reports, adding that “only 25 to 30 percent of women report violence to police.
“So if the degrees of violence reported to the police are higher, we can conclude that unreported violence is increasing,” he added.
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Meseret Haileyesus, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) in Ottawa, said there are many reasons why women leave abusive situations, with the monetary aspect being one of the main ones.
“Women first want to have a position to leave an abusive relationship, but unfortunately we found that most of those women don’t have many economic resources,” Haileyesus said.
She called economic violence a “hidden form of violence,” with 80% of women in Ottawa, for example, stating that “since the onset of COVID-19, your current partner or ex-partner has displayed more controlling, manipulative and coercive behaviors regarding their finances and economic stability,” according to a study conducted on the pandemic through the organization Haileyesus.
CCFWE’s study studies, committed to raising awareness about economic abuse, was used to provide a list of recommendations to the federal committee on women’s prestige on March 17.
Some of those recommendations come with the progression of evidence-based, trauma-informed, survivor-centered educational resources, education from social service providers, shelters, police, legal and fitness facilities, and survivors; loose and available credit arrangement and debt remediation facilities for survivors; and gaining better access to affordable child care for victims of economic exploitation.
“We want to offer an investment program for women who want to get out of their abusive situation. . . But what we have is a shelter, a restraining order, a welfare formula or disability benefits, but women want something beyond that. . . anything like a scholarship fund,” Haileyesus said.
Both Haileyesus and Cross agree that primary changes need to take positions to address family violence and the shift in position isn’t shrinking fast enough.
As StatCan shows, among victims in 2021, there was “a sharp increase in the rate of ‘level 1’ sexual assaults (sexual assaults that violate the sexual integrity of the victim) (19% compared to 2020), while overall, police—reported increased violence to a lesser degree (five consistent with the hundred).
Sexual assault with a weapon or causing physical harm in intimate relationships also higher than 2020 (-6%).
“At the same time, 3 sexual assaults (aggravated sexual assaults) decreased (-12%),” the report says.
In 2021, 90 murder victims were killed through an intimate spouse. Three-quarters (76%) of these victims were women and girls. 77 sick).
“The federal government will have to put in place a national action plan on gender-based violence. We say intimate spousal violence is a public health problem, an epidemic,” Cross said.
“The network wants to perceive the truth of the violence that occurs in families. “