We Care. We Inform. We Listen.

Facts in Brief

Abuse can happen to anyone at anytime, no matter one’s age, sexual orientation, level of income, or devotion to one another. The harm is often a result of a person looking to gain or assert power or control over another person. It threatens the safety and security of the partner and can take many forms:

  • Physical
  • Verbal
  • Emotional
  • Psychosocial
  • Financial
  • Neglect
  • Intimate partner violence is sometimes called domestic violence as these terms also include violence that takes place in other types of relationships (for example, violence toward children or older adults).
  • Conflict most often begins when the abuser needs to either maintain or regain power and control in the relationship.
  • Common areas for conflict include determination on how money is spent, and over the management of the children.
  • Female partners in a common-law relationship are four times more likely to be victims of violence than married women.
  • Violence is more likely to increase when the wife is pregnant.
  • Immigrant and minority women are more prone to domestic abuse, less likely to report it, and find it harder to get help when they try to leave abusive home environments.
  • Family violence isolates children, damages their self-esteem, and can spawn psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, feelings of guilt and suicidal tendencies.
  • In Canada in 2019, of the 107,810 people aged 15 and over who experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) 79% were women. In 50-70% of cases where one parent is abusing the other, the children are being abused as well.
  • The global response to COVID-19 has contributed to rising rates of domestic and family abuse.
  • 50% of Canadian women who were physically assaulted also experienced sexual assault by the same partner.

 

Sources:

Intimate partner violence and abuse | Royal Canadian Mounted Police (rcmp-grc.gc.ca)

Fact sheet: Intimate partner violence – Canada.ca

Children Witnessing Domestic and Family Violence: A Widespread Occurrence during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic – PMC (nih.gov)

“My husband struck me on my honeymoon. He killed our first child by kicking the four-month child out of my uterus. My doctor asked me what did I do to make him so mad, our minister reminded me that I had married for better or worse, the lawyer wanted to know where I would get money to pay the fees, and my mother told my husband where I was hiding.”

– An abuse survivor