Police AssociAtion of novA scotiA 77 FAMILY VIOLENCE INITIATIVE PERFORMANCE REPORT FOR APRIL 2004 TO MARCH 2008 Department of Justice Canada Canada. This profile is based on data provided to Statistics Canada by various agencies, through the administration of self-report surveys and the use of police-reported data. These data sources illustrate the scope of family violence in Canada, help to inform policy development, and provide important benchmarks against which to measure progress being made nationally to address this issue. FAMILY VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN AND YOUTH The federal government, through Criminal Code provisions, and provincial and territorial governments, through their respective child welfare laws, play important roles in protecting children from child abuse. Canada’s Criminal Code provides a broad range of measures designed to protect persons from violence, including children. Though the Criminal Code also contains several child-specific offences to protect children and youth, it does not define “child abuse.” In addition, there is no single comprehensive national data source on violence and abuse against children and youth; information is drawn from a number of sources, which include self-report surveys, policereported data and surveys of child. In 2006, according to police-reported data, children and youth who were victims of assault (including sexual assault) were most often victimized by someone they knew. A total of 12,198 children and youth were victims of family-related (physical and sexual) assaults in 2006. For every 100,000 young persons, 334 were victims of physical or sexual violence by a friend or an acquaintance, 187 were victimized by a family member, and 101 were victimized by a stranger. These rates indicate that the majority of these children and youth were victimized by friends or acquaintances (41 percent) or a family member (24 percent). Parents are the most commonly identified perpetrators of family violence against children and youth. In 2006, 107 per 100,000 children and youth were physically or sexually assaulted by a parent. This rate was more than double the rate of assaults committed by siblings (39 per 100,000), and nearly three times higher than the rate of assaults committed by extended family (36 per 100,000 population). Trend information on the rates of physical and sexual assault against children and youth are available from 1998 to 2005. The rate of sexual assault against children and youth by a family member increased 15 percent and the rates of physical assault increased 8 percent between 2003 and 2005. The gap in the rate of child and youth sexual and physical assaults between non-family members and family members has narrowed slightly over time. According to police-reported data for 2006, family-related assaults against children and youth were more likely to have been physical assaults as opposed to sexual assaults. The rate of physical assault by a parent (83 victims per 100,000 children and youth) was more than three times higher than the rate of sexual assault (24 victims per 100,000 children and youth). Rates of physical assault by family members were slightly higher for girls than for boys (133 compared with 116 incidents per 100,000 children and youth population). They experienced sexual assault by family members at a rate that was four times higher than the rate experienced by boys and young men (102 compared with 25 incidents per 100,000 population). Among the 4,089 child and youth victims of family-related sexual assaults, 80 percent of the victims were female. In 2006, men were the accused in the vast majority of family-related sexual assaults against children and youth (96 percent), as well as physical assaults against children and youth (71 percent). For sexual assaults, fathers were involved in 35 percent of incidents against their children, followed by male extended family members (33 percent) and brothers (28 percent). According to the 1998-99 National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, 1 in 12 children aged 4 to 7 (8 percent, or about 120,000 children) had witnessed some type of physical violence in the home. The consequences of this are significant, as research suggests that children who witness violence are more likely to exhibit aggression and anxiety. The 2004 GSS found that the presence of children in the home and children witnessing the violence increased the likelihood that female victims of spousal violence will contact the authorities. A total of 51 percent of women victims of spousal violence who indicated that their CHART 3: Rates of family homicide against children and youth higher than non-family homicide, 1974 to 2006 rates per million population (0 to 17 years) NOTES: Excludes homicides for which police reported the accused-victim relationship as unknown. Rates are calculated per million children and youth (0 to 17 year olds) using population estimates provided by Statistics Canada, Census and Demographic Statistics, Demography Division. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Homicide Survey. rates per million population (0 to 17 years) ...Family Violence Initiative continued continued...
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