POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 57 What is family violence? continued The family members believe that using violence will restore the family's reputation. The types of violence the family uses can include: • beatings • threats • forced confinement • counselling suicide • killing These actions are all crimes, and crimes committed in the name of socalled "honour" are often planned in advance with other family or community members. This violence is not limited to any particular ethnic or religious community. Forced marriage Forced marriage happens when one or both people do not consent to the marriage. Forced marriage is not the same as arranged marriage, where people consent to the marriage. Family members sometimes use physical violence, abduction, forced confinement or emotional abuse to force the person into the marriage. Even if parents try to force their child to marry because they think it is good for the child, using threats or violence to do this is a crime. Children might also be the victims of forced marriages. Sometimes their families take them out of school to force them into marriages. This violence can occur in many ethnic or religious communities. Female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation is any procedure that injures or removes all or part of the external female genital organs for nonmedical reasons. It has no health benefits and it can cause pain and serious longterm health problems. Female genital mutilation of a child is a crime in Canada. Also, any person who helps mutilate a female child's genitals could be charged with a crime. This includes parents, doctors, or nurses. Even the person who asks someone else to do this to a child commits a crime. It is also against the law to take a child out of Canada to have this procedure done in another country. Female genital mutilation is child abuse and should be reported to the authorities. Impact on Canadians All members of society are affected by family violence. There can be long term impacts of violence on victims' physical and emotional health that can result in their inability to work, loss of wages, lack of participation in regular activities and limited ability to care for themselves and their children. Children may suffer longterm emotional, behavioural and developmental problems that can even lead them to be violent later in life. The financial consequences and the effects stretch far beyond to the victim's family, friends, and communities. There are also social costs. A considerable amount of Canadian resources are directed to address this issue including health care costs, costs to the justice system, to employers and businesses, and to social and community services www.justice.gc.ca
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