This is the cached copy of http://www.women.gov.ns.ca/pubs2007_08/IntimatePartnerViolenceFact.pdf.

---

Page 1

Fact Sheet on Intimate Partner Violence

#

Between 1993 and 1999, the proportion of Nova Scotian women who reported

that they had experienced physical violence at the hands of their current or

former spouse/intimate partner within the previous five years declined from 13

per cent to 8 per cent, but from 1999 to 2004, this percentage remained virtually

unchanged. This means that an estimated 21,000 Nova Scotian women were

the victims of intimate partner violence between 1999 and 2004.

#

Compared to men, women are more likely to report experiencing the most

serious forms of intimate partner violence, such as being beaten, choked, or

threatened with or having a gun or knife used against them.

#

Female victims of spousal violence are also more much likely than males to

report being injured, suffer lost productivity, experience multiple assaults, fear for

their lives, and experience negative emotional consequences as a result of the

intimate partner violence they experience. Male victims were much more likely

then female victims (30 per cent verus 6 per cent) to report that the violence had

not affected them.

5-Year Spousal Assault Rates of Females

Nova Scotia and Canada, 1993-2004

Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2004, 1999; Violence Against

Women Survey, 1993.

13%

8%

8%

12%

8%

7%

1993

1999

2004

Nova Scotia

Canada

---

Page 2

Who is at highest risk?

#

Young women (aged 15-24) who are in common law relationships are at greater risk of

experiencing intimate partner violence as are women who have been in a relationship for

three years or less, and women whose partner is a frequent, heavy drinker.

#

Aboriginal women in Canada are at least three times more likely to have experienced

spousal violence than non-Aboriginal women.

#

Spousal violence is more likely to happen in relationships where emotional abuse is

present.

#

Eighteen per cent of Canadian women and 17 per cent of men reported experiencing

emotional abuse in 2004. Women were more likely than men to report particular types

of emotional abuse: eg., that their partner “put them down and called them names to

make them feel bad”, that their partner harmed or threatened to harm someone close to

them, or that their partner prevented them from having access to the family income even

when they asked.

#

One-third of all incidents of spousal violence in Canada (approximately 394,000

cases between 1999 and 2004) were witnessed by children.

Police Reporting of Spousal Violence

#

Nearly two-thirds of spousal violence incidents against women are not reported

to the police.

While there was a slight increase in the proportion of victims who

reported violence to police between 1993 and 1999, there was no further increase from

1999 to 2004. In 2004, only 36 per cent of Canadian women and 17 per cent of men

who had experienced intimate partner violence reported it to police.

#

A large proportion of victims of intimate partner violence (83 per cent of women and 60

per cent of men) confide in informal sources of help and support such as family, friend,

co-worker, doctor/nurse, clergy.

#

Approximately 47 per cent of female victims and 20 per cent of male victims of intimate

partner violence indicated that they had sought help from formal helping agencies or

organizations such as victims’ services, women’s centres, psychologists, etc.

#

Male victims of intimate partner violence were more likely than female victims (35 per

cent versus 12 per cent), not to mention the violence to anyone.

Sources: All statistics above are from Statistics Canada, Catalogue no. 85-224, Family Violence in

Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2005

Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, December, 2007