Violence and Neglect in Canada

• Violence in Canada includes abuse, mistreatment, and neglect affecting adults and children in dependent, intimate, or kinship relationships.

Neglect and Abuse Overview

• Abuse impacts both adults and children.
• Abuse is defined as the misuse of power and a violation of trust that can occur once, repeatedly, or escalate.
• Domestic violence affects both males and females.

Neglect

• Neglect is often chronic and involves repeated incidents.
• Neglect includes failing to provide for a child or dependent adult's physical, psychological, emotional development, and well-being.
• This includes not providing food, clothing, shelter, cleanliness, medical care, protection from harm, or a sense of being valued and loved.

Physical Abuse

• Physical abuse involves physical force that injures or puts someone at risk for injury
• This includes beating, hitting, shaking, pushing, choking, biting, burning, and kicking, as well as assault with a weapon.
• All forms of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual exploitation are considered physical abuse.
• This involves using a child for sexual purposes, pornography, limiting a person's sexuality, or forcing unwanted or degrading sexual activity.

Emotional Abuse

• Emotional abuse harms one's sense of self, risking behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders.
• This includes verbal attacks and criticism.
• Other elements include unreasonable demands and exposing a child to family violence.
• Further actions include humiliation, trivial demands, power displays, and threats.
• "Crazy-making” involves manipulating the victim's emotions.
• Emotional distancing includes being cold, unaffectionate, and distant.

Verbal Abuse

• Information may be withheld as part of verbal abuse.
• Disparaging comments may be disguised as jokes.
• Trivializing involves invalidating feelings.
• Judging or criticizing remarks, and blocking interpersonal communication are other examples.

Economic or Financial Abuse

• Includes stealing from or defrauding someone.
• Includes withholding money for necessities or manipulating someone for financial gain.
• Denying access to financial resources is another form.
• Preventing a person from working or controlling their occupation.

Spiritual Abuse

• Prevents a person from engaging in their spiritual or religious practices.
• A person's beliefs may be used to manipulate, dominate, or control them.
• Ridiculing or denigrating one beliefs.

Sexual Abuse

• Forcing someone to participate in unwanted, unsafe, or degrading sexual activity.
• Ridiculing a person to limit their sexuality or reproductive choices.
• Involves being forced to view pornography.
• Sexual abuse is often linked to physical abuse.

Woman Abuse

• It is gender-based violence likely to result in physical, sexual, or psychological harm to women.
• It also involves threats, coercion, or deprivation of liberty in public and private settings.
• The UN defined it in 1993.

Domestic Violence / Intimate Partner Violence

• Occurs between spouses or intimate partners when one person tries to control the other.
• Victims and perpetrators can be male or female in heterosexual and same-sex relationships.
• Age is irrelevant as it can happen in teens, adults, and seniors.
• It can occur during, when breaking up, or after the relationship.
• It can escalate from threats to physical abuse, or result in murder.
• Approximately 30% of women report being assaulted by their male partner at least once and 20% reported more than one incident.
• 44% of women reported a weapon was used against them, and 36% said the weapon was a gun or knife.
• 78% of spousal homicides in Canada involved women.
• In 2020, females accounted for 85% of spousal violence victims reported to the police.
• Common assault is the most reported form of spousal violence.
• In 2020, 8 out of 10 criminal harassment victims had some form of relationship with their stalkers.
• Females are more at risk of being killed by their spouse, particularly younger and common-law spouses.
• Male spouses are 3x more likely to be sentenced to prison for spousal violence.

Inaccurate Statistics

• Inaccurate statistics can result from victims not reporting due to fear, stigma, cultural views, lack of knowledge, or not thinking it's serious.
• People with disabilities often have limited access to communication or authorities.
• Other reasons include geographical or social isolation.

Potential Consequences of Domestic Violence

• Sleeping difficulties, depression, anxiety, feelings of abandonment, low self-esteem, lack of trust, substance abuse, anger, sensitivity to rejection.
• Inability to work or having poor relationships with children and loved ones.

Consequences on Children

• Witnessing violence can lead to emotional, behavioral, developmental, or academic problems.
• Children may become violent, withdraw, act out, or try to be perfect.
• They may be more likely to use violence, attempt suicide, use drugs, commit crimes (especially sexual assault), enhance self-esteem through violence, and become abusers.

Profile of a Batterer

• Displays traditional sex role expectations.
• Experiences communication deficits and poor impulse control.
• Presents with low self-esteem.
• May abuse alcohol or drugs.
• May have had an abusive childhood and use denial.

Unintended Victims

• Includes people who witness an assault.
• It usually involves children observing parents, happening in ~500K households in Canada.

Cycle of Violence

• Battering occurs in a cycle with three phases.

Phase 1: Tension Building Phase

• Tension builds with stressors such as finances, children, and work.
• Verbal, emotional, and physical abuse may occur.
• Avoidance, placating, and giving in are used as "stop gap" methods.

Phase 2: Acute Battering Incident

• An uncontrollable discharge of built-up tension triggered by external stressors.
• It is more serious and intense than the first phase.
• Characterized by unpredictability, and only the abuser can end the incident.

Phase 3: Honeymoon Phase

• Dominated by apologies, excuses, and promises to reform.
• The abuser realizes they have gone too far and bonding strengthens.
• Loving behavior and promises are exhibited, making it difficult for victims to leave.
• There is a trade-off between abuse and "peace and happiness."
• Tension dissipates and both people are relieved and feel emotionally closes due to it never happening again.

Why Someone Stays

• Fear, lack of resources, finances, or economic reality; children.
• Feelings of guilt, promises of reform, and sex-role conditioning.
• Societal acceptance, religious beliefs, viewing it as a "private matter," and love for spouse.

Battered Woman Syndrome

• Legal defense for women who kill their abuser.
• It involves perceiving no way out of the relationship due to the traumatic effects of victimization, learned helplessness, self-destructive behaviors, and repeated abuse.