Victims of police-reported family and intimate partner violence in Canada, 2021

Since COVID, the number of reported abuse has gone up. In 2021, a rate of 336 victims per 100,000 population. The rate of family violence is twice as high for women and girls than it is for men and boys. This jump in 2021 marked the fifth consecutive year of increase. From 2020-2021, the abuse rate of intimate partner violence jumped up by 2%, while partner violence from non-intimate settings increased by 6%. In comparison to before the pandemic in 2019, intimate partner violence has increased by 4% in 2021 and non-intimate partner violence increased by 2% (Statistics Canada, 2022).

In addition, looking at the stats for 2021 children and youth up to 17 model one in five victims of family violence reported to the police (which is 19%). Out of this demographic, more than 64% were girls which is nearly twice as high as boys. Family violence against youth and children in 2021 was 9% higher than it was pre-pandemic in 2019. Since looking back to 2009, family violence towards children and youth has increased 25% (Statistics Canada, 2022).

Along with victims in 2021, there was a big increase in the number of level 1 sexual assault, which was a 19% increase compared with 2020. The overall police reported violence increased to a lesser degree at 5%. With intimate partners more specifically, there as well was a large scale increase of level 1 sexual assault in comparison to 2020 and that is 22% (Statistics Canada, 2022).