• 51% of Canadian Women have experienced at least
one incident of violence since the age of 16. (Canadian
Advisory Council
on the Status of Women, Sexual Assault Fact Sheet. Ottawa:
C.A.C.S.W., 1985)
• 89% of Sexual Assault victims/survivors have no visible
physical injuries. (Statistics Canada, Violence Against
Women Survey, 1993)
• Only 1 in 10 Sexual Assaults is
reported to the police. Of those that are acquaintance
rapes, only 1 in 100 is
reported to the police. (Canadian Advisory Council on
the Status of Women, Sexual Assault Fact Sheet. C.A.C.S.W.,
1985)
• 53% of women in Canada were sexually abused when
they were children (Health Canada, 2003)
• 1 in 2 women
has experienced some form of sexual violence (Statistics
Canada Survey 1993)
• Between 1979 and 1998, 1468 women
were killed by their husbands, compared with 433 men
killed by their wives.
(Statistics Canada, 2000, p.6)
• In 1996, 49% of family homicides involved
spouses (Bunge and Levett, 1998, p. 28)
• Of
all incidents of reported sexual assaults, 24% took place
in the person’s home, 20% took place in the
perpetrator’s home, 10% in someone else’s
home, 25% in a car, and 21% in a public place. (Johnson,
1996)
• In 2000, 40% of women who reported sexual assault
were assaulted by a friend or casual acquaintance, 23%
by
a stranger, and 23% by a family member. (Status of Women
Canada)
Sexual Assault
and Young Women
• Sixty-three percent of all sexual
assaults reported to the police involve girls
under the age of 18. (Russell 1996)
• Fifty-four percent of girls under
the age of 16 have experienced some form
of unwanted sexual attention. Twenty-four
percent have experienced rape or coercive
sex, and 17% have experienced incest. (Holmes
and Silverman 1992; Russell 1996)
• Four out of five female undergraduates
reported that they had been victims of violence
in a dating relationship. Twenty-nine percent
of that number reported incidents of sexual
assault. (OWD 1995, 1)
• Girls are two to three times more
likely to experience sexual abuse than boys.
(Johnston and Saenz 1997)
• Sixty percent of Canadian college-aged
males report that they would commit sexual
assault if they were certain that they would
not be caught. (OWD 1995, 2)
• Thirty-one percent of sexual assaults
occur in dating and acquaintance relationships.(OWD
1995, 2)
• Twenty percent of Toronto secondary
school students reported that they had experienced
at least one form of assault in a dating
relationship. (OWD 1995, 5)
• In a Canadian study, 25% of all
female post-secondary students in 1993 had
been physically and/or sexually assaulted
by a male date or boyfriend. (Johnson 1996,
115)
• In this study, 1 in 5 male students
surveyed said that forced intercourse was
all right "if he spends money on her",
"if he is stoned or drunk", or
"if they had been dating for a long
time." (Johnson 1996,120)
• In 51% of all incidents of dating
violence reported by Canadian women, the
perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol.
(Johnson 1996, 128)
Women with
Disabilities
• Eighty-three percent of women with
disabilities will be sexually assaulted
during their lifetime. (OWD 1995, 1)
• The rate of sexual abuse of girls
with dis/abilities is four times that of
the national average. (Razack 1994)
Aboriginal
Women
• Eight in 10 Aboriginal women in
Ontario reported having experienced violence.
(Ontario Native Women’s Association
1989, 17)
• Up to 75% of victims of sex crimes
in Aboriginal communities are female under
18 years of age; 50% of those are under
age 14, and almost 25% are younger than
7 years of age. (McIvor and Nahanee 1998,
65)
Women Living
in Poverty
• Women with low household incomes,
low levels of education and/or who are unemployed
are at higher risk of being sexually assaulted
than women in general. (Johnson 1996, 108-109)
