In Canada, most crimes against the person committed against women are not reported to the police. When they are, several months or even years may have elapsed from the time of the incident until it is reported. Accordingly, the statistics presented in this fact sheet show only a fragment of the overall picture of violence against women in Canada. Therefore, these statistics are not nationally representative. Women tend to be more fearful of being victims of a crime in specific situations than are men.
Women are much more likely to be victimized by someone they know than by a stranger.
Female victims of spousal violence tend to be more severely abused than male victims. More women are likely to be subjected to severe forms of violence such as being beaten, choked and sexually assaulted. Female victims of spousal violence are more likely than their male counterparts to suffer some kind of physical injury as a result of spousal violence. Women are more likely than men to be victims of repeated incidents of spousal violence. In April 1998, there were 470 shelters for abused women across Canada, up from 18 in 1978.