An average of one woman or girl was killed by violent means every 2.5 days last year in Canada, according to a new report.
The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) recently published a report titled “#CallItFemicide,” which looked at gender related killings of women and girls in Canada during the past year.
Femicide is defined as the targeted killing of women by men for gender-based reasons.
The group found that 91 per cent of the accused are males, a number that is consistent with national and international patterns. About half of the 148 women killed last year, were killed by male partners, and about 10 per cent are killed by a male family member.
These findings make the home the most dangerous place for women, according to the report.
Ontario and Alberta were two provinces where the number of victims of intimate femicide incidents (murdered by partner) were overrepresented in comparison with the number of women living there.
Young women, aged 18 to 24, comprised nine per cent of the population but represented 13 per cent of women killed by gender-based violence.
In intimate femicide, 18- to 24-year-olds comprised 17 per cent of the victims compared to 11 per cent of the overall population.
Caucasian women comprise 42 per cent of the victims compared to 73 per cent of the overall population; Indigenous women comprised 36 per cent of the victims, and visible minority women comprised 18 per cent of the victims, compared to 22 per cent of the overall population, said the report.
The report identified three key areas in which the CFOJA believe need to be examined in order to help prevent male violence against women: the media, the criminal justice system and legislative and policy contexts.
Media coverage of femicide cases, and violence against women and girls can play an important role in how the public perceives these types of violence, the report said.
It adds that while improvements have been made and social media has been changing the dynamics of negative stereotypes about women, the media continues to misrepresent or mischaracterize femicide.
“For example, victim-blaming, normalizing domestic violence, and suggesting that the killing was an isolated incident are common themes found in media reports of violence against women including femicide,” the report reads.
As for the criminal justice system, the report said authorities need to track court cases and understand they many beliefs and stereotypes that contribute to various femicide cases.
Photo by Lauren Hicks
