Statistics Canada Article on Gender-related Homicide of Women and Girls

Juristat, a Statistics Canada publication, recently published an article on Gender-related homicide of women and girls in Canada.

The article analyzes police-reported data of homicides involving women and girls who were killed by an intimate partner, family member, within the context of sex work as well as those who experienced sexual violence. Some data on the attempted murder of women and girls are also presented. 

As the text explains, although most homicide victims are men and boys, women and girls are disproportionately killed by someone they know, namely an intimate partner or a family member.

Among the article's highlights:

• Between 2011 and 2021, police reported 1,125 gender-related homicides of women and girls in Canada. Of these homicides, two-thirds (66%) were perpetrated by an intimate partner, 28% a family member, 5% a friend or acquaintance and the remaining 1% a stranger.
• While the rate of gender-related homicide of women and girls has generally declined since 2001, there was a 14% increase between 2020 and 2021 (from 0.48 to 0.54 victims per 100,000 women and girls), marking the highest rate recorded since 2017.
• In 2021, the rate of gender-related homicide in Canada was more than 2.5 times greater in rural areas compared to urban areas (1.13 versus 0.44 per 100,000 women and girls).
• Between 2011 and 2021, of all gender-related homicides of women and girls, the largest proportion died by stabbing (34%). About four times as many victims of gender-related homicide died of strangulation, smothering or drowning (17%) compared to victims of non-gender-related homicides (4%).
• One-third (32%) of gender-related homicides of women and girls were reported by police as motivated primarily by the accused’s anger, frustration or despair, almost triple the proportion found among non-gender-related homicides (12%).
• Over the 11-year period (i.e., 2011 to 2021), one in five (21%) persons accused of a gender-related homicide where at least one woman or girl was killed resulted in the suicide of the accused, seven times higher than what was found among persons accused of committing a non-gender-related homicide (3%). 
• Data between 2011 and 2021 show that of all gender-related homicides of women and girls, 21% (n=233) of victims were Indigenous, despite comprising only 5% of the female population in Canada in 2021.
• Between 2011 and 2021, the largest proportion of gender-related attempted murders of women and girls occurred at residential locations, involved the presence of a weapon and resulted in physical injury.