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Family Violence Statistics
Assaults Against Children and Youth in the Family

The latest information about children from stats Canada is disturbing. Police data show that children under 18 years of age were the victims in 22% of all assaults reported to a sample of police agencies. They represented a much larger proportion of sexual assault victims (60%) than physical assault victims (18%). While the majority of assaults against children were committed by non-family members, family members were accused in 24% of all assaults against children. Very young children are more likely to be assaulted by family members than by non-family members. Almost 70% of victims under the age of three were assaulted by family members.

Girls were more frequently the victims of assaults by family members than were boys. Girls represented 56% of the victims of physical assault incidents and almost 80% of the victims of sexual assault in which a family member was the perpetrator. Fathers made up a large majority (80%) of parents accused of assaulting their children, accounting for 98% of parents accused of sexual assault and 73% of parents accused of physical assault.

Despite yearly fluctuations, the homicide rate for children remained relatively constant from 1974 to 1996 (between 1.1 and 1.5 homicides per 100,000 populations under 18 years of age). In contrast, the homicide rate for adults has gradually declined from 3.4 to 2.4 homicides per 100,000 adult population (a decrease of 28%).

Stats Canada November 7, 1997