NCJ Number
81426
Date Published
1980
Length
72 pages
Annotation
Groups and agencies taking an active role in dealing with wife battering in Canada were used as the information sources for this analysis of the extent and characteristics of spouse abuse in Canada, efforts to deal with it, and additional recommended actions.
Abstract
The 73 transition houses where battered women and their children can stay temporarily for protection and support were interviewed by telephone on the process of wife battering. The study also focused on the problems faced by women and transition house workers in dealing with domestic violence, the laws and traditions which have placed the family outside the law, and the social system which perpetuates wife battering. Findings showed that battering usually occurs more than once, is often severe, and may lead to homicide. An estimated 15,000 women stay in transition houses in Canada annually. It is also estimated that 1 of every 10 Canadian women who are married or in a relationship with a live-in lover are battered each year. Wife battering has been variously attributed to alcohol, mental illness, natural male aggression, the wife's incitement of her husband to violence, socializaion from one generation to the next, the imbalance in the relative status of men and women, alienation and the inability to communicate, and stress and social pathology. However, none of these theories explains why violence so often takes place in the family and is directed toward the wife. The responses of medical, legal, and counseling personnel often fail to deal effectively with wife battering. More effective current approaches include transition houses, police crisis intervention, and police training programs. However, further efforts are needed in the areas of emergency services; support services; legal reform; and long-range prevention through education, research, and efforts to increase women's economic independence. Emergency services and shelters across the country are needed immediately. Tables, 157 notes, 62 references, and an appendix listing 63 Canadian transition houses are provided.