Prior to the 1980s family violence tended to be treated as more or less a private matter. As governments started bringing in pro-arrest laws and policies, however, it began to change.
According to the latest available statistics, more than half, 56 per cent, of domestic violence complaints result in charges being laid.
That’s slightly higher even than cases of non-family violence in which only 46 per cent of complaints are prosecuted.
Although legal attitudes have changed and awareness has grown, we still don’t pay much attention to it in the media.
That is partly because we would need a separate section of the newspaper for all the assaults. There were 14 on Monday’s docket, just for example, and a good half of those were domestic in nature.
I have watched for many years this sad reality unfold in the courts.
Despite the change in the likelihood of arrest and prosecution, it has often seemed to me that when convicted, perpetrators of family violence are sentenced more lightly. I have heard this as a complaint from police officers as well.
It turns out I was not imagining things.
While the Criminal Code does not distinguish between family violence and non-family violence—assault is assault, sexual assault is sexual assault and uttering threats is uttering threats—prosecutors and judges apparently do distinguish.
A study by the Department of Justice on data from 1997 to 2002 indicated offenders convicted of spousal abuse were less likely (19 per cent) to receive prison than other violent offenders (29 per cent).
Similarly, familial child abusers were only sent to prison 15 per cent of the time compared to 28 per cent for friends and acquaintances and 23 per cent for strangers.
This did not hold true for sexual assault against children where half of family members were incarcerated compared to 39 per cent of convicted non-family members.
The only other specific offence that bucked the trend was criminal harassment.
I kind of struggle with this apparent leniency because family violence is such a scourge on society.
Criminal sentencing is a complicated matter, however.
“For instance, when faced with a family violence case, judges often must take into account a number of factors specific to family violence, such as the victim’s desire for reconciliation or financial dependence on the offender,” the report concluded.
Fortunately, jail is not the only tool available to judges. The most common sentence used in domestic violence cases is the conditional sentence.
The conditions almost always include a ban on alcohol and non-prescription drugs and a requirement to participate in assessment and programming for addictions, anger management and domestic violence.
The good news is, family violence in Canada is declining. According to a Juristat article published in January of this year entitled “Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile, 2013” family assaults declined by 14 per cent between 2009 and 2013.
We have a long way to go, however, particularly in Saskatchewan. In 2013, there were 87,820 victims of family violence, 252.9 for every 100,000 people in the country.
Saskatchewan still leads all the provinces with a rate nearly double the national average at 489.4 per 100,000 population.
Over the generations this subject has gone from acceptable to nobody’s business to the state’s business.
The next step is to make it everybody’s business.
