Domestic Violence, by Eeva Sodhi, Aug. 1, 2004

Subject: Crime is about people, not stats (Aug. 1, 2004)

There is one thing about Stats Can. non-stats that few seem to have paid any attention to. Stats Can. does not report data on crime, only on reports made to police which they then disseminate as if these reports were found facts.

True, they do give that caveat in the each of their releases, but then go on to call a complainer a “victim” and an accused an “offender” or a “perpetrator”.

A bit of data comparison shopping:

Statistics Canada. “Family Violence in Canada 2004”. Highlights [p.1]:

According to a subset of 94 police departments representing 56% of the national volume of crime, in 2002, approximately one-quarter (27%) of all victims of violent crimes were victims of family violence. Among all family violence victims, 6-in-10 (62%) were victims of violence at the hands of their spouse.

• In 2002, females accounted for 8-in-10 (85%) of all victims of spousal violence reported to the subset of police departments. Young females aged 25-to-34 experienced the highest rates of spousal violence.

• The most commonly reported spousal violence offence for both female and male victims was common assault (64% and 60%).

• About eighty percent of spousal violence incidents resulted in a charge being laid by police. Incidents involving female victims (82%) were more likely to result in a charge being laid than those involving male victims (70%).

• According to a subset of 78 police departments who have consistently reported to the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR2) Survey since 1998, rates of police-reported spousal assault have steadily increased for both females and males between 1998 and 2000, but have shown slight decreases in 2001 and 2002. Annual rates were on average, over five times lower for males than for females, however, trend patterns for spousal assault against males were similar to those of females.

• In 2002, according to a subset of 94 police departments, about 8-in-10 victims of criminal harassment had some form of relationship with their stalkers, either as partners, friends/acquaintances or other family members. Females were most likely to be criminally harassed by a partner, while males were more likely to be harassed by an acquaintance.

Note how Stats Can. is silent about the rate of convictions. Furthermore, the phrase “females accounted …. of all victims of spousal violence reported to the police” is misleading as it presupposes that an act of violence had actually occurred. A report does not make a finding of fact, therefore the correct phrase simply is “females made … of calls received by the police”. That is especially true as the police dismiss most of the calls outright.

Toronto Police Services report 2002:

·         Sexual assault: reports received: 2,226; cleared: 1,728 (rate 77.6%); persons charged: 880.

·         “Other” assault: reports received 27,477; cleared 22,484 (rate 81.8%); persons charged: 13,459.

Note: “wife assault” is a subgroup of “other” assaults. The police no longer give separate data for males and females. In spite of several requests, the police refuse to tell how many of the reports were made by men or women and how many were about intimate partner violence.

Yet, Stats Can. will disseminate the above as: there were 2,226 assault victims …. That, of course is not true, especially considering that they do not tell us how many of the calls were repeat calls by the same person, how many of the calls were dismissed without charges being laid, etc.

Ottawa Police Services:

The City of Ottawa Chief of Police, Vince Bevan, in his paper called “The Partner Assault Program: a risk management approach by the Ottawa Police Service to reduce domestic violence” (presented at the Canadian Police College Symposium on investigative excellence and innovation, October 2002. The Canadian Police College is described as being “a centre for professional education for members of the Canadian and international policing community”) claimed that the “partner assault unit” handled 4,152 calls to alleged incidents and laid 2,407 charges (each incident may have more than one charge and calls can either be repeat reports by the same complainer or a first complaint, thus it is highly doubtful that even one half of the original complaints were credible, nor can we equate the number of complaints to be indicative of the number of potential perpetrators and victims) of intimate partner violence in 2001. Thus, in spite of the stringent “zero tolerance” directives, the majority of the reports were so unbelievable that the police, who have to justify in writing why they failed to lay a charge and make an arrest, were not able to justify even one charge. Yet, Stats Can. counts the number of reports as findings of fact.

Now, let’s look at the Ottawa Police Service “Annual Statistics, Violent Offences” for that year. These data, which one assumes to be reliable, indicate that there were a total of 4,485 calls to all alleged assault related incidents (again, let’s stress not individuals who were the alleged perpetrators or victims) in Ottawa and three homicides. If we go by the chief’s statistics, practically all assault related calls in the city of Ottawa were by females who claimed that they had been victimized by their intimate male partners. Yet, data from across the world, including Canada, show that most true assault victims are male.

It is of further interest that charges and convictions no longer need not be based on “reasonable and probable grounds”, “reasonable” is enough. See the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services. “Policing Standards Manual” Section 0217.01, 0217.04 (1994): “Mandatory Arrest/Charging policy refers to guidelines that require police officers to lay criminal charges against the abusive partner in all cases of wife assault where there are "reasonable grounds"”

Judge Lyn Ratushny, in the “Self-Defence Review” that she was commissioned to conduct by the Department of Justice Canada, claims that a woman’s allegation is to be accepted as long as it “has an air of reality" and/or “is supported by evidence reasonably capable of belief”. She herself admitted that these standards are questionable. Her definition of “reasonable” is anything but reasonable. [source: Department of Justice. The Backgrounder, September 1997. The Self-Defence Review: Overview and Next Steps]

The Hon. Dianne Cunnigham, Ontario Women’s Directorate said in her speech during the opening of the North York Domestic Violence Court Pilot Project: “...The offender must plead guilty and is required to participate in a ‘male batterer’s program’. [Note that Ms. Cunningham assumes that “accused” and “offender” are synonyms and that the accused, whom she refers to as “offender”, is always a male.  Furthermore, if a guilty verdict is obtained by coercion, it is hardly an indication of guilt]

Below is some sage advice from the law firm Birenbaum, Steinberg, Landau, Savin & Colraine, LLP. Family Law Toronto. Information Resource.

http://www.familylawtoronto.ca/  This further proves that men who are caught off guard when they find themselves arrested and hauled to places like the Don Jail, are easily tricked into pleading guilty to something that they did not do:

“Findings of abuse can have a number of consequences in a family law case.

• A court will make a non-harassment order directing the abusive spouse not to contact the victim, and may provide particular restrictions regarding the type of activity that is forbidden. If the abuser breaches that order, he or she may be found guilty of contempt. Also, the Ontario Provincial Police can arrest without warrant, anyone whom they reasonably believe is breaching such an order.

• A finding of abuse will almost certainly entitle the victim to exclusive possession of the matrimonial home.

• A finding of abuse will also certainly result in the victim being awarded custody.

• A finding of abuse may result in the other parent having his or her access suspended, reduced or supervised.

• A finding of abuse may result in a divorce being granted on the grounds of cruelty.

• A finding of abuse may result in additional damages for personal injury or intentional infliction of mental suffering, and may be a factor in the calculation of the amount of spousal support ordered to be paid

 ·         Just the allegation of abuse opens the door to the possibility of such consequences at least on a temporary basis. Judges will often err on the side of caution and even though abuse has not been proven, will not want to run any risks. Consequently, people accused of abuse may be ordered out of the house on the basis of allegations or a temporary restraining order may be made on the basis of allegations alone.

·         The potential impact of abuse or allegations of abuse can, therefore, be quite significant to the party who is accused. The consequences to a spouse who has falsely alleged abuse are not so dramatically or frequently applied.

·         The police will often attempt to trick a suspect into speaking to them. Common tricks are for a police officer to say something like, "Look, if nothing happened, just tell us and you’ll be okay," or, "It’s your right not to say anything, but I know if I was accused of beating my child and I hadn’t done it, I’d sure want my version on the record," or, "Let’s go outside for a walk in the hall, just the two of us, no notebooks," or, "If you talk to us now, things will be a lot easier on you later."

·         Do not agree to any plea without asking to speak to duty counsel. The police or even Crown Attorneys may tell you that all you have to do to get out of this situation is agree to a several month long anger management course and it will be over. What they do not tell you is that you have to plead guilty before you can take the course [end quotes]

If men who have been falsely accused refuse to plead guilty they will face prolonged litigations and often will end up waiting for a long time to have their cases heard. By that we can deduce that there are an awful number of men sitting in jails while waiting to be found innocent. At an awful cost to the accused, their families and the society. Not to mention the numbers to be added to the false data that are churned out from Stats Can. In spite of the evidence, Stats Can. refuses to do a survey on false allegations.

The following suggested directive may be of interest as it now is a standard practice by many police forces:

·         Test not met:  Where there are no reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has been committed, but police nonetheless believe that the victim’s safety may be at risk, police should consider the availability of other responses, including civil protection orders under provincial and territorial legislation on domestic violence, where applicable (see below), and recognizance orders under section 810 of the Criminal Code.  However, these alternative responses should not be used in place of charges where the test has been met. [Source: Spousal Abuse Policies and Legislation. Final Report of the Ad Hoc Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group Reviewing Spousal Abuse Policies and Legislation. Prepared for Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/fm/reports/spousal.html ]

In short, if there are no grounds to believe the complainer, police will issue a restraining order if the accused is a male and thus save themselves the trouble of having to justify in writing why they did not lay a charge and make an arrest. These orders then are disseminated by Stats. Can. as if they were based on valid grounds.

• Crown counsel withdrew or stayed 58 percent of the 474 criminal harassment charges in our sample. Twenty-five percent of the accused pleaded guilty, 10 percent were found guilty, and seven percent were found not guilty. Looking at the outcomes of cases including all charges (more meaningful, since this is the way that the Crown, defence and the courts generally plan strategies and make decisions), we see that in 29 percent of cases all charges were dropped in exchange for a peace bond, and in an additional 20 percent of cases all charges were dropped or stayed unconditionally (Table 9). A conviction on at least one charge was obtained in 46 percent of the cases. Fifteen percent of accused pleaded guilty to all charges, and eight percent were found guilty of all charges. In nine percent of cases the accused was convicted of criminal harassment, and all other charges were withdrawn or stayed.

• Looking at criminal harassment charges only, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal withdrew or stayed charges with considerable frequency (68 percent, 61 percent and 56 percent respectively). Winnipeg withdrew or stayed 49 percent, Edmonton 47 percent and Halifax 20 percent (2 cases). Peace bond resolutions where criminal harassment was the only charge were most frequent in Montreal (35 percent), less frequent in Vancouver and Toronto (26 percent and 20 percent), and least frequent in Edmonton (13 percent), Winnipeg (10 percent) and Halifax (no cases). The criminal harassment conviction rate in Halifax was 80 percent (8 cases). In Winnipeg it was 45 percent, in Edmonton 42 percent, in Toronto 36 percent, in Montreal 31 percent and in Vancouver 22 percent.

   ·         [I]n about 20 percent of the cases in which charges were dropped or stayed, the file indicated that the victim wanted the charges to be dropped, or that the victim did not cooperate with the prosecution of the case in some way. The files in no cases indicated that these were determining factors in the Crown's decision, but it is clear from our interviews that most Crown see no point in taking a case to trial without the victim being willing to testify in keeping with the original statements taken by the police.

   Police Services Division, British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General, called "Survey of Spousal Assaults Reported to Police [year] in British Columbia" has made an attempt to document the number of initial reports that are eventually validated. According to this report, in 1996, 70% of level 1 reports of [alleged] spousal assault cases were cleared by charges, whereas 28% of reports of level 1 of [alleged] non-spousal assaults were similarly cleared. Ten per cent of all charges were for allegations of uttering threats [p. 22].  As Statistics Canada bases the numbers that it

   The survey indicates that 48% of the reported “incidents” ended in convictions. Only 36% of all charges laid by the Crown ended in conviction, 56% ended in non-conviction, and ‘other’ findings accounted for 8% of the outcome. It is curious that there is no reference to the possibility that the charges in the 56% non-convictions were due to false allegations. Or that at least some of the 48% who were convicted were innocent.

   The report continues: “It is interesting to note that although 60% of the charges [not incidents which each may have several separate charges] were for the least serious form of assault (level 1 assault) and 71% of victims did not seek medical attention, in most cases the police proceeded with charges and the crown approved these charges.”

   The semantics become somewhat confusing, once more, as p. vii of the report tells that about 13% sought medical attention. The breakdown on p. 20 indicates that in 16% of the cases it was not known if medical attention was sought. The 13% includes both male and female victims.

   When looking at injury related statistics it is prudent to keep in mind that a British Home Office Research Study (HORS 191)shows that rather than seeking medical attention for injuries "half of the women who saw a doctor or went to hospital said that it was wholly or partly for emotional or other reasons" [p. 38]

   According to the latest Statistics Canada annual "Family Violence in Canada" there were 1.2 million Adult Criminal Court Convictions from

  1997/98 to 2001/02; out of these 257,000 were "crimes against the person" convictions. There were 727,000 [reports of] violent crimes which were cleared by charge from 1997 to 2001 and a total of 3.5 million of reported incidents. Thus, about one third of the incidents (or charges) cleared ended in convictions. As many convictions are achieved by somewhat shady plea bargains even this number seems inflated. Furthermore, each report may result in several charges being laid, or may be a repeat call by the same complainer. [note how Stats Can., in order to create more confusion, compares different time spans against each other]

   The document in hand does not specify how many of the reports were dismissed outright by the police in spite of the zero tolerance directives. 

   Health Canada:

   In 2001, Health Canada began to issue statistics from hospital ERs and immediately encountered a problem. Women’s visits to emergency departments due to all assault related injuries are minimal. Only 2.27 percent of all injury related visits to hospital ER by all females (3.27% males) were due to all “quarrels/aggression” (Health Canada’s term), irrespective of the victim-perpetrator relationship. Another set of tables indicates that only 1.19 percent of all ER visits by females were by women in the 20-24 age group (2.87% in the 25-44 age group), the maximum number of visits were made by girls between the ages of 1-4 (9.90), closely followed by those between the ages of 10-14 (9.54%) and 5-9 (8.54%). The corresponding numbers for males are: 20-24 years: 1.90% (25-44 years: 5.00%); 1-4 years: 12.95%; 5-9 years: 11.72% and 10-14 years: 15.90%. It is hard to fathom where Statistics Canada finds the scores of battered women who, allegedly, need medical help.

   What is urgently needed if we want to have some semblance of reality is that the press becomes aware of the facts behind the figures.

Sincerely,

Eeva Sodhi

RR 1 McDonald’s Corners,

Ontario, K0G 1M0