An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Spousal Violence in Canada, 2009

Ting Zhang, PhD
Josh Hoddenbagh, MA
Susan McDonald, LLB, PhD
Katie Scrim, BA

Report prepared for the Department of Justice Canada

© GOVERNMENT OF CANADA, 2013-01-25

The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice Canada.

Acknowledgements

This report is the result of the efforts of many people who all deserve credit and our sincere thanks. First of all, we would like to thank those at Statistics Canada, in particular at the General Social Survey and at the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, for their patience with our questions and special data requests.

From the Department of Justice, we would like to thank the Director of the Research and Statistics Division, Stephen Mihorean, for supporting this work; Ab Currie for his assistance with the legal aid portion; Melissa Northcott and Valérie Bourdeau for additional assistance with references; Alyson MacLean, Ab Currie, Kelly Morton-Bourgon and Albert Brews for reviewing the draft; Ting Li, Cherami Wichmann and Cathy Thomson for assistance with data on the civil justice system; and Gillian Blackell, Marilyn Bongard and Claire Farid for their policy support. The support of Status of Women Canada and in particular, Erin Leigh and Salena Brickey, has contributed greatly to moving the costing of gendered violence forward amongst Canadian researchers and policy makers.

In addition, we must thank all the provincial officials who responded to our requests and provided data on civil justice costs.

And finally, we must acknowledge the invaluable comments we received from our external reviewers, all of which have ultimately strengthened this work and furthered our understanding of the many issues inherent to a study of this scope and complexity. They are listed below in alphabetical order:

  • Dr. Rick Brown, Australian Institute of Criminology
  • Professor Michael Burns, Memorial University
  • Dr. Brent Davis, Australian Institute of Criminology
  • Professor Matthew Gray, Australian National University
  • Professor Holly Johnson, University of Ottawa
  • Professor Maryse Rinfret-Raynor, Université de Montréal
  • Dr. Adam Tomison, Australian Institute of Criminology
  • Professor Sylvia Walby, University of Lancaster