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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Oct 22.
Published in final edited form as: Pimatisiwin. 2010 Fall;8(2):9–33.

Table 1.

Published Estimates of Family Violence in First Nation, Inuit, and Métis Communities

Author, Year Aboriginal Groups and Place Type of Study/Size Type of Violence Frequency of Occurrence and Relative Frequency
ONWA, 1989 Ontario First Nations and Métis women on reserve, in urban, rural/ isolated, status/non- status 104 Aboriginal women completed a self-administered questionnaire. Included consultation with community care and health professionals by telephone (127) and personal interviews (40). Mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse

  • 80% Aboriginal women had experienced family violence.

  • Aboriginal women were eight times more likely to suffer abuse than non- Aboriginal women
Correctional Service of Canada, 1990 Aboriginal women in Canadian prison system Two Aboriginal women who had been through the Canadian prison system conducted interviews with 39 Aboriginal women. Physical and sexual abuse, childhood violence, and witnessing abuse.

  • 90% of Aboriginal women reported physical abuse compared with 61% of non-Aboriginal women.

  • 61% of Aboriginal women reported sexual abuse, compared with 50% of the non-Aboriginal women.

  • 69% (27/39) Aboriginal women reported experiences of childhood violence, rape, regular sexual abuse, the witnessing of a murder, watching their mothers repeatedly beaten, and beatings in juvenile detention centres at the hands of staff and other children.
Amnesty International, 2004 reporting INAC, 1996 North American Indian (First Nations), Métis or Inuit 1996 Census. 799,010 individuals aged 25–44 reported as North American Indian, Métis or Inuit, about 3% of total population Death from violence

  • Aboriginal women were five times more likely than other Canadian women of the same age to die of violence.
Muhajarine and D’Arcy, 1999 Saskatoon First Nations and Métis women Interviews with 728 women receiving prenatal services (91 or 16.8% Aboriginal) Physical abuse

  • 16.5% (15/91) Aboriginal women were abused

  • Aboriginal women were 2.8 times (95% CI 1.0–7.8) more likely than non-Aboriginal women to have suffered abuse, after adjusting for partner drinking, perceived stress, and lower social support
Heaman, 2005 Aboriginal women delivering in Winnipeg 1999–2000 Interviews with 680 women (38% Aboriginal) Physical abuse

  • 18% (46/256) of Aboriginal women reported abuse during pregnancy

  • Aboriginal women were 4.1 times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to experience physical abuse in the year of pregnancy.
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2001b Aboriginal women and men (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) (excludes NWT, Yukon, or Nunavut ) General Social Survey including a sample size of 25,876. Aboriginal people made up 2% aged 15+ Emotional abuse

  • 37% of Aboriginal women and 30% of Aboriginal men reported experiencing emotional abuse over a five-year period.

  • 57% of the Aboriginal women who experienced abuse indicated that children witnessed the assaults against them.
Janssen et al., 2003 First Nations women in Vancouver Nurses interviewed 4750 women who gave birth in 1999–2000; 2.4% (112) were First Nations Physical violence, fear of violence, pregnancy

  • 17.9% (20/112) of First Nations women reported violence during pregnancy.

  • A First Nation woman was 14.6 times 95%CI 9.5–24.8 (unadjusted) more likely to report violence in pregnancy compared with other women.
AFN–CPNP, 2003 First Nations women in 85 reserves including the Yukon and the NWT. Cross sectional household survey by researcher from same community 2,523 mothers Physical abuse, emotional/ verbal abuse

  • 22% (523/2359) reported domestic violence in the year prior to the interview. Of these, 59% (286/487) reported physical and 41% (201/487) reported emotional/verbal abuse.

  • 14% reported abuse during their latest pregnancy.
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2005 Aboriginal women (First Nations, Inuit, Métis) (excludes NWT, Yukon or Nunavut) 2004 GSS Survey. 25,000 sample, 2% Aboriginal. Spousal violence

  • 24% of Aboriginal women and 18% of Aboriginal men reported partner violence in 5 years up to 2004.

  • Aboriginal people were 3 times more likely to be victims of spousal violence (21% vs. 7%) and 3 times more likely to be the victims of spousal assault than non-Aboriginal women (24% vs. 7%)
Statistics Canada, 2006 Spousal violence, physical or sexual abuse

  • 54% of Aboriginal women had experienced severe and potentially life threatening violence

  • Aboriginal women were more likely (54% vs. 37%) than non-Aboriginal women to experience this violence which included being beaten or choked, having had a gun or knife used against them, or being sexually assaulted.
Reports to police, use of social services

  • Aboriginal women were more likely to contact police regarding spousal violence (50% vs. 35%) and more likely to use social services (55% vs. 46% non-Aboriginal).
Homicide

  • Aboriginal women were eight times more likely to be homicide victims than were non-Aboriginal women.

  • Aboriginal men had 38 times more spousal homicide than did non- Aboriginal men.
Pearce et al., 2008 Aboriginal males and females in two BC urban centres Vancouver and Prince George. Cohort study of 543 Aboriginal youth (52% male and 48% female) between 14 and 30 years of age who use injection and non-injection drugs. Interviewed between October 2003 and April 2005. Drug use (smoking and injection), HIV risk, and sexual abuse.

  • 68% (179/262) of women and 28% (79/281) of men reported sexual abuse at least once in their lifetime

  • Among those who reported sexual abuse, 69% were Aboriginal women and 31% were Aboriginal men.

  • Adjusting for sociodemographic variables, sexual abuse survivors were twice as likely to be HIV-positive compared to those who did not report any sexual abuse.