The issue of violence and abuse isn’t an issue or problem that simply began or was created over night. This issue has existed for centuries. However, the views and opinions about this subject of society today and those of society two centuries ago, for instance, are considerably different and have changed significantly.

In a more historical context, “a man’s right to use physical force to correct his wife was supported by legal, religious, cultural, political and economic structures of Western society.” (Johnson) Violence and abuse was seen as an action that wasn’t wrong for a husband to execute on his wife. However, in today’s Canadian society, using “physical force” or any type of abuse or violence on your partner is against the law, isn’t morally right and the general Canadian population doesn’t accept this kind of behavior from any citizen. It was only some three decades ago that the male partner violence against women or simply violence and abuse against one’s intimate partner was really “discovered” and accepted as a social problem. Since then, many researchers have taken on the responsibility and “task of quantifying the extent, severity, and consequences of “marital” violence. Most define “marital” as including common law or cohabiting relationships.” (Brownridge, Halli)

However, it is only fairly recently that abuse and violence has been accepted as a severe and serious social problem. With these studies and the findings that were found, researchers have been able to define the different types of abuse and violence. In 1993, Canada signed the United Nation’s Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which gives a general meaning and is accepted by the international community. This definition of violence and abuse against women is:

Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. (Johnson)

This definition is very broad and wide and doesn’t explain a considerable amount about how Canadian will act towards abuse and violence. This definition also doesn’t simply to Canada, but to the world. It also only applies to women, who are abused. For researchers, who conduct studies on violence and abuse, this definition should be kept in mind. There are several definitions, involving abuse and violence, which were found and based on the researches on abuse and violence.

In Canada, researchers began to do studies on the subject of abuse and violence in intimate relationships only a few decades ago. There may be several different ways of observing and analyzing the violence and abuse towards one’s partner or spouse, in an intimate relationship. The articles look mainly at one type qualitative research method, a clinical study, and at one quantitative research method, the surveys.

There is one article that concentrates on discussing the findings on a clinical study. In her article, Cessation of Assaults on Wives, the author, Holly Johnson, does concentrate on explaining and discussing the findings from her clinical study. As a sample, the author primarily draws her conclusions from women, who are living in shelters, because they experienced and encountered severe or extreme forms of abuse and violence at the hand of their intimate partner, and have limited financial or other types of resources to help them get away from the violence and abuse. One of the main conclusions that the author of this article is able to draw and explain to the readers is the fact that these women were isolated from other people, who would be able to help them in some way. Their current or former spouse or common law partner isolated these women to have full control and dominance, which is part of the masculine gender role of dominance and the feminine gender role of subversive.

Apart from this clinical study and this article, most of the other articles draw their conclusions from several different surveys, which were mainly conducted by Statistics Canada. One of these various surveys, conducted by Statistics Canada, is the Violence Against Women Survey (VAWS), which was done from February to June 1993. This survey was created to be able to discuss and explain many of the different aspects that were at fault in the previous surveys on this subject and problem, as well as to be able “to provide national data on all forms of sexual and non-sexual violence against women.” (Johnson, Sacco) This survey is the first survey of its kind and has society better understand abuse and violence, but it is a fairly complex survey, which was created to disucuss and address issues involving women’s choice and decision to use shelters, to report to the police, to leave and then to go back to their violent partners.

For this survey, a “representative stratified probability sample of 12,300 women 18 years of age or over living in the ten provinces was interviewed by telephone between February and June 1993.” (Johnson, Sacco) This survey concentrates and focuses on violence and abuse conducted by the abuse or violence victims’ partners in intimate relationships, such as the victims’ present or former spouse or common law partner. The women, who were interviewed for this survey, were all questioned about their experience of nonfatal violence or abuse at the hands of their present or past husbands or common law partner.

In the article Lethal and Nonlethal Violence Against Wives, the authors briefly discuss, explain and describe Statistics Canada’s homicide archive, which is also at times referred to or known as the “Homicide Survey.” This survey began in 1974 and went on until 1992. This survey is based on the victims’ data files of all Canadian criminal homicides known to police, which are related to violence and abuse within intimate relationships. Every time new information and facts relating to this type of situation becomes available, the Homicide Survey is brought up and updated based on these new details. This survey, or archive, includes various different types of information involving sex, age, and marital status of the victim and the killer, as well as the relationship of both the killers and the victims.

There is also some mention and discussion of the Conflict Tactic Scale (CTS), which is a commonly used instrument in some quantitative researches, such as surveys. This instrument uses the “family conflict” approach and “consists of 18 items intended to measure ways of handling interpersonal conflict in family relationships.” (Johnson, Sacco) However, there are some surveys do, in fact, depart from this scale to come to their conclusion. One example of this type of departure is the 1993 Violence Against Women Survey.

Several other surveys discussed, mentioned and/or explained in the various different articles for this essay are the General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization, the National Youth Survey, and the 1975 and 1985 National Family Violence Survey.

However, these surveys aren’t as important or as reliable as the Violence Against Women and the Homicide Surveys. For instance, the GSS isn’t very reliable or dependable, because it is a national survey, which was created “to monitor the attitudes and experiences of Canadians on a wide range of issues.” (Cohen, Maclean) It doesn’t simply analyze abuse and violence, as well as other features involving this social problem. For this specific reason, to better understand and explain the issue of abuse and violence in Canada, the more general studies, such as the 2004 GSS on Victimization, is less dependable than the studies, which concentrate more on abuse and violence, such as the Violence Against Women Survey.

All of these studies and research methods have found information and data to help society better understand and explain abuse and violence in intimate relationships and reveal it as an important and severe social problem. The main finding in these researches is that women are more likely to fall victim to abuse and violence at the hands of their partners in intimate relationships than men are, though there still are some men who are victims of abuse and violence. Women are also considered and believed to be at greater risk of experiencing and encountering sexual assaults than men are.

It could be said that it may be for this reason that there are considerably less studies done on men, who are victim to abuse and violence at the hands of their intimate partner. In the article Canada’s shelters for abused women, 2005/2006, the author explains and discusses that, “Differences in the type and impact of spousal violence experienced by men and women may contribute to differences men and women display in seeking help.” This fact may also partly explain and describe why there seem to be more studies done on the violence and abuse experienced by women than studies done on the violence and abuse experienced by men.

When this survey was done, in 1993, the Violence Against Women Survey was able to reveal new information about the subhect of violence and abuse in intimate relationships. The results of this survey showed that approximately “25% of all women had suffered physical or sexual assault (including threats of harm) at the hands of a current or past marital partner since the age of 16.” (Hart, Kropp, Roesch, Ogloff, Whittemore) This represents a total of 3075 women of the sample for this survey, who had experienced abuse by a current or past spouse.

The VAW survey was also able to come to the conclusion that approximately 51% of women in Canada had encountered and experienced no less than one event or incident of physical or sexual assault since they were 16 years of age. “This would represent over five million women.” (Johnson, Sacco) This survey discovered that the women in Canada, who are exposed to abuse and violence in intimate relationships, have higher rates of some form of physical illnesses than women, who aren’t exposed to abuse or violence in their intimate relationships.

Another conclusion that the 1993 Violence Against Women Survey was able to reveal was that sexual harassment is something or an aspect, which isn’t considered unusual for many Canadian women, in today’s society. This survey showed that approximately 87% of women in Canada had encountered and experienced one incident of sexual harassment that was significant enough to report to someone, whether it’s someone close to them or to the police. This survey was also able to come to the conclusion that, a large number of the cases, the assaults and violence on the wives is described as being “repeated or, in some cases, ongoing episodes of abuse.” (Johnson, Sacco) With the help of the homicide archive, the Violence Against Women Survey was able to notice that the level of nonfatal violence and abuse against wives “was about four times higher in coresiding common law unions than is registered unions.” (Wilson, Johnson, Daly)

Another important survey is Statistics Canada’s homicide archive. The homicide archive is a survey that may help society understand and explain the abuse and violence, but also the level of uxoricide in Canada. Uxoricide is the killing or the murdering of one’s wife, generally by the husband.

One aspect of this survey that was brought up and found is that “jealous” and “possessive” are two words or terms that are often applied to “describe the mindset of men who have beaten or killed wives.” (Wilson, Johnson, Daly) In the article Lethal and Nonlethal Violence Against Wives, the authors explain and describe that the uxoricide illustrate or represent about 11.4% of all homicide victims in Canada, between the period of 1974 and 1992.

There is also the General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization that may be taken inti consideration. In 2004, the GSS questioned and interviwed approximately 24,000 Canadian citizens, both men and women, about their encounters and experiences they had had with criminal victimization, mainly of abuse and violence. Based on the information and findings that was given by the Canadian interviewees, the rate of violence and abuse in Canada wasn’t any higher in 2004 that it was five years earlier, in 1999, when the survey had begun and was first done.

This general survey has revealed and shown that the chances and differences of self-report of brutal victimization was highest in young people between the ages of 15 and 24, single individuals, those who frequently participate in activities during the evening and the individuals who live in urban areas.

When this survey was done for a second time, in 2004, the GSS was able to report that the rate of spousal violence hadn’t changed since 1999 and was still at 7 per cent. With this finding, this survey explained that approximately 546,000 men and 653,000 women had experienced some form or type of violence and abuse at the hands of a present or previous spouse or common law partner. The data and statistics were able to show that “the nature and consequences of spousal violence were more severe for women than for men.” (Family Violence in Canada) With its findings, the General Social Survey on Victimization has also been able to reveal and present that the emotional abuse was found to be more widespread than the sexual or physical abuse and violence.

Some of the conclusions found from the several different studies may lead us to understand the intimate relationship abuse by examining two tenets or beliefs of attachment, in intimate relationships, between two partners. One of these beliefs is that this attachment will fulfill a fundamental need of survival. During the marriage, for instance, the two spouses depend on and help each other, to be able to provide for each other, both financially and emotionally speaking.

Though it is less common now that they are the sole provider, men are often the main financial provider and the female partner has relied and leaned on the male partner, which may be one of the reasons why the women don’t leave their spouse or partner. This is also a way for the dominant men to keep their control over their spouse or partner.

The second of these tenets and beliefs is that the “individuals whose attachment needs have been frustrated may strike out violently to regain proximity to the perceived loss of an intimate partner.” (Henderson, Bartholomew, Trinke, Kwong) For the violent partner, whose partner or spouse has left, there is a need to recover their partner or spouse. For them, the spouse or partner, who is the victim of abuse and violence, has become and is a need, in the intimate relationship.

Abuse and violence in Canada is a serious and severe social problem and won’t disappear overnight. With the help of the several studies that have been done, society can better understand and explain several different aspects and circumstances surrounding this issue. These studies can and may help us try and solve this problem as a society and individually in our community.