Family Violence in Canada

In the modern era, where the entire world is moving towards advancement and countries are improving rapidly in all fields, the acts of family violence proves to be a black patch on our positively growing society. At times, family violence was considered to be a result of primitive thinking of our society but unfortunately the state of this subject has not changed much with the modernisation of our society. The primary objective of this review is to analyze the issue of family violence in Canada over the years.

Problem Statement

Of all the violent crimes that were reported in Canada in 2016, more than one quarter (26%), was as a result of family violence. According to statistics, 67% of the people reported to be abused in the family violence occurrences were women and girls (Government of Canada, 2018). Family violence occurs when someone decides to use abusive behavior to harm or control a member of their family, or an individual with whom they are in a relationship with. Over the years, reports of family violence in Canada have been emerging, and the law enforcement team has always tried to do their part in ensuring that people that commit these crimes are apprehended (Department of Justice, 2017).

However, despite the many arrests and charges, the issue of family violence in Canada has always posed a serious challenge to the law enforcers since more people continue to engage in this behavior. Over the decade, research has been conducted on family violence in Canada, but none has been able to give recommendations that would help tackle this issue for good as the cases still arise. Understanding the reason why family violence occurs, the types of family violence often happening and victims could help shed some light on the matter in the attempt to find a lasting solution. To do this, more research will be conducted on this subject and presented in this paper as well as recommendations for addressing the vice. Approach:

Finding, Analyzing and Comparing Literature To find a lasting solution to the problem at hand, research will have to be conducted on this subject from different resources. The first step would be to research about the various forms of family violence that are occurring in Canadian homes. This information would mainly be found from published resources such as news articles from websites, academic resources such as a peer-reviewed journal article and finally from printed resources such as books.

The more the information found, the better it will be for idea presentation and finding what research so far has been able to help in dealing with the issue. In doing so, it would be easier to see the gaps in the literature and therefore proper recommendations given on the same. To be in a position to understand and provide the relevant information to tackle this issue, there is need to be efficient ways of gathering information and most of it would come from government resources, law article and from the police department to help analyze why family violence occurs in many circumstances and try to come up with viable solution to the issue by drawing recommendations.

Organization of the Literature

Much of the literature that will be used for this topic will depend on its relevance to the subject. For this reason, the literature used for this research seeks to understand the different types of family violence that is occurring in the society, what the government is doing to prevent such cases and the reason why these cases have continued despite the efforts the law enforcers input. There have been reports that have emerged in the country claiming that family violence is under-reported (Government of Canada, 2018). This makes the vice to be underestimated yet it poses a tremendous danger to the society. If this is the case, it could be the reason that the issue is still ongoing. Not much focus is given on the issues as required to tackle the problem. The literature that would be used for this assignment will be dependent on its relevance in presenting the available ideas on the subject matter as well as the possible solution that has been provided before to attempt to find long-lasting solution.

Scope of Literature

The main subject at hand is working with family violence, and more concentration will be on finding sustainable solution towards working around the issue. To ensure that much is covered on this subject, information will come from newspaper article including their websites, law enforcement reports found on the web, case studies and report papers, published as well as peer-reviewed journal articles. Literature Analysis: Family violence has been an issue in Canada that has not yet found a sustainable solution as the problem keep resurfacing. This behavior includes many forms of emotional as well as physical abuse. In addition to this, it could also involve neglect that is carried out by a person in an intimate relationship or by a family member (Directorate of employment, labor and social affairs, 2013). This type of violence could involve a single act of abuse or many repeated acts which form a pattern of mistreatment and exploitation. Many people that are reported to have engaged in family violence in Canada have used some physical abuse on their victims.

Family violence could have severe and even fatal consequences, and therefore this matter has to be taken seriously, and the perpetrators brought to book (The Royal Women's Hospital, 2018). Not only should the law be enforced, but a lasting solution should be devised to curb the menace. In Canada, no criminal code specifically binds a person from committing family violence, but if the act occurred against a family member, the person that would have done it would still be charged using other criminal codes (Weiss, 2011). There are different types of violence including sexual, physical, financial as well as emotional abuse and neglect (Gibbons, 2015). It is essential to understand that these different forms of family violence occur in a wide range of contexts and relationship. Not all could happen in a family set up alone because as it has already been established, family violence also occurs among people in intimate relationships.

Physical abuse is the intentional use of force against an individual without their consent. It could be slapping, pushing or shoving, stabbing, shooting, burning, throwing objects at an individual or even killing a person. As it can be noted from this list, some of these acts are quite severe than others. Another form of family violence is sexual abuse which could happen if one is forced to engage in sexual behavior without their consent, forced to do humiliating sexual activities or continued sexual acts when asked to stop (Women's Shelters Canada, 2017). Physical and sexual abuse being the most common type of abuse, more research is often conducted on it, and this would be the point of concentration. Rand & Rennison (2004), different surveys have been conducted since 1972 on family violence trends and how they affect the community at large. According to these surveys, it has been established that females are the greatest victims of physical and sexual abuse in family setups and relationships compared to their male counterparts. Looking at many surveys that have been conducted on this subject, most are focused on reporting about the violence that is performed on women (Couture, 2018). While they are not wrong in assuming that family violence is occurring to women alone, it is essential to analyze the effects of the behavior and how it is affecting our society for both males and females.

One of the vital reasons for addressing family violence is because children tend to learn what they see and could portray these behaviors when they become adults in their own family (Campo, 2015). As a result, these acts bring about moral decay in the society, and if this cycle is not stopped, then it could be detrimental to the populace. In Canada, various solutions have been created by the government and other peace-keeping initiatives to ensure reduced incidents, and that action is taken against any person with this behavior. The Government of Canada family violence initiative brings together 15 federal government initiatives that is geared towards responding to violence at any time (Kohut, 2016). In addition to this policy, centers for victims have also been set up all over the country for easy access as well as end violence against girls and women campaigns being undertaken. As much as these are all viable options, they have still not been able to rectify the situation entirely. What needs to be done in this situation is to understand the cause which could be divisions in the family, former family experiences while growing up, and the desire of people to be in control of everything by any means necessary (Sutherland,2015).

When these points have been addressed, the best possible solution will result from the government focusing their attention on this and establishing proper systems to address the issue.

Conclusion

The research that has been conducted so far on working with family violence has primarily focused on pointing out women and girls as victims of physical and sexual abuse. While they are the primary victims, more attention should be turned towards establishing what causes the instabilities in the modern family to create these traumatic experiences against their loved ones and not only females. As much as the government of Canada has done its part in trying to manage this menace, enough has not been done. For the services offered by the government to be efficient for its people, it is recommended that more initiative and programs are set up to investigate and address the vice before it gets out of hand. Family violence can be controlled if all stakeholders work together to find a cause to and thus a sustainable solution. Moreover, there are quite a lot of strategies which are being applied to try to stop or lessen family violence. It is significant to review the helpfulness of a strategy that is being used. Restructuring the legislation in an attempt to make sure that family violence falls under the compass of the bylaw is imperative. Matrimony laws are vital as well. They women ought to be able to enter freely without coercion into a marriage or to go away, to acquire monetary credit, and to own and manage property.