Summary

Canada is known to have one of the strongest sexual assault criminal legislations in the world. However, public opinion and stigma is still a significant obstacle in implementing a trauma and violence-informed response, which is an approach centering victims and survivors. This section explores Canada's Department of Justice, its perspectives, and response strategies.

The Canadian Department of Justice

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has the mandate to support the dual roles of the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada. The Minister of Justice presides over the DOJ and is responsible for justice policy development, whereas the Attorney General provides legal services to the government and oversees federal prosecutions.

• The Department itself aims to achieve three goals:

  1. To support the Minister of Justice in working to ensure that Canada is a just and law-abiding society with an accessible, efficient and fair system of justice;
  2. To ensure the federal government is supported by high-quality legal services
  3. To promote respect for rights and freedoms, the law and the Constitution

• In addition, it has many functions which shape and determine federal law and policy.

  • Making Law
  • Criminal Reform
  • Making Policy

Gender-Based Violence

• The Department of Justice defines Gender-Based Violence as “Violence targeted at a person because of their gender, gender expression, gender identity or perceived gender.”
  • The Department recognizes that men and women are impacted unevenly by both crime and the criminal justice system. Firstly, men are the majority of those accused, convicted, and incarcerated. Secondly, women experience much higher rates of violent victimization than men.
  • Certain crimes such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and domestic homicide, are particularly gendered, as women make up the vast majority of victims/survivors while men are overwhelmingly perpetrators. Additionally, women are much more likely to be victimized by a perpetrator they know. Although they are not as likely to be homicide or murder victims than men, women make up the majority of victims killed by a partner.

Underreporting of Sexual Assault

• Data from the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS) on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization) and the 2018 Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS), 2 surveys run by the Canadian Government in tandem with the Department of Justice, demonstrate that sexual assault is rarely reported to the police.
  • In the 2018 SSPPS, only 5% of women disclosed their sexual assault to police within 12 months.
  • Reasons (by the DOJ) for why this rate is so low:

Trauma and Violence-Informed Approach

• The Department of Justice has also committed to taking a trauma and violence-informed approach to cases of gender-based violence. It is currently the dominant approach taken by the Canadian legal system and one of its many harm-reduction initiatives. This type of approach recognizes and prioritizes the long-term impacts of violence and the trauma it generates for victims and survivors regardless of whether the experienced violence is ongoing or in the past.
• This approach is based on four principles:
• The DOJ also emphasizes the fact that research still needs to be done to better understand the impact of trauma in the context of the legal system. There is a lack of research on what strategies are most successful for supporting a trauma and violence-informed approach
• However, there have been successful programs that have resulted from the prioritization of trauma and violence-informed approaches.
  • Integrated Service Provision
  • Sexual Assault Centre
• To read more about Canada’s implementation of trauma and violence-informed care, see Trauma and Violence-Informed Approaches .

The Justice Federal Victims Strategy