Quebec report highlights risk factors for domestic violence – Brandon Sun

MONTREAL — A Quebec commission investigating domestic violence deaths has found that many victims don’t have access to the help they need, even when signs of violence are clear.

The Comité d’examen des décès liés à la marital violence, which is affiliated with the Quebec coroner’s office, investigated 16 fatal cases of domestic violence that occurred between 2018 and 2022, resulting in 24 deaths.
The report published today shows that there are easily identifiable risk factors that recur in deaths, including previous incidents of domestic violence, recent or imminent separation and the aggressor’s loss of control over the victim.

The 32 recommendations include greater awareness of these risk factors, which include a set of control behaviors called coercive control.

The commission’s other recommendations focused on gun control, promoting resources for people who need to leave an abusive partner, and providing more support for immigrant women who face barriers to getting help.

The report found that in many cases victims met with police, health and social care workers who had the opportunity to intervene, although very few victims had contact with domestic violence groups.

“In all situations examined, it appears that no resources for abusive spouses were able to intervene, and only three victims appear to be linked to specialized sources of domestic violence support (help and shelters), which is concerning,” the authors wrote. .

The report noted that the province has taken a number of steps in recent years to address domestic violence, including better training for police and prosecutors and increasing awareness of coercive control, which is “closely linked to most manifestations of domestic violence,” it said. .

The authors defined coercive control as various strategies used by the aggressor to deprive victims of their freedom and gain control over them. These can include violence or threats of violence, but also depriving someone of resources, imposing various “micro-regulations” on how they behave or behave, and strategies of manipulation or humiliation.

The report found that all 16 cases investigated had prior incidents of domestic violence, although not all were reported to officials. Other recurring risk factors include loss of control over the victim (13 cases), separation (12 cases), escalation of violence (11 cases), problematic use of drugs and alcohol, and the victim’s fear of the aggressor (10 cases each).

“The multitude of these factors, their diversity and the connections between them remind us that domestic violence manifests itself through clearly recognizable external signs,” the report says.

Ten of the fatalities were firearm-related, and recommendations included greater education on measures to take weapons away from potential aggressors, including providing a confidential tip. No efforts were made to confiscate weapons from any of the perpetrators involved in the incidents mentioned in the report.

The report provides only basic details of the deaths investigated, but states that all perpetrators of domestic violence were men. Among the 24 deaths, there were 14 murders and 10 suicides, including seven times when the aggressor killed his partner or former partner and then himself.

There have been two cases of domestic violence victims dying by suicide, including one that occurred shortly after the victim’s aggressor was released from prison. The report shows that one of the perpetrators committed suicide shortly after going to his ex-partner’s house and attacking her.

However, the authors noted that murder and suicide cases are “overrepresented” in the current study because coroner reports are often released more quickly when the perpetrator is dead and therefore cannot be brought to justice.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2024.