In the last two decades the Canadian Justice System has responded to lobbying by women's organizations to take a more active interventionist role in responding to family violence. This has involved funding, legislation and policies on enforcement. While criminal law is federal, enforcement and implementation is typically provincial (courts) or municipal (policing), resulting in a variety of policies and programs across the country. In addition, a number of provinces have introduced civil legislation to address domestic violence issues. While policy makers across Canada are committed to reducing the devastating impact of domestic violence, their diverse policies and practices must be analyzed and compared to determine best practice. All of the centres in the Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence (the Alliance) have been involved in research on some portions of the justice system's response to domestic violence. These early studies reveal substantial jurisdictional variation with substantially different outcomes and have demonstrated a need for a national study that would permit rigorous interjurisdictional analysis. Comparing the response to abuse in different jurisdictions will allow the Alliance to highlight similarities and differences, but also to understand what can be adapted, what works, and what does not work. We need to have a better sense of what are the factors that make initiatives successful in order to generate a better response to violence in all the provinces, as well as to understand reasons for (and consequences of) the absence of initiatives.
Objectives of this proposed project are to:
Project Team:
Principal Investigator: C. Gill
Co-Investigators: H. Berman, M. Jackson, J. Ursel, P. Jaffe, M. Dawson.
Canadian Observatory on the Justice System’s Response to Intimate Partner Violence Website
The Cornwall Public Inquiry was created by the Government of Ontario. The Government appointed Judge Normand Glaude to be the Commissioner. The Inquiry started its hearing work in February 2006.
The Inquiry has two parts – usually called “Phase 1” and “Phase 2”.
What is Phase 1?
The Cornwall Public Inquiry has two jobs in what is “Phase 1” of the Inquiry:
In Phase 1, there is a public hearings process in which evidence is given and lawyers from the Inquiry and from the institutions and other parties ask questions of those giving information and review all the documents that might explain what had happened in the past. This is a more “court-like” process.
So far, in Phase 1, the Commissioner of the Cornwall Public Inquiry, Normand Glaude, has heard evidence from expert witnesses knowledgeable about child sex abuse and the justice system, and various institutions such as child welfare organizations, the Catholic Church, probation services. There has been evidence from victims and alleged victims of abuse; many of these were boys or young men at the time of the incidents involved. There has also been community context evidence, including evidence about the media. The response of institutions such as the Cornwall Community Police Services, certain school boards, the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, the Ministry of the Attorney General and so on are being heard in the first half of 2008.
What is Phase 2?
Phase 2 is about healing and reconciliation in Cornwall. It’s about looking forward, not about the past events that Phase 1 looks at. The job of Phase 2 includes addressing the hurt and rebuilding trust in the community.
There are five parts of Phase 2:
Phase 2 does not involve any hearings – it is not a legal process, but a community building and policy development process.
The Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children has a staff member on the Advisory Panel for the Commissioner.
For more information on the Cornwall Inquiry please go to www.cornwallinquiry.ca
The experience of trauma in the lives of women often has a lifelong impact on survivors. The occurrence of adverse physical and emotional sequelae, including problems related to attachment, identity, affect regulation and interpersonal relationships, have been well-documented. Although these effects are particularly salient during the reproductive years, little scholarly attention has been paid to how past trauma shapes and affects the transition to motherhood. Instead, most research has focused on maternal and fetal outcomes when trauma is experienced during pregnancy. In this proposed feminist grounded theory study, we examine trauma among three groups of women as they negotiate the changes in roles, emotions and physical states that occur during the transition to motherhood: Aboriginal women who have experienced historical trauma in the context of colonization, genocide, and oppression; refugee women who endured premigration trauma; and Canadian women who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The goal of this research is to develop a substantive grounded theory explaining how women who have experienced intimate and systemic/structural forms of trauma negotiate the perinatal period.
Specific objectives are to explore:
The findings will ultimately lead to the design and evaluation of interventions and policies aimed at maximizing health among this population.
Project Team:
Principal Investigators: H. Berman and R. Mason
Co-Investigators: R. Lanius, S. Rodger, L. Ross
Funds received for the development of an interactive, ‘girl-controlled’ website. This project will complement and extend the national study, Intersecting Sites of Violence in the Lives of Girls. More specificthe website will provide a ‘safe space’ where girls and young women can share their stories, engage in dialogue with others who have experienced varied forms of violence, critically reflect on the everyday pressures they endure within their homes, communities, schools, and within society more broadly, and share strategies for resistance.
Project Team:
H. Berman, K. Pozniak, B. MacQuarrie, Y. Hussain, M. Callaghan
Violence in the media is pervasive. The destructive effects of violent music videos, video games, TV programs, music lyrics, the Internet and television programs are being absorbed daily by our children and youth. They are directly linked to safety in schools and in our communities. Our society can’t afford to be complacent against the invasive power of the media to influence young people.
A coalition has formed among concerned organizations who want to stop the growing quantity of violence that young people are exposed to every day. We want to put tools in the hands of students, parents and educators to change the insidious and toxic effects of media violence.
Research has shown that the single most effective action we can take to reduce aggression in schools today is to educate children about the destructive effects of violent videos, music and television programs and to help students be more informed and critical users of media.
But we need the government’s help. While the work of this committee related to media awareness in the curriculum is supported by the Ministry of Education, we need stronger government commitment in tackling the broader societal implications of violence in the media.
The coalition is made up of individuals and groups including:
In addition to participating on the coalition, The Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women and Children has partnered with the Ontario Public School Board Association to raise awareness, promote education and action in Ontario schools by developing user friendly educational materials at several levels. When completed these will include:
1. Teacher–friendly lesson plans for elementary and secondary students that are clearly connected to existing curriculum expectations to ensure that this initiative is not seen to be additional workload but rather an opportunity for integrative studies on the impact of media violence at different grade levels.
2. Material available for teachers and parent groups for public forums on media violence including PowerPoint presentations, overheads, brochures and information packages on media violence that can be downloaded from the OPSBA web-site as well as partner organizations’ web-sites. The material will include current research on media violence, classroom and group activities connected to the curriculum, agendas for a parent information night/ workshop, readings, and links to other resources and helpful web- sites.
3. Every school in Ontario will receive a CD with this material
For more information on Media Violence or the Coalition please go to the Ontario Public School Board Website at www.opsba.org or download the contents of the CD here.
The primary aim of this project is to develop a versatile and comprehensive framework for mentoring youth between the ages of 11-14 to address various forms of violence and promote healthy and equal relationships and social spaces in ways that are collaborative, creative, and youth-centred. The framework developed will provide adults working with youth in diverse institutional and community settings and sectors with promising practice guidelines and strategies for mentoring youth using an approach that is participatory and intersectional.
This main objective reflects our understanding that it is important to develop meaningful and empowering, yet flexible, mentoring strategies for engaging both male and female youth from diverse communities in the work of challenging violence and of fostering healthier, more equitable, patterns of social interrelationships. It is important to develop mentoring strategies that respond to the diversity and specificity of youth experiences, social contexts, and identities, and that inclusively engage the knowledge and direct participation of youth. The mentoring framework created with this initiative will be informed by a theoretical foundation of intersectionality and by a participatory action methodology. This mentoring model will provide best practices, strategies, and resources that enable youth and adults to work in partnership to design, implement, and evaluate initiatives that engage youth in the important work of examining and challenging the different forms of violence, inequalities, and exclusions in their everyday lives and promoting healthy more equal relationships and social spaces.
At the end of this initiative, in November 2009, we will host a conference where we will draw on local knowledge to identify approaches to mentoring youth between the ages of 11-14 that address various forms of violence and promote healthy and equal relationships. This exciting province wide event is designed to be collaborative, creative and youth-centred and will feature diverse voices, including Francophone and Aboriginal perspectives. The project will wrap up with the production of a manual that draws attention to new and innovative approaches, strategies and tools that can be adapted with youth locally.
Project Team:
H. Berman, P. Jaffe, B. MacQuarrie, R. Hughes, Y. Hussain, M. Pajot, S. Abdelwahab
The World Health Organization defines violence as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation" (Krug and Dahlberg, 2002). Although there is an emerging body of research on gender violence, there are currently no comprehensive studies conducted at a national level that focus exclusively on the topic of girls’ victimization experiences. Although the literature includes information regarding how specific characteristics of youth such as gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, social class, culture and ethnicity may be related to violence victimization, there is minimal information available that investigates how the intersection of the social group categories influences adolescents’ perceptions and experiences of violence. It is well established that violence victimization acts as a risk factor that compromises adolescents’ developmental transition to adulthood. However, there is a noticeable gap in the scientific literature as there has been limited inclusion of persons from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, in addition to other social categories.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence, nature, and frequency of violence experienced by a nationally representative sample of youth. A second objective is to describe the assessment of youths’ perceptions of the degree to which their membership in particular social categories (gender, sexual orientation, social class, ability/disability, culture, race, and ethnicity) is related to the violence they experience. The proposed research will test whether those with less power across these domains are most likely to experience violence in addition to how social group membership affects the likelihood of perceiving victimization, as assessed by girls’ subjective self-appraisals.
Project Team:
Principal Investigator: H. Berman
Co-Investigators: M. Fernet, M. Jackson, J. Ursel, C. Gill, L. Tutty, S. Carr-Stewart, K. Levine.
Violence in the lives of Muslim girls and women is a significant, although largely hidden, problem that has received little scholarly attention. As a result, efforts to respond are often inadequate from a social and cultural perspective. The purpose of this proposal is to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive program of research aimed at the prevention and treatment of gendered violence within Muslim communities in Canada, Yemen, and East Africa.
The primary focus of this development grant will be to establish and expand collaborative relationships among academic and community researchers in the partner countries; to develop a clearer articulation and understanding of the research and policy priorities; and to hold a meeting among partners to take place in Yemen where research plans will be formulated. As well, a critical review of relevant research, policies, and programming will inform this process. It is anticipated that results from the broad program of research will foster new knowledge, tools and culturally meaningful approaches for the prevention and treatment of violence in the lives of Muslim girls and women.
Project Team:
Principal Investigator: H. Berman
Co-Investigator: M. Baobaid