Aboriginal people more likely to be victims

Aboriginal people in Canada are three times more likely to be victims of violence than are non-Aboriginal Canadians, according to Victimization and Offending Among the Aboriginal Population in Canada, a report released by Statistics Canada on June 6.

The report, which bases many of its findings on a general social survey conducted in 2004, showed that the risk of becoming a victim of violence was highest among Aboriginal youth, with individuals between the ages of 15 and 34 nearly two-and-a-half times more likely to be victims than individuals over the age of 34.

The statistics show that in 56 per cent of the cases where Aboriginal people have been victims of violence, the violent act was committed by someone known to the victim-a relative, friend or acquaintance.

For non-Aboriginal victims, the perpetrator was known to the victim 41 per cent of the time.

Aboriginal people are more than three times more likely to be the victims of physical or sexual abuse by a spouse than are non-Aboriginal people, with 21 per cent of Aboriginal people and six per cent of non-Aboriginal people reporting being victims of spousal abuse in the five years proceeding the survey.

The statistics around homicides show an even larger gap, with Aboriginal people seven times more likely to become victims of homicide and 10 times more likely to be accused of committing a homicide than non-Aboriginal people.

Living on reserve seems to increase a person's chances of becoming a victim of violence, the report shows. In 2004, the on-reserve crime rate was three times that of the rest of Canada. For violent crimes, the on-reserve rate was eight times that of the rest of the country.

The report highlights some of the possible reasons why Aboriginal people are more likely to become victims and offenders, including the relative youth of Canada's Aboriginal population. In 2004, the violent victimization rate for Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 was the highest of all age groups.

According to stats from 2001, people in that age group make up about 17 per cent of the total Aboriginal population, while only accounting for 13 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population.

Other factors that could have an impact, the report suggests, are disparities in levels of education between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, higher unemployment rates and lower incomes among Aboriginal people and the higher rate of single-parent families among Aboriginal populations.

Aboriginal people living off-reserve are also more likely to live in overcrowded conditions-25 per cent of Aboriginal children living off-reserve live in conditions considered overcrowded, compared to 13 per cent for children overall.

The higher rate of mobility of Aboriginal people, which can make it difficult to provide social programming, was also cited.

The report was prepared by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics and was compiled using data from victimization, police and corrections surveys.

Copies of the report can be downloaded from the Statistics Canada Web site at www.statscan.ca