How are judges in Canadian criminal courts defining intimate partner violence?

Abstract

Due to its widespread prevalence, the World Health Organization (2021) declared Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) as a major public health problem. In Canada, there is no legal definition, or charge that exists in the Canadian Criminal Code (CCC). The purpose of this study is to: (1) examine how judges in criminal cases define IPV in the prairie provinces (i.e., AB, SK, and MB); and (2) determine if IPV definitions are influenced by verdict decisions (i.e., guilty vs. innocent). Full-text, written judicial decisions from 71 sentencing, 17 trial, and 12 pre-trial or voir dire hearings (N = 100; years 2016-2022) were obtained and coded for several different themes. Results revealed that judges tend to discuss IPV as it relates to physical violence (e.g., assault), psychological abuse, and intimidation (e.g., uttering threats) as elements of IPV. Given that current Canadian law does not recognize psychological abuse as a criminal offence, this may signal a need to create a legal definition of IPV to more directly align with how it is being discussed in courtrooms.