SNAPSHOT: Male Victims of Violent Crime

In 2008, overall rates of police-reported violent victimization were comparable between men and women, but the nature of their victimization differed.

In that year, men were more likely than women to be victims of the most serious forms of physical assault (levels 2 and 3) and have a weapon used against them.

Men were almost twice as likely to be the victims of assault level 2 than women (215 versus 114 per 100,000);

Though aggravated assault (level 3) occurs much less frequently than the less serious forms of assault, the rate of aggravated assault for men is over three times greater than that of women (18 versus 5 per 100,000)

Young men under the age of 18 are 1.5 times more likely to be physically assaulted than young girls.

Male victims were most often physically assaulted by a stranger or by someone else outside of the family. In 2008, men were the victims of 80% of all reported attacks by strangers.

Men were more likely to be robbed than women. They were victims in 65% of robberies in 2008.

Male teens aged 15 to 17 reported the highest robbery rates among all child and youth age groups and nearly 1.5 times higher than the rate for men aged 18 to 24.

Men were more likely than women to be a homicide victim, accounting for almost three quarters (74%) of homicide victims during a 5-year period between the years 2004 to 2008.

More than one-third of male victims of homicide were killed with a firearm, compared to one fifth of female homicide victims.

Men were 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in an institutional setting (school, non-commercial or non-corporate area) than women.

Sources

Ogrodnick, L. 2010. Child and youth victims of police-reported violent crime, 2008. Catalogue no. 85F0033M, no. 23. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.

Vaillancourt, R. 2010. Gender differences in police-reported violent crime in Canada, 2008. Catalogue no. 85F0033M, no. 24. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.