With recent data from the Ottawa Police indicating an increase in rates of intimate partner violence in Ottawa, police and scholars are saying there must be a holistic approach to addressing the problem that goes “beyond policing” and dates back centuries.
As part of its plan to identify and track violence against women and intimate partner violence (IPV), OPS has committed to releasing both annual and semi-annual statistics. This month, the semi-annual statistics were released for the first time, and they showed a nine per cent increase in reports of intimate partner violence in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period of time in 2024.
According to the data, just above 80 per cent of victims identified as female, while 18.6 per cent identified as male. The majority — 50 per cent — were between the ages of 30 and 45. Nearly 30 per cent were between 18 and 29 and 12.4 per cent were between 46 and 60. Victims under the age of 18 were represented in 4.8 per cent of reports, and 3.4 per cent were over the age of 60.
Melanie Winwood is the senior advisor for violence against women at OPS, and she said the increase is “significant” and could be due to a variety of factors.
In January of this year, OPS began a pilot project to offer more options for reporting IPV. If accessibility has increased, that could contribute to the increase, said Winwood.
Until recently, the main form of reporting involved calling emergency dispatchers, then waiting for a patrol officer to arrive.
“Now, they don’t necessarily have to wait for a physical police like patrol response to wherever they’re calling from, which would take hours, and we would lose women by the time the officers got there,” she said. “They either weren’t there, depending on where they had called from, or they didn’t want to provide a report anymore.
“Their abuser could show up and threaten them, or they could just change their mind and think they’re being silly or that it isn’t a big deal,” Winwood continued.
But there’s also evidence that social norms could be resulting in a rise in reports, Winwood said, especially when it comes to younger age groups.
“That age group is under 18, but we usually will see them starting at 16. But you’re looking at 14-18 year olds in 4.8 per cent of reports. That’s not insignificant, and that’s something that needs to be focused on,” she said. “We’re working on reaching out and addressing that with the youth, either in the schools or youth programming.
“We’re working on education about healthy relationships and signs of an abusive relationship,” Winwood continued.
When it comes to addressing and even preventing IPV on a more substantial level, though, Winwood said it goes “beyond policing”.
“Police can respond to the calls when people reach out and seek help or things like that,” she said. “But a lot of this is more on a community or societal level.
“We haven’t had a really big shift in gender norms or society, like social views on women versus men. And I think that’s a big conversation,” she said. “That is often missed because a lot of things kind of age out with generations, but this remains consistent throughout history. I don’t know that there’s been a huge shift.”
Dr. Katie Bausch is a feminist historian and instructor at Carleton University’s Feminist Institute for Social Transformation. Bausch will be teaching a course focused on gender-based violence in the winter, and she said she’s “unfortunately not surprised” to see that rates of intimate partner violence are increasing, largely due to this “particular moment” in society.
“Right now, there’s a kind of masculinity that’s being celebrated that I don’t think necessarily leads directly to violent behavior, but is a culture that permits violence against women and gender-queer people,” she told Ottawa Compass. “The things that people make jokes about and think are funny, and the way sort of women and gender queer people are still ‘other’… It doesn’t actually surprise me.”
While law enforcement has a role in education and spreading awareness, Bausch agreed with Winwood that addressed the problem in a substantial way “goes deeper.”
Part of the issue is that IPC is often framed as a “women’s issue”, Bausch said, which places blame and responsibility on women — excluding the cases where men are victims. But since the vast majority of reports come from women, Bausch said there needs to be more discussion about addressing the issue with young men and boys.
“I do think it should be part of the curriculum where we talk openly about how this is a problem of men, and it’s been structured as a problem for women,” she explained. “We’re taught to protect ourselves, and those resources can be great, but there are very few, if any, resources for boys and men.
“If you make it a problem for women, you don’t have to have a frank conversation about masculinity and manhood, which a lot of people feel like if you do, it’s like a blame game,” she continued. “People get very defensive.”
However, by going to schools and speaking to boys about healthy relationships and behaviour, Bausch said educators could get ahead of the curve.
“Little boys don’t dream of growing up to be that person, and there are ways in which they’re being oppressed by masculinity…” she said. “So I think you can deliver it in a way that’s not about blame.
“[Gender-based violence] has never not been present in the patriarchal system. And I think where we could really put resources and effort is in stopping teaching boys that when you feel scared and insecure about your position in the world, that anger and violence is the way to feel better,” explained Bausch. “It’s like we create these men and then we punish them for being what we created.”
Bausch also said funding and streamlining processes for schools or organizations seeking government support and funding in these areas.
“I think that there has been so much grace given to try to work this out in traditional ways that we should now be able to admit as a community they don’t work, because nothing’s changing,” she said. “I do appreciate the [OPS], I do believe that people who take on those roles take it seriously and care. I just think that the police can only do so much.”
