Please State Your Emergency: An Exploration of How Immigrant Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Survivors Reach Out and Experience Police Services in Canada

• In Event: Policing Marginalized Communities: Immigration, Same-Sex Couples, Interpersonal Violence, and Mental Health Policies

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) amongst immigrant women in Canada is at an increasing high. Research on IPV and police experiences within a Canadian context is rare. This research makes an attempt to reconcile this gap. The presentation explores questions about the involvement of immigrant women survivors of IPV in Canada with the police (in terms of frequency and extent); calls to the police and who makes them and at what stage they are made; the police response to the women survivors; as well as an overall assessment of the police intervention. The presentation will also examine the differences between the participants who were involved with the police and those who were not in relation to their demographics, IPV experience, family structure, immigration status and English proficiency. This presentation uses a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative data based on a sample of 96 immigrant women survivors of IPV in Canada. The research uses an intersectionality perspective that is guided by gender, ethnicity, immigration, linguistic proficiency and race. We will make suggestions for future research on policing IPV in Canada as well as policy recommendations.

Authors

• Arshia Urooj Zaidi, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

• Nawal H. Ammar, University of Ontario Institute of Technology