Prof. Myrna Dawson spoke to Macleans about the problem of tracking domestic violence and why it’s still so difficult to calculate the number of women and girls dying or experiencing violence at the hands of an intimate partner, spouse or relative.

She said because there is no domestic violence, family violence or femicide criminal offence in Canada, it’s difficult to interpret homicide statistics, leaving the observatory relying heavily on media reports.

Dawson is the director of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, which was created in response to a gap in Canada’s tracking of femicide rates. Last year, she and colleagues co-wrote the first-ever national report on Canadian femicide rates.

Dawson is also the director of U of G’s Centre for Social and Legal Responses to Violence which tracks cases of femicide to understand their causes and consequences.

As the Canada Research Chair in Public Policy in Criminal Justice, Dawson studies trends in and social and legal responses to violence against women in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.