Atlantic study found highest number of domestic-violence-related homicides in N.B.

Women in violent relationships reported having hidden vehicle keys, prepared supplies and signals to their children as part of plans to escape the home, according to New Brunswick researchers.

University of New Brunswick professor Cathy Holtmann and her team interviewed women from rural areas in potentially lethal situations as part of a national study on how these women keep themselves safe.

Many women said they were always on high alert, Holtmann said in an interview, and only felt safe when their violent partner was in prison.

She said in some cases they disclosed the abuse to a support service, but the information spread to others in their community.

"Eventually that information got back to the perpetrator, and that makes it even more dangerous," she said.

"Once they know that the word is out, and the survivor has disclosed, then the violence usually escalates."

Holtmann's findings were released in the same week as a separate study, commissioned by the Council of Atlantic Premiers, which found New Brunswick had the highest number of domestic-violence-related homicides in Atlantic Canada from 2012 to 2022.

The Atlantic review found New Brunswick also had the highest death rate of the four provinces when the numbers were adjusted for population size. 

Newfoundland and Labrador had the second-highest rate adjusted for population, followed by Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, respectively.

While Holtmann believes awareness about domestic violence is growing, she said the impact on victims is not always well understood.

"These are people that they love that are hurting them," she said. "The experience itself is so devastating."

Researchers with the University of Guelph’s Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence found that at least 33 New Brunswickers died as a result of intimate partner violence between 2012 and 2022.

That represents about one-quarter of all homicides in New Brunswick for that period.

But the authors caution that the number could be higher.