Fort St. John has about the same number of domestic violence cases as a city nearly three times its size, and the highest number in northern B.C. courts, according to a new report.
The Fort St. John's Women's Resource Society released a comprehensive report on Wednesday detailing the issue of domestic violence in Fort St. John — and the findings are not kind to the Energetic City.
"Part of the research is that the 'boys will be boys' attitude is really prevalent in this community, and I do know that that for sure perpetuates violence," said Clarice Eckford, the project coordinator for the Society who authored the study.
"I think that the family dynamic and the value placed on certain gender roles in this community, I think it can perpetuate how women and girls are treated, and that includes domestic violence."
According to the study, there were 498 official domestic violence cases reported between 2011 and 2012. That was a similar number to Prince George, which has a population three times that of Fort St. John.
Meanwhile, 62 males — and no females — were involved as aggressors of sexual crimes in that time frame. About 384 males and 143 females were involved in assaults during this time.
(The report did not delve into how many of these crimes may have been related to the city’s transient “shadow population” that comes for work but does not live here full-time, which can cause the city’s population to fluctuate beyond official census counts.)
To help get a better understanding of the reality behind the numbers, the Women's Resource Society reached out to people and to other organizations tasked with helping out women in need. The Society did a survey of 322 participants, mostly married women, and seven focus groups involving 25 people in 2012.
Not surprisingly, the study found that women who were Aboriginal, in poverty, who grew up witnessing violence or who had low self-esteem were the most likely to be a victim of domestic violence.
(The income gap between men and women was significantly bigger in Fort St. John than other places, the study suggested. While the national average of women who stayed at home with kids and did not work was 30 per cent, in Fort St. John, it was about 40 per cent.)
Eckford said that the study found multiple reasons for why domestic violence is so prevalent in Fort St. John.
One of the reasons, she found, was "camp culture" within worker residences in the area. The study talked with men who worked at these camps, and many said the life can be stressful.
"Everything is so safety-oriented, and it feels claustrophobic, like a prison," one employee was quoted as saying. "It's unnatural to be inside for so long — you're not allowed to go for walks, especially off camp grounds."
These work camps, which are often created by contractors and sub-contractors for larger companies, may not be helping their employees, according to one anonymous interview subject.
"Companies take little responsibility for family wellness and employee wellness," the work camp employee stated. "Wellness campaigns, programs and policies from bigger companies are just charm campaigns about how they appear to the public."
The people interviewed by the study found that work camps can also be "hyper-masculine" places where employees can be taught by others to normalize or even perpetuate violence against women, the study states.
Another employee stated that this atmosphere can lead to a situation where employees who are released from the work camp feel as if they need to "blow off steam,” potentially including drugs, drinking — or particularly sex — and Eckford said all this can contribute to violence against women.
"If someone's single and they’re blowing off steam, it includes trying to ‘get laid,’" she said. "They haven't had a lot of opportunities to have sex. Then they come home, try to get to a bar, get drunk, get angry."
However, married couples are not immune to the conditions created by long work-camp stays.
"Say dad is away for three weeks at a time, and then he comes home,” Eckford added. “If there's any sort of unhealthiness or vulnerability (in his marriage) already, it just sort of explodes because of the stress that dad is under, the stress that mom is under. Some people can negotiate it, and some people find it really difficult, but everybody finds it stressful."
The study’s research also found that local Fort St. John residents were “unsupportive” to women experiencing violence.
“One service provider explained a common perception that many residents hold: ‘Women who drink and do drugs are open season,’” the study reported.
Eckford went on to say that in the Energetic City, the traditional gender dynamic of male as breadwinner and women as caretaker, while changing, is still far more prevalent than in Canada as a whole.
“A lot of the focus groups talked about this, but in a lot of ways boys are more valued than girls in terms of their ability to make money,” she said. “Everyone ‘knows’ that – a 16-year-old boy knows that he's going to be more economically viable than a girl, because he can go off and work these jobs and make tons of cash and girls can't necessarily do it. They can, but they're discouraged, because a lot of families feel that's an unsafe place for women to work.”
The study also found that while many of the organizations identified women who moved to Fort St. John as most at risk for experiencing violence, the community survey respondents found that in fact, it was people born in Fort St. John who were more likely to perpetuate or be a victim of domestic violence.
The study also found that there was a difficulty for some to obtain help if they were in a violent situation. Only 2 per cent of those surveyed believe there were enough of these services. Another 40 per cent were unsure, while 57 per cent thought there could be more or there wasn’t enough.
About 80 per cent of survey respondents lacked information about what services were available, and just over half said there was a limited number of counsellors and workers available.
Eckford said that she believed more funding should be provided to increase the amount of counsellors and workers to help women in these situations.
She also said that more affordable housing within Fort St. John could help, explaining that some domestic violence victims may choose to stay in unhealthy relationships because they cannot afford to live independently.
Eckford praised the efforts of Skye’s Place, the long-term “second-stage” shelter for women leaving abusive relationships, but said that there needed to be more long-term affordable transitional housing for women in these situations.
The report also called for more education and more public awareness about domestic violence in the community. It also encouraged the community to speak out against violence.
However, Eckford said she “didn’t know” what could be done to mitigate the problems caused by work camp life. “The nature of (work camps) is such that it's really hard to mitigate the stress of that experience with family life,” she said. “When I talk to workers at the camp, there's that idea that ‘You know what you're getting into.’”
The project which produced this report will continue to run into March 2015, and the Society hopes to take the results and build an implementation plan to help improve the local situation, Eckford said.
