Myrna Dawson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3590757 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Myrna Dawson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Myrna |
| FAMILY NAME | Dawson |
| SIGNATURE | DAWSON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Guelph |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6688-6081 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 119 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Considering Sex/Gender-Based Violence as a Form of Hate: The Invisibility of Sex and Gender
Globally, there is no shortage of examples demonstrating lethal and non-lethal violence motivated, at least in part, by a hatred of women and girls because of their sex or gender. Such violence is not a new phenomenon. Despite this, there remains little consideration of sex/gender-based violence (S/GBV) motivated by hatred in the hate/bias crime literature, including a recent comprehensive review published in this journal. Drawing from a comprehe…
There Needs to be Action at All Levels”: Operationalizing an Intersectional Social Ecological Framework for Analyzing News Coverage of Intimate Partner Femicide
News media have an important role in shaping public knowledge about intimate partner violence (IPV) and intimate partner femicide (IPF). This article (a) argues for intersectional feminist work to operationalize the social ecological model for media research and advocacy surrounding IPF reporting and (b) outlines an example of such a coding framework for analyzing IPF media coverage. This framework provides a tangible illustration of what balance…
Treating Male Violence against Women and Girls as Hate in Canada
Some incidents of male violence against women and girls (MVAWG) could be recognized as sex-motivated hate crimes. Often, however, crimes of male violence are neither treated as hate crimes nor reported as sex-motivated. This article examines sex-motivated hate, and the violence that results from sex-motivated hate in Canada, to explore its absolute and relative visibility. Sex is included as a targeted social group in hate crime laws in Canada. W…
Tracing individual experiences to systemic challenges: The (re)production of GBV in migrant women’s experiences in Canada
This study examines the experiences of migrant women survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) in Canada, focusing on their processes of disclosing violence and seeking help. It explores a range of migration-related factors and circumstances that shape migrant women's responses to violence while also aiming to reveal how migration contexts determine system-and structural-level responses to GBV, which are then traced back to women's individual expe…
Treating Male Violence against Women and Girls as Hate in Canada
Some incidents of male violence against women and girls (MVAWG) could be recognized as sex-motivated hate crimes. Often, however, crimes of male violence are neither treated as hate crimes nor reported as sex-motivated. This article examines sex-motivated hate, and the violence that results from sex-motivated hate in Canada, to explore its absolute and relative visibility. Sex is included as a targeted social group in hate crime laws in Canada. W…
The continuum of gender-based violence experienced by migrant and refugee women in Canada: Perspectives from key informants
Little research has been done on conceptualizing gender-based violence (GBV) against immigrant and refugee women as a continuum of violence. The objective of the larger study was to understand gender-based violence in migration and analyze the ways in which discriminations and inequalities interact to increase vulnerability and decrease access to supports and services for some women. Using (a) the concept of continuum of [sexual] violence and (b)…
Coercive control and risk in intimate partner violence: Are Canadian police prepared to assess
Coercive control is an ongoing pattern of abuse that is intended to isolate, humiliate, degrade, and micro-regulate the everyday life of a victim; often found amongst intimate partner violence (IPV) situations yet may not present with physical evidence. Police officers are called to respond to these conditions, yet are limited by training, legislation, and risk assessment tools that often concentrate primarily on the presence of physical violence…
Thematic Section: Femicide – a persistence social issue
Security and Global Affairs
Identifying femicide using the United Nations statistical framework: Exploring the feasibility of sex/gender-related motives and indicators to inform prevention
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 55% of women and girls killed in 2022 died at the hands of intimate partners or family members, contexts indicative of femicide. The proportion of the remaining 45% of women and girls killed which involved sex or gender-related elements remains largely unknown. This is due to the lack of high-quality, gender-sensitive data collection tools and the few systematic efforts to more consistent…
The Routledge International Handbook of Femicide and Feminicide
"This volume explores in depth femicide and feminicide, bringing together our current knowledge on this phenomenon and its prevention. No country is free from femicide/feminicide, which represents the tip of the iceberg in male violence against women and girls. Therefore, it is crucial and timely to better understand how states and their citizens are experiencing and responding to femicide/feminicide globally. Through the work of internationally …
Domestic/Family Homicide: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence
Background: Domestic/family homicide (D/FH) is a global social, economic and public health problem. To date, the research studies into risk factors associated with D/FH has largely focused on intimate partner homicide (IPH). A more contemporary approach recognizes that D/FH extends beyond the intimate partner relationship. This systematic review sought to identify and quantify the individual, relationship, community and societal factors in the em…
Child homicide in Ontario, Canada: Comparing criminal justice outcomes
Addressing Data Gaps: Implications for Preventing Domestic Homicide
Barriers to Safety Planning for Female Victims of Domestic Violence in Canadian Rural, Remote, and Northern Communities
Surviving Gender-Based Violence: A Social Ecological Approach to Migrant and Refugee Women's Resilience
Many migrant and refugee women (MRW) experience different forms of gender-based violence (GBV) along the migratory pathway. GBV is rooted in intersecting structures of domination and extends beyond individual experiences to include the failure of policies and practices to protect women. In this article, through the lenses of "key informants" (KIs), we explore how MRW express resilience to GBV in the face of intersecting structural inequalities th…
Whose Knowledge Is Under the Lens? A Contribution to the Debate Sparked by Clark and Walker's 2011 Research Ethics in Victimization Studies: Widening the Lens
The starting point for this commentary is the fruitful exchange of ideas on the ethics of victimization research, published in this journal in 2011, sparked by Clark and Walker's article, "Research Ethics in Victimization Studies: Widening the Lens". This article provoked a flurry of responses that, taken altogether, provide an illuminating cornerstone for the ethical debates and issues surrounding victimization research. It further inspired us t…
Intersectionality and Invisible Victims: Reflections on Data Challenges and Vicarious Trauma in Femicide, Family and Intimate Partner Homicide Research
Challenges in Risk Assessment with Rural Domestic Violence Victims: Implications for Practice
Identifying femicide locally and globally: Understanding the utility and accessibility of sex/gender-related motives and indicators
Femicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, has received an unprecedented rise in international attention in the past decade, prompting increased discussions about how to define and measure femicide. Following a review of definitions and indicators, this article examines the utility of numerous sex/gender-related motives and indicators (SGRMIs) for distinguishing femicide from other homicides as well as the accessibility of these ind…
Ontario child protection workers' views on assessing risk and planning for safety in exposure to domestic violence cases
The use of standardized tools to assess risk for children is mandatory in the child protection sector in Ontario. Factors that can be used specifically to assess the risk of lethality in exposure to domestic violence (DV) cases, however, are largely missing from these tools. Using data from an online survey of 138 child protection workers in Ontario, the current study examines practitioners' risk assessment and safety planning practices with DV c…
Provision of specialized services for children exposed to domestic violence: Barriers encountered in Violence Against Women (VAW) services
Voices from the frontline: Child protection workers’ perspectives on barriers to assessing risk in domestic violence cases
Does Gender Affect the Number and Type of Charges Laid in Intimate Partner Violence Cases
Pro-charging policies were implemented in Canada in the 1980s to denounce intimate partner violence (IPV). Since pro-charging policies were implemented, the proportion of men charged remains higher than women charged; however, the proportion of women charged increased dramatically. Little is known about the gendered differences in charging decisions in IPV cases. Utilizing a sample of 1,708 accused charged in IPV cases, logistic regression was em…
Domestic Homicides and Death Reviews
This edited collection highlights international research on domestic homicides and death reviews which are a rapidly growing intervention/prevention initiative in various countries. Chapters focus on
Punishing femicide: Criminal justice responses to the killing of women over four decades
The way in which nation states respond to femicide has become the focus of much attention in the past decade. The establishment of specialized police and prosecution units has been recommended and some countries have implemented specific legislation or criminal offences specific to femicide. Part of the challenge in moving beyond these legislative and policy initiatives is the dearth of reliable data that show how states are actually punishing cr…
Intersectionality and Invisible Victims: Reflections on Data Challenges and Vicarious Trauma in Femicide, Family and Intimate Partner Homicide Research
Canadian News Coverage of Intimate Partner Homicide: Analyzing Changes Over Time
News coverage of intimate partner homicide can reveal and reproduce societal assumptions and beliefs that may influence social and political responses to violence against women. This study analyzes all male-perpetrated intimate partner homicides reported in three daily newspapers in Toronto, Canada within two separate time periods (1975-1979 and 1998-2002) to explore if and how this coverage has changed over time. Results suggest that, in more re…
Rethinking the Boundaries of Intimacy at the End of the Century: The Role of Victim-Defendant Relationship in Criminal Justice Decisionmaking Over Time
I investigate whether the degree of intimacy between victims and defendants affects legal responses to violence and how this association has changed over time. Using data on homicides between 1974 and 1996, I examine court outcomes in more than 1,000 cases. I demonstrate that intimacy matters at three criminal justice stages: charging, mode of conviction, and sentencing. However, moving beyond the traditional conceptualization of intimacy, I show…
Identifying femicide locally and globally: Understanding the utility and accessibility of sex/gender-related motives and indicators
Femicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, has received an unprecedented rise in international attention in the past decade, prompting increased discussions about how to define and measure femicide. Following a review of definitions and indicators, this article examines the utility of numerous sex/gender-related motives and indicators (SGRMIs) for distinguishing femicide from other homicides as well as the accessibility of these ind…
Challenges in Risk Assessment with Rural Domestic Violence Victims: Implications for Practice
National Trends in Intimate Partner Homicides: Explaining Declines in Canada, 1976 to 2001
In the past decade, research has begun to identify factors that may be contributing to declines in spousal homicide. The authors address two gaps in the Canadian literature: (a) the documentation of trends, including subgroup variations, and (b) the identification of factors that may be associated with declines. Using Statistics Canada data, the authors assess the association of declines with various factors. Results indicate that shifts in relat…
The continuum of gender-based violence experienced by migrant and refugee women in Canada: Perspectives from key informants
Little research has been done on conceptualizing gender-based violence (GBV) against immigrant and refugee women as a continuum of violence. The objective of the larger study was to understand gender-based violence in migration and analyze the ways in which discriminations and inequalities interact to increase vulnerability and decrease access to supports and services for some women. Using (a) the concept of continuum of [sexual] violence and (b)…
Punishing femicide: Criminal justice responses to the killing of women over four decades
The way in which nation states respond to femicide has become the focus of much attention in the past decade. The establishment of specialized police and prosecution units has been recommended and some countries have implemented specific legislation or criminal offences specific to femicide. Part of the challenge in moving beyond these legislative and policy initiatives is the dearth of reliable data that show how states are actually punishing cr…
Missing persons and social exclusion
The concept of social exclusion is used to explore the relationship between people and groups who are socially and economically disadvantaged and the phenomenon of going missing. Police data about missing persons are compared to census data to determine whether groups who experience family dissolution, labour market exclusion, and other forms of disadvantage and social exclusion are overrepresented among missing persons compared to the general po…
Legal Factors, Extra-Legal Factors, or Changes in the Law? Using Criminal Justice Research to Understand the Resolution of Sexual Harassment Complaints
Much of what is known about how the law operates is based on the criminal justice process. What is less understood is whether legal, extra-legal, and organizational attributes matter for non-criminal justice processes, such as discrimination and employment disputes. It is this general issue that we examine in this paper. We also incorporate how the development of the legal construct of sexual harassment affects case settlement. Our study attempts…
Surviving Gender-Based Violence: A Social Ecological Approach to Migrant and Refugee Women's Resilience
Many migrant and refugee women (MRW) experience different forms of gender-based violence (GBV) along the migratory pathway. GBV is rooted in intersecting structures of domination and extends beyond individual experiences to include the failure of policies and practices to protect women. In this article, through the lenses of "key informants" (KIs), we explore how MRW express resilience to GBV in the face of intersecting structural inequalities th…
Provision of specialized services for children exposed to domestic violence: Barriers encountered in Violence Against Women (VAW) services
Factors Increasing the Likelihood of Sole and Dual Charging of Women for Intimate Partner Violence
Sole and dual charging of women for intimate partner violence (IPV) has risen in some Canadian and American jurisdictions since the implementation of pro-charging policies. Adding to the limited research within Canada by examining court cases from a small, Ontario city, sociodemographic and situational characteristics are assessed to determine if the context in which women were charged differs from that of men, or in which dual charges were laid.…
The Cost of 'Lost' Intimacy: The Effect of Relationship State on Criminal Justice Decision Making
Journal Article The Cost of ‘Lost’ Intimacy: The Effect of Relationship State on Criminal Justice Decision Making Get access Myrna Dawson Myrna Dawson Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 43, Issue 4, 1 October 2003, Pages 689–709, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/43.4.689 Published: 01 October 2003
Coercive control and risk in intimate partner violence: Are Canadian police prepared to assess
Coercive control is an ongoing pattern of abuse that is intended to isolate, humiliate, degrade, and micro-regulate the everyday life of a victim; often found amongst intimate partner violence (IPV) situations yet may not present with physical evidence. Police officers are called to respond to these conditions, yet are limited by training, legislation, and risk assessment tools that often concentrate primarily on the presence of physical violence…
Identifying femicide using the United Nations statistical framework: Exploring the feasibility of sex/gender-related motives and indicators to inform prevention
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 55% of women and girls killed in 2022 died at the hands of intimate partners or family members, contexts indicative of femicide. The proportion of the remaining 45% of women and girls killed which involved sex or gender-related elements remains largely unknown. This is due to the lack of high-quality, gender-sensitive data collection tools and the few systematic efforts to more consistent…
Voices from the frontline: Child protection workers’ perspectives on barriers to assessing risk in domestic violence cases
Addressing Data Gaps: Implications for Preventing Domestic Homicide
Family-Based Justice in the Sentencing of Domestic Violence
While historical research has noted the importance of the ‘family’ in criminal justice, recent empirical work has tended to neglect the emphasis placed on the family in the criminal process. Drawing on Daly’s work on familial justice, this paper investigates the role of the family in the sentencing of offenders in a specialized domestic violence court. We examine both the likelihood of incarceration and the determinants of sentence length, and fi…
Predicting The Quantity of Law: Single versus Multiple Remedies in Sexual Harassment Cases
Recently, Black's theory of law has been criticized for failing to capture quasi and de facto governmental social control institutions. A restatement of this theory introduces the idea of “more or less governmental social control” that encompasses government endorsement of private forms of social control or government delegation of social control powers to private parties. Drawing from this, we assess the utility of Black's theory by examining se…
Legal Factors, Extra-Legal Factors, or Changes in the Law? Using Criminal Justice Research to Understand the Resolution of Sexual Harassment Complaints
Much of what is known about how the law operates is based on the criminal justice process. What is less understood is whether legal, extra-legal, and organizational attributes matter for non-criminal justice processes, such as discrimination and employment disputes. It is this general issue that we examine in this paper. We also incorporate how the development of the legal construct of sexual harassment affects case settlement. Our study attempts…
The Cost of 'Lost' Intimacy: The Effect of Relationship State on Criminal Justice Decision Making
Journal Article The Cost of ‘Lost’ Intimacy: The Effect of Relationship State on Criminal Justice Decision Making Get access Myrna Dawson Myrna Dawson Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 43, Issue 4, 1 October 2003, Pages 689–709, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/43.4.689 Published: 01 October 2003
Rethinking the Boundaries of Intimacy at the End of the Century: The Role of Victim-Defendant Relationship in Criminal Justice Decisionmaking Over Time
I investigate whether the degree of intimacy between victims and defendants affects legal responses to violence and how this association has changed over time. Using data on homicides between 1974 and 1996, I examine court outcomes in more than 1,000 cases. I demonstrate that intimacy matters at three criminal justice stages: charging, mode of conviction, and sentencing. However, moving beyond the traditional conceptualization of intimacy, I show…
Predicting The Quantity of Law: Single versus Multiple Remedies in Sexual Harassment Cases
Recently, Black's theory of law has been criticized for failing to capture quasi and de facto governmental social control institutions. A restatement of this theory introduces the idea of “more or less governmental social control” that encompasses government endorsement of private forms of social control or government delegation of social control powers to private parties. Drawing from this, we assess the utility of Black's theory by examining se…
Family-Based Justice in the Sentencing of Domestic Violence
While historical research has noted the importance of the ‘family’ in criminal justice, recent empirical work has tended to neglect the emphasis placed on the family in the criminal process. Drawing on Daly’s work on familial justice, this paper investigates the role of the family in the sentencing of offenders in a specialized domestic violence court. We examine both the likelihood of incarceration and the determinants of sentence length, and fi…
National Trends in Intimate Partner Homicides: Explaining Declines in Canada, 1976 to 2001
In the past decade, research has begun to identify factors that may be contributing to declines in spousal homicide. The authors address two gaps in the Canadian literature: (a) the documentation of trends, including subgroup variations, and (b) the identification of factors that may be associated with declines. Using Statistics Canada data, the authors assess the association of declines with various factors. Results indicate that shifts in relat…
Missing persons and social exclusion
The concept of social exclusion is used to explore the relationship between people and groups who are socially and economically disadvantaged and the phenomenon of going missing. Police data about missing persons are compared to census data to determine whether groups who experience family dissolution, labour market exclusion, and other forms of disadvantage and social exclusion are overrepresented among missing persons compared to the general po…
Comparing criminal justice responses to violence against women in Canada and China
Canada and China are two very different countries in terms of their socio-economic and political contexts; however, neither country is immune to the social problem of violence against women. This paper compares the criminal justice responses to violence against women in Canada and China in order to explore the pathway of responses to violence against women in different cultural contexts, and discusses the implications for addressing violence agai…
Canadian News Coverage of Intimate Partner Homicide: Analyzing Changes Over Time
News coverage of intimate partner homicide can reveal and reproduce societal assumptions and beliefs that may influence social and political responses to violence against women. This study analyzes all male-perpetrated intimate partner homicides reported in three daily newspapers in Toronto, Canada within two separate time periods (1975-1979 and 1998-2002) to explore if and how this coverage has changed over time. Results suggest that, in more re…
Factors Increasing the Likelihood of Sole and Dual Charging of Women for Intimate Partner Violence
Sole and dual charging of women for intimate partner violence (IPV) has risen in some Canadian and American jurisdictions since the implementation of pro-charging policies. Adding to the limited research within Canada by examining court cases from a small, Ontario city, sociodemographic and situational characteristics are assessed to determine if the context in which women were charged differs from that of men, or in which dual charges were laid.…
Domestic/Family Violence Death Reviews: An International Comparison
Domestic/Family Violence Death Reviews (D/FVDRs) have been established in a number of high-income countries since 1990 as a mechanism to inform prevention-focused interventions to reduce domestic/family violence. D/FVDRs differ in their structure, governance, case identification processes and inclusion criteria, review measures, and outputs. Outside of the United States, the extent of heterogeneity across and within countries has not been explore…
Punishing femicide: Criminal justice responses to the killing of women over four decades
The way in which nation states respond to femicide has become the focus of much attention in the past decade. The establishment of specialized police and prosecution units has been recommended and some countries have implemented specific legislation or criminal offences specific to femicide. Part of the challenge in moving beyond these legislative and policy initiatives is the dearth of reliable data that show how states are actually punishing cr…
Domestic Homicides and Death Reviews
This edited collection highlights international research on domestic homicides and death reviews which are a rapidly growing intervention/prevention initiative in various countries. Chapters focus on
Does Gender Affect the Number and Type of Charges Laid in Intimate Partner Violence Cases
Pro-charging policies were implemented in Canada in the 1980s to denounce intimate partner violence (IPV). Since pro-charging policies were implemented, the proportion of men charged remains higher than women charged; however, the proportion of women charged increased dramatically. Little is known about the gendered differences in charging decisions in IPV cases. Utilizing a sample of 1,708 accused charged in IPV cases, logistic regression was em…
Ontario child protection workers' views on assessing risk and planning for safety in exposure to domestic violence cases
The use of standardized tools to assess risk for children is mandatory in the child protection sector in Ontario. Factors that can be used specifically to assess the risk of lethality in exposure to domestic violence (DV) cases, however, are largely missing from these tools. Using data from an online survey of 138 child protection workers in Ontario, the current study examines practitioners' risk assessment and safety planning practices with DV c…
Provision of specialized services for children exposed to domestic violence: Barriers encountered in Violence Against Women (VAW) services
Voices from the frontline: Child protection workers’ perspectives on barriers to assessing risk in domestic violence cases
Whose Knowledge Is Under the Lens? A Contribution to the Debate Sparked by Clark and Walker's 2011 Research Ethics in Victimization Studies: Widening the Lens
The starting point for this commentary is the fruitful exchange of ideas on the ethics of victimization research, published in this journal in 2011, sparked by Clark and Walker's article, "Research Ethics in Victimization Studies: Widening the Lens". This article provoked a flurry of responses that, taken altogether, provide an illuminating cornerstone for the ethical debates and issues surrounding victimization research. It further inspired us t…
Intersectionality and Invisible Victims: Reflections on Data Challenges and Vicarious Trauma in Femicide, Family and Intimate Partner Homicide Research
Challenges in Risk Assessment with Rural Domestic Violence Victims: Implications for Practice
Identifying femicide locally and globally: Understanding the utility and accessibility of sex/gender-related motives and indicators
Femicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, has received an unprecedented rise in international attention in the past decade, prompting increased discussions about how to define and measure femicide. Following a review of definitions and indicators, this article examines the utility of numerous sex/gender-related motives and indicators (SGRMIs) for distinguishing femicide from other homicides as well as the accessibility of these ind…
The Routledge International Handbook of Femicide and Feminicide
"This volume explores in depth femicide and feminicide, bringing together our current knowledge on this phenomenon and its prevention. No country is free from femicide/feminicide, which represents the tip of the iceberg in male violence against women and girls. Therefore, it is crucial and timely to better understand how states and their citizens are experiencing and responding to femicide/feminicide globally. Through the work of internationally …
Domestic/Family Homicide: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence
Background: Domestic/family homicide (D/FH) is a global social, economic and public health problem. To date, the research studies into risk factors associated with D/FH has largely focused on intimate partner homicide (IPH). A more contemporary approach recognizes that D/FH extends beyond the intimate partner relationship. This systematic review sought to identify and quantify the individual, relationship, community and societal factors in the em…
Child homicide in Ontario, Canada: Comparing criminal justice outcomes
Addressing Data Gaps: Implications for Preventing Domestic Homicide
Intimate Partner and Family Violence (30 works) · Poison control (26 works) · Psychology (25 works) · Criminology (23 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Political science (22 works) · Domestic violence (21 works) · Medicine (21 works) · Suicide prevention (19 works) · Human Factors and Ergonomics (16 works)