Grant: Project Grant

Despite several decades of research documenting the scope and impacts of violence against women in the general population and internationally, the victimization of women who are homeless has received comparatively less attention. This is important given women are one of the fastest growing subpopulation of homeless persons today. Moreover, violence is identified to be a key cause and consequence of homelessness among women. Evidence suggests that women who are homeless often experience many forms of violence over the lifespan including childhood abuse, domestic violence, street-victimization and exploitation (e.g., street predators, drug/survival sex-trade), discrimination and stigma, and histories of colonization among Indigenous women, for example. However, the nature and extent of violence and its impacts among women who are homeless has yet to be synthesized and embedded in prevention and intervention policies and practices. Thus, we propose to conduct a systematic review of the published literature to date to assess the prevalence, nature and severity of violence experienced by homeless women over the life course to understand violence in this population. The review will be guided by trauma- and violence-informed frameworks and include mixed-methods research to shed light on the key risk, protective and broader socio-structural factors that shape victimization and its effects in this population. The primary purpose of this review is to establish the foundational knowledge base needed to inform a conceptual model for gender- and trauma-responsive policy and practice, and guide future research directions. Our team is uniquely positioned to directly apply the results via key government and community stakeholders and national networks actively working to eradicate homelessness and gender-based violence across Canada.