About

Background

Created in 1992 in the wake of the development of the Alliance of Canadian Research Centres on Violence after the mass shooting at Montréal’s École Polytechnique, The CRI-VIFF, centre for interdisciplinary research on family violence and violence against women), was accredited by Université Laval’s research commission since 2006. The CRI-VIFF remains the largest scientific research centre in this field in French-speaking Canada. The Centre has obtained considerable financing since it received its first federal funding in 1992. It has played a catalyzing role for more than 25 years in Québec’s expertise and applied research regarding both violence in the family and against women.

The Centre recently underwent a major redefinition and restructuring which led to the renewal of the entire program, taking into account the evolution of knowledge in intimate, family, and structural violence. These changes are reflected in the Centre’s new name, the RAIV (applied, interdisciplinary research on intimate, family, and structural violence). Violence against women and children will continue to be studied, but will now be combined with that endured by other groups who are vulnerable to violence because of unequal power relations (gender, race, class, etc.) in our societies.

RAIV has been funded as a strategic cluster since 2020. RAIV takes an original look at the concept of violence, bringing together different disciplinary backgrounds to ensure an integrated and concerted approach to scientific programming. RAIV is the only Quebec center to be a member of the Canadian Alliance of Research Centers on Violence. Community and institutional partners are closely involved in updating our programming. Partnership and applied research is one of the Centre's major strengths, and this is reflected in its decision-making bodies: each of the scientific program areas is co-directed by a university researcher and a partner from the field. The applied and interdisciplinary nature of our research fosters the development of knowledge that contributes to social change, to promote practices that foster social justice and more egalitarian relations between the different groups of social players involved, and to improve public policies.

Members

RAIV is an interdisciplinary, partnership-based center, bringing together over 300 members and organizations. These include 40 regular research members and 42 collaborating research members from Quebec, Canada, France, the United States, Brazil and Chile. There are also 24 practice partners and 169 student members.

The members reflect intersectoriality and interdisciplinarity, coming from diverse disciplines such as social work, criminology, law, legal sciences, feminist studies, psycho-education, psychology, public administration, anthropology, rehabilitation, sexology, marketing, literary art, visual arts, design, counseling and guidance, measurement and evaluation, epidemiology and public health.

Funding

As a research centre accredited by the Université Laval’s research commission, the RAIV receives annualfinancial support and is also supported by the FRQSC as a Strategic Clusters.

Funding Agencies and Programs

The research projects of the RAIV members are financed by various organizations and programs, most notably:

Public Health Agency of Canada
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC)
Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé
Québec's Ministère de la Justice (MJ)
Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec
Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec
Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE)
Secrétariat à la condition féminine du Québec

Management and coordination

Management

Geneviève Lessard, Scientific Director of the RAIV and RETRANCHE la violence partnership
Valérie Roy, Scientific Director of the IPV Research Team
Karine Gagnon, Co-Director from the Partners of the IPV Research Team
Catherine Rossi, Scientific Director of the Vi-J Research Team

Coordination

Maude Dionne, scientific coordinator of the RAIV and coordinator of the Vi-J Research Team
Patrice Ngangue, coordinator of the IPV Research Team
Audrey-Anne Laguë, events and communications manager

Administration

Karoline Blais, Administrative Coordinator
Isabelle Charette, Executive Secretary

Program

The objective of the RAIV is to study the links between violence in intimate and family relationships and the social responses that help counter or perpetuate the structural oppression experienced by certain social groups. Particular attention is paid to power relationships in intimate and family situations, but likewise between social groups and between individuals and institutions. Our research documents the factors associated with intimate, family, and structural violence, the links between different forms of violence perpetrated or endured in different life contexts, and the consequences for individuals, families, and society. It likewise documents the social responses to this violence (community and institutional services, legal, systemic, and state responses), and this at the different levels of the intervention continuum, be they primary, secondary or tertiary prevention.

Research axis

Axis 1: Analyzing violence in intimate and family relationships

What is the prevalence of different types of violence? What are the similarities and differences, the factors common to or specific to the different types of violence experienced by different populations? How does violence (experienced and suffered), whether co-occurring or sequential, modulate life courses? What influences the emergence of violence, what are its consequences, how can we explain its reproduction, and what do we know about the different ways of escaping it?

Axis 2: Characterizing structural violence and exploring ways to promote social justice

How can structural violence be defined and theorized? Do socio-legal responses help to counter or perpetuate structural violence? Is it possible to humanize the law through innovative approaches focused on social justice? What are the characteristics of psychosocial or legal practices that help to counter structural violence by promoting more egalitarian social relationships?

Axis 3: Innovate, support, collaborate and evaluate social responses to violence

How can we innovate in preventing or raising awareness of violence? How can we adapt interventions or social policies to the multiple and differentiated needs of people in situations of violence? What are the effects of short-, medium- and long-term practices, and what factors encourage change? How can we ensure better continuity of services to provide better assistance?