Research glossary

Neglect happens when a family member, who has a duty to care for you, fails to provide you with your basic needs.

This can involve:

not providing proper food or warm clothing
failing to provide adequate health care, medication and personal hygiene (if needed)
failing to prevent physical harm
failing to ensure proper supervision (if needed)
Spouses and common-law partners have a duty to care for each other. Adults have a duty to care for their dependent children as well as their dependent parents.

Some forms of neglect are crimes in Canada, including failure to provide the necessities of life and child abandonment. If a child is neglected, child protection authorities could intervene and remove the child from his or her parents.

A prosecutor’s decision to decline to prosecute.

Non-Consensual Distribution of Intimate Images (NCDII) is the sharing, posting, forwarding, or threatening to share sexual or nude images or videos of someone without their permission. It does not matter whether the images were originally shared consensually in a private relationship; once they are shared without consent, it becomes abuse.

NCDII is a serious violation of privacy, dignity, and safety. It is often used as a tool of control, humiliation, blackmail, or revenge, especially after a breakup. The emotional impact can be severe and may include anxiety, depression, fear, reputational harm, and social isolation. If you would like to better understand your rights, protection options, and how the legal process works, visit our Legal Guides for comprehensive, step-by-step information.

Example:
• Sharing an ex-partner’s nude photo in a WhatsApp group.
• Posting private images on social media to embarrass someone.
• Threatening to leak intimate photos unless money, sex, or silence is given.
In South Africa, sharing intimate images without consent is a criminal offence under the Films and Publications Amendment Act (2019). A convicted person may be fined or imprisoned.

Individuals who are not in an intimate or marital relationship with the person in question. This includes, but is not limited to, family members (other than a spouse or intimate partner), friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and strangers.

Nonbinary is an umbrella term to reflect a variety of gender identities that are not exclusively man or woman. It is sometimes called enby* for short (a phonetic spelling of the letters N-B).

“Given that the common feature shared by the identities falling under the trans umbrella is having a societally unexpected experience with gender, many nonbinary folks consider the nonbinary umbrella a sub-category within the trans umbrella. However, some nonbinary individuals describe their gender experience as being totally distinct from the trans experience, that is, as a separate umbrella entirely.

If one objectifies something (or someone), one views it and treats it as an object for the satisfaction of one’s desire; but this is not all, for objectification is assumed to be a relation of domination where one also has the power to enforce one’s view. Objectification is not just ‘in the head’; it is actualized, embodied, imposed upon the objects of one’s desire. So if one objectifies something, one not only views it as something which would satisfy one’s desire, but one also has the power to make it have the properties one desires it to have.

Obstetric violence refers to disrespectful, abusive, or non-consensual treatment during pregnancy, childbirth, or postnatal care. It happens in healthcare settings when medical staff ignore a person’s dignity, autonomy, or right to informed consent.

This can include performing procedures without proper explanation or permission, dismissing someone’s pain, humiliating them during labour, or pressuring them into certain medical decisions.

Example: A healthcare worker performing an episiotomy without explaining the procedure or asking for consent, or telling a woman in labour that she is “being dramatic” instead of providing support.

Online harassment is a form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence. It is the use of the Internet to bully, harass, threaten, or maliciously embarrass someone. It can involve behaviours such as sending an unsolicited and/or threatening e-mail, spreading rumours, making defamatory comments, sending negative messages, impersonation, sending pornography or other graphic material that is knowingly offensive or creating online content that depicts someone in negative ways.

a case where the investigation is ongoing.

Taking advantage of the immediate circumstances or the availability of an opportunity to commit illegal sexual
behavior, such as a teenager molesting a child while babysitting (National Center on Sexual Behavior of
Youth, 2003).

The unilateral subjugation of one individual or group by a more powerful individual or group, using physical, psychological, social or economic threats or force, and frequently using an explicit ideology to sanction the oppression. Refers also to the injustices suffered by marginalized groups in their everyday interactions with members of the dominant group, or with the social systems that reinforce the dominant group’s social position. The marginalized groups usually lack avenues to express reaction to disrespect, inequality, injustice and lack of response to their situation by individuals and institutions that can make improvements.

Systems of oppression are discriminatory institutions, structures, norms, to name a few, that are embedded in the fabric of our society… In the context of social justice, oppression is discrimination against a social group that is backed by institutional power. That is to say, the various societal institutions such as culture, government, education, etc. are all complicit in the oppression of marginalized social groups while elevating dominant social groups

The systematic subjugation of a group of people by another group with access to social power, the result of
which benefits one group over the other (Green and Peterson, 2006

a physical response at the climax of
sexual excitement

Outing refers to the act of revealing a LGBTQ+ individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation without their consent. Outing is usually done to instrumentalize homophobia with the intent to discredit others or to promote homophobia by outing a prominent individual.

medicine
used to prevent HIV infection, STIs and
pregnancy as a result of rape

an adult who has romantic relation
- ships and/or sex with children

A sexual deviance. The behaviors often involve a pattern of recurrent, compulsive, or intense sexual urges and
behaviors involving unusual sexual behaviors or targets, such as young children. These specific targets or
behaviors may be necessary for an individual to experience sexual arousal, or may co-exist with more
normative sexual targets and behaviors (National Center on Sexual Behavior of Youth, 2003).

non-violent refusal to cooperate

According to the personal status laws, it’s the exclusive right of the man to represent his minor children who are
born from a legitimate marriage, and to represent the children of his sons (not of the daughters).This authority
includes the child’s person and his money; and thus he can, because of his proved compassion, dispose of that
money or make contracts in the child’s name. If his immorality got proven, the judge has the right to take away
that authority from him.
- According to this authority, the father, and not the mother, is held responsible for the child’s alimony.

Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power and dominate in leadership roles, establishing moral authority, acquiring social privilege, and in the control of property. Patriarchy is a form of colonial governance.