The measurement of Violence Against Women in surveys: communalities and differences

1. The measurement of Violence Against Women in surveys: communalities and differences Angela Me, Chief Social and Demographic Statistics Section

2. ‘Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of violence, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.’

3. Countries with national-level data available for last 15 years on physical assaults on women by a male partner - 37 countries Albania Azerbaijan Finland France Georgia Germany Italy Lithuania Norway Republic of Moldova Romania Sweden Switzerland Ukraine UK Australia Cambodia China India Philippines Republic of Korea Samoa Canada USA Colombia Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Haiti Mexico Nicaragua Paraguay Peru Puerto-Rico Uruguay Egypt Malawi South Africa Zambia Source: "In-depth Study on All Forms of Violence Against Women", Report of the Secretary-General, 2006

4. Specialized Surveys More comprehensive More accurate – larger sample size – better training Higher reporting rates More expensive Ad-hoc activity Module on on-going surveys Cheaper More regular More limited in the scope of studying VAW Less attention to VAW Population-based sample surveys

5. UNECE Survey of Surveys Analysis of • 17 countries • 25 surveys

6. National Surveys in the “extended” ECE

7. Prevalence of Sexual assault-sexual violence in women

8. Differences-Communalities • What type of violence to cover • Intimate partner violence • Sexual abuse and rape • Incest • Emotional abuse • Child abuse • Abuse of domestic workers • Violence by members of the extended family • Economic violence • Stalking Important to define what acts are considered violence

10. Physical violence Finland: making threats of physical violence by telephone, letter, and/or face to face; physical assault such as hitting/beating, kicking, or making use of weapons. Canada: threats of violence, hitting with fists or weapons, with or without physical injury. IVAWS: the use of physical force with the intent to harm or frighten a woman, and physical attempts or threats, which refers to the verbal, and/or physical intent to inflict harm which the woman believed was able and likely to be carried out.

11. Sexual violence Finland: sexually threatening behavior; attempt to have forced sex; and/or forcing to have sex. Sexual harassment was defined as “such male sexual behavior that is unwanted Canada: any form of non-consensual or forced sexual activity or touching, including rape. The term “sexual assault” encompasses a wide range of criminal acts ranging from unwanted sexual touching to sexual violence involving weapons, and is categorized according to three levels of severity IVAWS: any form of non-consensual or forced sexual activity or touching including rape. It is carried out against the woman’s will using physical or threatened force, intimidation or coercion. Includes sexual touching

12. Analysis of surveys 92% of the surveys: detailed questions on sexual violence 80% of surveys: included physiological abuse 80% dedicated surveys: included stalking 40% modules: included stalking

13. Type of violence by type of survey

14. Type of violence by type of survey

15. Type of violence by type of survey

16. Type of violence by type of survey

17. Type of violence by type of survey

18. Differences-Communalities • How to ask women about their experience with violence (questionnaire design) • Single direct questions or multiple behaviorally specific questions (“Have you ever been slapped, kicked, or beaten?”). Behavior-based questions are considered more effective. Important to avoid words such as rape, abuse

19. Carefully choose wording and the number of questions • Ask about experiences with violence in behavioural terms • Provide opportunities for disclosure • Avoid single questions

20. Good Questionnaire Design During the past five years, has your partner: 1. threatened you with his/her fist or anything else that could have hurt you? 2. thrown anything at you that could have hurt you? 3. pushed, grabbed or shoved you in a way that could have hurt you? 4. slapped you? 5. kicked, bitten, or hit you with his/her fist? 6. hit you with something that could have hurt you? 7. beaten you? 8. choked you? 9. used or threatened to use a gun or knife on you? 10. forced you into any unwanted sexual activity by threatening you, holding you down, or hurting you in some way? Source: Measuring VAW: Statistical Trends 2006, Statistics Canada

21. Differences-Communalities • Reference period of victimization • Lifetime (used particularly for rape and sexual abuse) • Previous 5 years, previous 12 months, previous 6 months • The shorter the period, the more accurate are the data but larger the sample needs to be

23. Analysis of surveys The majority of dedicated surveys used “lifetime”, often jointly either with “one year” or with both “one year” and “five years”. For the surveys that only had a module on VAW, the most common time reference was instead “one-year”. One survey module (USA) used 6 months.

24. Differences-Communalities • Reference population • 15-49 • 15 or 18 years and plus • Only married or with partner • Some studies cover men as well

25. Analysis of surveys 52% of the surveys did not have an upper age limit 44% of the surveys had age limits 3 surveys included institutions 9 surveys included also men (all but one-USA- are modules)

26. Differences-Communalities • What to collect • Perpetrators (relationship with the victimized woman) • Injuries (very difficult to standardize it)

27. Perpetrators of physical violence against women, Germany, 2004 Professional caregivers, professional helpers, others3.4 Unknown persons 19.5 Friends, acquaintances, neighbours11.8 Casual acquaintances 10.8 Family members 30.1 Acquaintances from work, training or school 15.8 Partners, former partners, lovers 50.2 Source: Health, Well-Being and Personal Safety of Women in Germany, A Representative Study of Violence against Women in Germany, Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Germany, 2004

28. Impacts and consequences of spousal assaults on women, Canada, 2004 Impacts and consequences of spousal assaults on women, Canada, 2004 Refers to violence over the previous five years. Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey on Victimization 2004

29. Analysis of surveys 80% of the surveys included information about physical injuries Great majority of the surveys asked information about the use or not of medical services 84% of the surveys asked victims about their search for help

30. Other issues… • Telescoping effect • Sampling • Non-responses • Mode of data collection (increase reporting and assuring privacy)

31. Conclusions Many differences …..BUT …. Some communalities: • avoidance of general definitions of violence and use of highly detailed and behaviour-specific questions, • inclusion of physical and sexual violence as a minimum set, • use of “lifetime” and “one year before the survey” as reference period.

32. International/Regional level There is the need to build from the existing communalities in order to develop International/Regional Recommendations on how to measure VAW in official statistics

33. International/Regional level A great deal of work has been already carried out at international level to develop standard survey modules (WHO, DHS, IVAWS) Building on this work national statistical systems should be guided on how to design and carry outnational surveysas part of official statistics for asustainablecollection of VAW statistics

34. Increased Attention and Commitment to tackle Gender Violence • Standard indicators to measure violence against women • Encourage national statistical offices to have a more active role in • collecting and disseminating statistics in this area.

35. Gender-Based violence against women and men? Figure 1: Types of spousal abuse experienced by women and men, Canada, 2004 Figure 2: Impact of Spousal Violence on Victims, Canada, 2004

36. Indicators Physical violence: • The proportion of women who experience severe or moderate physical violence at least once during (the last year/lifetime) by perpetrators (intimate/other relative/other known person/stranger/state authority). Sexual violence: • The proportion of women who experience penetrative sex without consent or other sexual violence without consent (one/few/many) time/s during (the last year/lifetime) by perpetrators (intimate/other relative/other known person/stranger/state authority). Intimate partner violence: • The proportion of women (who have ever had an intimate partner) who experience physical or sexual violence at least once or often (>2 times) during (the last year/lifetime) by (current or former partner). Harmful practices: • Female genital mutilation/cutting • Early marriage • Female infanticide