The Measurement of Violence Against Women (VAW)

1
The Measurement of Violence Against Women (VAW)

• Angela Me
• UNECE Statistics Division

2
Beijing Platform for Action

• VAW is an obstacle to the achievement of the
  objectives of equality, development and peace.
• VAW violates and impairs or nullifies the
  enjoyment by women of their human rights and
  fundamental freedoms.
• VAW is a violation of human rights

3
How VAW can be defined?

• General Assembly
• 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 such acts, coercion or
  arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether
  occurring in public or in private life

4
How VAW can be defined?

• It includes a broad range of acts
• Physical, sexual and psychological violence
  occurring in the family (including battering,
  sexual abuse of female children, dowry-related
  violence, marital rape)
• Physical, sexual and psychological violence
  occurring within the general community (including
  rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment,
  trafficking in women and forced prostitution)
• Physical, sexual and psychological violence
  perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it
  occurs

5
How VAW can be measured?
Traditional sources
Police Statistics Types of crimes (VAW), information on victims and offenders and their relationship Only reported crimes Only physical and sexual
Homicide Statistics Information on victims and offenders and their relationship Only physical and sexual
Court statistics Cases of VAW processed, conviction, Only reported crimes Only physical and sexual
6
How VAW can be measured?

• Shortcoming of traditional sources
• Coverage
• They do not cover all form of VAW (psychological)
• They cover ONLY REPORTED crimes
• This is a limitation particularly for domestic
  violence (among the most common form of VAW)

7
Use of criminal justice and social services by
female victims of spousal violence
Source Johnson, 1999 Canadian General Social
Survey on Victimization, Statistics Canada
8
How VAW can be measured?

• Data on VAW based on police records
• Provide a biased view
• Give the wrong message for advocacy and policy
  making

9
Other existing sources?

• Service-based Data
• Health records
• Welfare services
• Shelters
• Support services for survivors of violence
• Women lawyers associations

10
Other existing sources?

• Service-based Data
• Can provide a valuable source to show the limited
  number of cases covered by police records for
  example
• Can be used to monitor women that come forward
  for help
• Can provide case studies to study the root causes
  of violence and the circumstances
• Can help to estimate the cost to society to
  responding to VAW
• Can be used to estimate the need for training
  among service providers

11
Other existing sources?

• HOWEVER ..Service-based Data
• They can NOT be used to measure the prevalence of
  violence in a country or community
• They suffer the same problem of undercounting
  (not all women report to services and those that
  do report tend to be the most seriously injured)

12
Other existing sources?

• Health Services
• Potentially they could become a more effective
  source of data by increasing disclosure through
  routine enquiry about violence and developing
  capacity to record, analyze and report the data
  on VAW
• Obligatory reporting of VAW by health workers?
• The effectiveness of these two issues is still
  under debate

13
Population-based Sample Surveys

• Reach women to ask about their experience on VAW
• They reflect actual occurrences of victimization
  rather than what is reported to officials
• They are the MOST RELIABLE method for collecting
  information on the extend of VAW

14
Population-based Sample Surveys

• Examples of National Surveys carried out within
  the framework of official statistics
• Canada, Australia, Finland, France, United
  States, Italy
• Examples of International Surveys
• WHO Multi-Country Study, International Violence
  against Women Surveys (IVAWS)

15
Ad-hoc Module in Surveys

• An ad-hoc module on VAW could be included in
  on-going surveys under the following conditions
• A full instrument has to be added (not only a
  limited number of questions)
• The safety of the women is not compromised
• The on-going survey should deal with similar
  topics (health, victimization)

16
Ad-hoc Module in Surveys

• Examples
• National Surveys Canada, UK, USA
• International Surveys Demographic and Health
  Survey Module, MICS Module (only to measure
  attitudes over VAW)

17
Percentages of all women and currently married
women (age 15-49) reporting violence from
DHSSource Kishor, DHS
Country By anyone ever Spousal violence Spousal violence
Country By anyone ever Ever Past year
Cambodia 23 18 15
Colombia 41 44 -
Dom. Rep. 17 22 11
Egypt 35 34 13
Haiti 35 29 21
India 21 19 10
Kenya 49 47 28
Nicaragua 33 30 13
Peru 53 42 -
Zambia 59 48 27
18
Considerations in planning VAW Surveys

• 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

• 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

19
Considerations in planning and use VAW Surveys

• 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
• 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

20
Considerations in planning and use VAW Surveys

• Reference population
• 15-49
• 15 or 18 years and plus
• Only married or with partner
• Some studies cover men as well
• What to collect
• Perpetrators (relationship with the victimized
  woman)
• Injuries (very difficult to standardize it)

21
Considerations in planning and use VAW Surveys

• What to report
• Prevalence (example percent of women 15-49 who
  were victimized in the previous 12 months)
• Severity (Number of beating by 1,000 women 15-49)
  
• The Questionnaire needs to be properly tested

22
Considerations in planning and use VAW Surveys

• Safety of women at first
• Protect confidentiality of the data
• During the interview
• In the storage and dissemination of the data
• Specialized training of interviewers
• Technical
• Gender-sensitization
• Emotional (dealing with sensitive issues)
• Select proper women interviewers
• Filed staff should be trained to refer women
  requesting assistance to available sources of
  support

23
Considerations in planning and use VAW Surveys

• Safety of women at first
• WHO Ethical and Safety Guidelines for Researching
  Domestic Violence against Women