New Survey Methodologies in Researching Violence Against Women

• NCJ Number: 190258
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 41 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 2001 Pages: 502-522
• Author(s): Sylvia Walby; Andrew Myhill
• Editor(s): Geoffrey Pearson
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: For related articles see NCJ-190252-257, and NCJ-190259-260

Annotation

This paper assessed the methodologies of the new national surveys of violence against women including those in the United States, Canada, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands, as well as the British Crime Survey.

Abstract

Surveys had proved an indispensable tool for the analysis of violence against women and domestic violence. In recent years, there had been a wave of new survey designs, and there had been many methodological improvements. This paper argued for further revisions to surveys and assessed the new national surveys of violence against women, including ones in the United States, Canada, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands, and the British Crime Survey. Three types of surveys, reporting very different rates of violence against women were discussed and included: the generic national crime survey, the dedicated domestic violence survey, and the violence against women survey. The British Crime Survey was seen as exemplary and with much innovation, but it was no longer state of the art on violence against women. It did not provide the complex data needed to test emergent explanations of violence against women, whether it was domestic violence, rape, or other forms of abuse. The survey initiated by Statistics Canada, had provided an improved vehicle for the collection of data. The violence against women surveys could still be further developed in the following ways: (1) enhancement of the sampling frame; (2) the development of a longer and broader standard list for recording more of the different types of sexual attack; (3) a more systematic and comprehensive way of recording the various impacts of violence, especially sexual violence; (4) a better way of recording series of events over time; (5) the collection of more disaggregated socio-economic data, such as income; and (6) it should be asked whether the perpetrator had a criminal history to assess theories of criminal careers. References