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This paper assesses the methodologies of the new national surveys of violence against women, including those in the US, Canada, Australia, Finland and the Netherlands, as well as the British Crime Survey. The development of large‐scale quantitative survey methodology so as to be suitable for such a sensitive subject has involved many innovations. The paper concludes with recommendations for further improvements including: the sampling frame, the scaling of both sexual assaults and range of...

Initial research into new questions aimed at identifying controlling or coercive behaviour. These crimes are less likely to be reported to the police, therefore it is important we find an effective way to measure these offences. This will provide insight for policymakers, service providers and charities.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is a representative population survey that since the early 2000s has provided ongoing measurement of domestic abuse via a dedicated domestic abuse module, with regular publication of headline prevalence and other descriptive data. At the same time the measurement of domestic violence in the CSEW has also been the subject of ongoing debate and critique, in particular whether it is appropriate to use catch-all prevalence measures in the context of...

UN Women teamed up with the National Statistics Office of Georgia (GEOSTAT) to conduct a second nationwide study on violence against women in Georgia in 2022. Building on the initial study in 2017, the 2022 survey significantly expanded its methodology to include additional forms of intimate partner violence, non-partner violence, sexual harassment, stalking, as well as attitudes and social norms related to violence against women. A total of 3,300 women and 1,104 men were interviewed across...

This report is based on interviews with 42,000 women across the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU). The survey asked women about their experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence, including incidents of intimate partner violence (‘domestic violence’), and also asked about stalking, sexual harassment, and the role played by new technologies in women’s experiences of abuse. In addition, it asked about their experiences of violence in childhood.

This report presents a detailed overview of the research methods used by FRA when collecting survey data on women’s personal experiences of various forms of violence. FRA started to develop the survey through desk research and stakeholder consultations in 2010, followed by a pre-test study in six EU Member States in 2011 to test a draft questionnaire. The full-scale survey in the EU-28 was carried out in 2012.