Knowledge Hub

Every year the Women’s Aid Annual Impact Report serves as a harrowing and poignant reminder of the level of domestic violence and abuse against women and children that prevails in homes and relationships across Ireland. Unfortunately, 2023 was no different. This report provides an insight into the coercive and controlling emotional, physical, economic, and sexual abuses inflicted upon women and their children at the hands of current and former intimate partners, whom we supported during just...

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...

This background paper was developed to synthesize evidence, including divergent expert opinions, on the collection and use of VAW administrative data. It was used as the technical document for an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Administrative Data on Violence Against Women convened in September 2019 by UN Women. The background paper and the discussions and recommendations coming out of the EGM will inform the development of global guidance on the collection and use of VAW administrative data.

This sixth edition of The World’s Women: Trends and Statistics provides the latest statistics and analysis on the status of women and men at global and regional levels and reviews the progress towards gender equality over the last 20 years. The eight chapters of the report cover several broad policy areas identified in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the framework that set the international agenda for improving the status of women. These areas include population and families, health,...

With the aim of galvanizing global action against this all-too-pervasive crime, UNODC and UN Women have joined forces to produce this research paper on the global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls in the private sphere in 2021. This paper features policy recommendations to support comprehensive and multisectoral approaches to prevent and address gender-related killings and other forms of gender-based violence against women and girls.

With the aim of galvanizing global action against this crime, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women are publishing this second joint publication with global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls by an intimate partner or family member, with data from 2022. This publication features policy recommendations to prevent gender-related killings, including through risk assessments and protective measures, the establishment of femicide observatories, the criminalization of...

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.

Under Sustainable Development Goal 5, prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) is a globally reportable indicator. There is a lack of consensus on how to measure and report psychological IPV, affecting prevalence estimates and cross-country comparability. We examine similarities and differences in the patterning of women's experiences of psychological abuse in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to inform common cut points.

A scoping review with a focus on measurement to assess the forms of measurement and study design utilized to explore the intersection of violence against women with disabilities, and to identify strengths and limitations in current approaches to measuring violence against women with disabilities. This scoping review is designed to inform current debates and discussions regarding how to generate evidence concerning violence against women with disabilities.

This report is based on an analysis of available prevalence data from surveys and studies conducted between 2000 and 2018, obtained through a systematic and comprehensive review of all available data on the prevalence of these two forms of violence against women.

This publication compiles and analyses the results of Rapid Gender Assessment surveys on the impact of COVID-19 on violence against women (VAW RGAs) in 13 countries.

The Due Diligence and State Responsibility to Eliminate Violence against Women: Standards, Indicators and Good Practices project is a research-advocacy project that is collecting good practices and State actions in the formulation, implementation and enforcement of policies, laws, procedures and processes in relation to violence against women.

This article draws upon the experiences of four researchers in the field of femicide, family and intimate partner homicide - and offers insights into processes, impacts and unintended consequences of fatality reviews and research initiatives

A dashboard of IPV that features "levels, trends and sociodemographic and geographic, within and across countries, disparities in intimate partner violence in the past 12 months among ever-partnered women."