NCJ Number
184447
Date Published
Agencies
NIJ
Publication Series
Publication Type
Article
Annotation
This article summarizes the proceedings and recommendations from
an interagency workshop intended to advance the measurement of
violence against women and the performance of sound research.
Abstract
The workshop, sponsored by the Federal Departments of Justice and
Health and Human Services, had three general goals. One goal was
to share information on the current state of data collection and
measurement of violence against women, especially intimate
partner violence and sexual violence. A second goal was to
identify the gaps in and limitations of existing data systems for
collecting information about these types of violence against
women. The third goal was to develop recommendations about
data-collection and measurement that would assist researchers in
better describing and tracking violence against women in order to
better prevent and respond to it. The basis for the workshop
discussions consisted of background papers on several key issues,
including definitional and methodological issues and the
collection of national, State, and local data that reflect both
public health and criminal justice perspectives. Workshop
participants divided violence against women into five major
components: physical violence, sexual violence, threats of
physical and/or sexual violence, stalking, and
psychological/emotional abuse. Participants recommended that in
future writings the phrase "violence and abuse against women" be
used to refer to the combination of all five components; whereas,
the first three components alone should be called "violence
against women." Other recommendations pertain to estimation of
the size of the problem, interpretation of data, ensuring
confidentiality and safety, and continuing scientific
collaboration.
Date Created: November 5, 2010