« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Violence against Women: A literature
review commissioned by the National Group to Address
Violence Against Women
2. The extent of the problem
"Whilst clear categories and definitions are
important for statistical and research purposes, we
must never forget that these are abstract analytic
concepts developed for a specific purpose - to count
the extent of violence. They do not reflect
experiential reality, which is always more
complex...."
Liz Kelly, Domestic Violence: Enough is Enough
conference, London, October 2000
What, why and how to measure the true extent of violence
against women are questions which have stimulated much
debate among practitioners, policy makers and researchers
(Desai and Salzman, 2001; Dobash and Dobash, 1998; Hester,
Kelly and Radford, 1996). In relation to domestic abuse, at
both national and local level, much effort has gone into
trying to identify how a common approach to data collection
might be achieved. Attempts to evaluate new service
developments and public education initiatives are hampered
by the lack of available 'benchmarks'. Differences in data
systems and data collection, uncertainty about how to
overcome 'double counting', and concerns about the legal
aspects of data sharing, are some of the issues currently
under debate.
2.1 Recorded crime
Statistical Bulletins produced by the Scottish Executive
are the main source of official information on violence
against women in Scotland. Information about recorded crime
is collected quarterly and published annually. The data is
'offence based' rather than 'incident based' - several
offences may be involved in one incident, there may be more
than one offender and there may be more than one victim.
The figures therefore provide a record of the levels of
crime occurring in Scotland, but not the numbers of
individuals affected by it (Scottish Executive, 2003).
Since what is being counted is 'offences' rather than
individuals, gender disaggregation is not possible, with
one notable exception.
'Crimes of indecency' is the category which includes
figures relating to sexual violence. Prior to 2001, this
was broken down into sub headings of 'sexual assault',
'lewd and indecent behaviour' and 'other'. From 2001, the
sexual assault category was split into 'rape and attempted
rape' and 'indecent assault'. The purpose of this was to
allow easier counting of offences covered by the police
Statutory Performance Indicator of serious violent crime.
An interesting by-product, given that in Scotland the legal
definition of rape is gender specific, is that there will
now be the possibility of analysing reporting trends in
this one area of sexual violence against women.
For the year from 1
st January to 31
st December 2002, there were 913 crimes of rape
or attempted rape in Scotland. It is noted that this
represents an increase of 21% on 2001, and is the highest
level of rapes and attempted rapes ever recorded in
Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2003). No particular reason
is offered for this Scottish-wide phenomenon. However an
increase of 37% in crimes of indecency recorded by two
Scottish forces, in Lothian and Borders and in Tayside, is
attributed variously to increased reporting of 'historical'
abuse, a rise in indecent assault reports as a result of
proactive work with children and young people, and a more
proactive approach to working with women's support
organisations to encourage reporting by their service users
(Scottish Executive, 2003).
Incidents of violence against women may involve a range
of crimes and offences including serious assault, petty
assault, sexual offences and breach of the peace. Women's
Aid groups and other women's support organisations have
been aware of an increasing use of mobile phones by abusive
men as a means of harassing and intimidating women. An
increase of 23% in offences involving 'threats or
extortion' as a result of this increase in threatening
phone calls or text messages is noted by Lothian and
Borders Police. Again, because the focus is on the incident
rather than the people affected by it, it is not possible
to see how far this might relate to violence against
women.
Specific statistics on domestic abuse have been
collected by the Scottish police forces since 1999. These
give more detail about recorded incidents of domestic
abuse. 36,010 incidents were recorded in 2002, the majority
of which (59%) did not go on to be recorded as a crime or
an offence. 90% of the incidents involved a female victim
and a male perpetrator (Scottish Executive, 2003). A
particular concern raised in the most recent report is the
level of repeat victimisation - where the information was
available, about half of the cases involved repeat
victimisation (Scottish Executive, 2003).
The data from different police forces raises some
questions about differences in police recording. Some
forces do not record a crime or offence if no further
action is taken after the initial report, for example if
the victim does not wish to pursue the matter, while other
forces will record. As a result, Central Scotland shows
only 24% of incidents leading to the recording of a crime
or offence, while Grampian shows 98% of incidents being
recorded as a crime or offence. The report notes that
"these recording practices are under continuing review with
the intention of achieving consistency across Scotland"
(Scottish Executive, 2003: 27)
2.2 Agency statistics
There is, then, some information available on the
incidence of violence against women as encountered by the
criminal justice system. Clearly this does not provide a
full picture of the extent of the problem. If the numbers
of workers seeking training on how to respond to women who
have experienced violence is anything to go by, there are
many more women seeking help, support or information from
agencies outwith the criminal justice system. Women present
to housing departments, social work departments and health
professionals looking for a range of services. However,
this is not reflected in the statistical information
available from these agencies. In some instances, the
options available to staff when recording the reason for a
referral do not include 'violence'. Where it is recorded,
it may not be in a format which enables collation. Health
professionals, for example, will record the information
that a patient has disclosed violence or abuse, but this
will be in a narrative form in the patient's record. Even
where these records are held on a computer system, it is
not possible to extract only information about 'violence as
a reason for referral' without an appropriate coding
system.
Recognising the need to address this difficulty with
data collection, the Scottish Executive undertook a three
day snapshot in December 2003 to gauge the extent to which
women are presenting to agencies as a result of domestic
abuse. Participating agencies across Scotland included
Women's Aid, accident and emergency departments, primary
care teams, social work teams and homelessness units. A
report on the outcomes is expected shortly.
Women's voluntary organisations are the other main
source of data about the numbers of women experiencing
violence. The 40 affiliated local groups in the Scottish
Women's Aid network received 72,029 requests for
information and support between April 2002 and March 2003,
a 10.3% increase on the previous year. In addition, 5,873
women requested refuge, this need for emergency
accommodation implying a recent history of abuse by a
partner (Scottish Women's Aid, 2003). The Women's Support
Project, a Glasgow based organisation working with women
affected by any form of violence or abuse, received 1550
requests for support between April 2002 and March 2003
(Women's Support Project, 2003). Statistics will be
available shortly from Rape Crisis Scotland, the national
office for the network of Rape Crisis Centres in Scotland.
A new database is due to come on stream to allow routine
collation of statistics from all local groups.
The under-reporting of violence against women to
any agency is well documented. A survey of
women in Edinburgh found that although over half of the
respondents had experienced some form of violence, only 21%
of those who had experienced physical or sexual violence
had approached a support agency for help (Henderson/CEC
5, 1997). Sources other than agency statistics must be
examined in order to assess the true extent of violence
against women.
2.3 Crime surveys
Survey results on the prevalence of violence against
women may vary depending on a range of factors including
the definitions used, the methodology used, and the context
of the survey (Johnson, 1998; Walby and Myhill, 2001).
However, it is estimated that between one in two and one in
ten women will experience some form of violence at some
point in their lives, with between 0.4% and 10% of women
experiencing violence in any 12 month period (see, for
example, Budd, Mattinson and Myhill, 2000; Henderson/CEC,
1997; Macpherson, 2002; Mirrlees-Black, 1999; Mooney, 1993;
Myhill and Allen, 2002; Statistics Canada 1993, cited in
Johnson, 1998; World Health Organisation, 2002).
National crime surveys have provided some extension of
the data available from official statistics. The Scottish
Crime Survey (SCS) has run independently of the British
Crime Survey (BCS) since 1993, and was repeated in 1996 and
2000. The SCS 2000 survey included a self-completion
questionnaire which asked about domestic violence. 6% of
women responding had experienced either threats or force
from a partner during 1999; 19% of women had experienced
threats or force from a partner at some point in their
lives (Macpherson, 2002). Similar self-completion modules
on rape and sexual assault were included in the BCS in 1998
and 2000. A report based on findings from both of these
surveys noted that 0.9% of women had experienced some form
of sexual victimisation in the previous 12 months; 9.7% in
their lifetime. Partners were the perpetrators in 32% of
cases (Myhill and Allen, 2002).
Walby and Myhill note that reporting of violence against
women in these generic crime surveys increases over time
and as survey methodology is refined and developed, and
consider whether the methodology applied by some of the
national surveys on violence against women might improve
reporting rates still further (Walby and Myhill, 2001).
They identify some problems with generic crime surveys,
including limited time available to build a rapport with
survey participants, or to ask "nuanced questions"
6 about women's experiences of violence. They also
consider whether, in generic surveys, less priority might
be given to selection and training of interviewers.
Finally, they raise the question of how far women see what
has happened to them as 'a crime' and whether questions of
definition influence how far women report their experiences
(Walby and Myhill, 2001). They are not convinced that this
is a major problem and cite the 1996 BCS survey on domestic
violence, in which "significant numbers of people did in
fact report domestic violence even when they said they did
not consider it a crime" (Mirrlees-Black, 1999, cited in
Walby and Myhill, 2001: 508).
Crime surveys tend to focus on a single aspect of
violence against women, and by the nature of their
perspective - violence as crime -are inclined not to
consider in depth areas of women's experience which are
harder to frame as 'crime'. They may not address the
particular issues related to violence against women from
marginalised groups, including black and minority ethnic
women, women with disabilities, lesbian women, and women
working in prostitution. Women from these groups may be
subject to higher levels of some types of violence than
women in the general population, and the violence they
experience may impact on their lives in different ways
(Barnard et al,
2001; Farley, 1998;
Henderson/CEC, 1997; Johal, 2003; Kelly, 2000; Saxton et
al, 2001; Siddiqui, 2003).
The authors of a report which addresses the intersection
of domestic violence and 'minoritisation'
7 make the point that whilst it is important to
acknowledge that domestic abuse happens across all ethnic
and socio-economic groups, by doing so there is a danger of
making the specific experiences of 'minoritised' groups
invisible (Batsleer et al, 2002). Similar difficulties have
been noted in relation to women with disabilities (MacLeod,
1995, Nosek and Howland, 1998)). For both of these groups
of women, the standard obstacles to reporting which may be
experienced by many women - fear of the consequences, fear
of not being believed, lack of access to information about
services which might assist - are compounded by additional
barriers, such as lack of information in appropriate
languages or formats, lack of cultural awareness within
agencies and greater dependency on the abuser, who may be
the main carer or interpreter for the woman.
The experiences of older women may not be considered.
Although older women are deemed to be at less risk of
violence than younger women and girls (Statistics Canada,
1993; VAWS, 1996; Henderson/CEC 1997), they consistently
express more anxiety about their safety than younger women
(Henderson/CEC, 1997; Home Office, 2003; SCS, 2002). There
has been little specific research on the extent of violence
against older women, and the possibility that older women
are less likely to report violence cannot be discounted.
The Scottish Executive has commissioned research into older
women's experiences of domestic violence which was
completed in May 2003 and is due to be published in Spring
2004.
Poverty may also make women more vulnerable to violence.
It limits choices and forces women into types of employment
which carry more risks of violence, for example
prostitution, or work in the service industries. It may
also put women in the position of having to take on shift
work or work which is far from home, reliant on public
transport, and they may be more at risk for this reason (
, 2001;
Byrne et al, 1999; Statistics Canada, 1993).
2.4 Counting the gaps
There can be difficulty in extracting from a general
crime survey the significance of the event in a woman's
life and a sense of the interconnectedness of the issues.
The prevalence of experiences of stalking and sexual
harassment, the involvement of women in pornography,
prostitution and organised or ritual abuse, and the extent
to which women experience violence in more than one context
and at more than one point in their lives has been largely
unexplored until relatively recently. Some areas of women's
experience remain invisible in any attempt at 'counting'.
Those studies which have been done indicate that
significant numbers of women have been affected by these
issues.
Stalking, defined as 'persistent and unwanted
behaviour', affected 17% of women at some point in their
lives in a study of stalking and harassment in Scotland
(Morris, Anderson and Murray, 2002). When asked about
experiences they would categorise as 'stalking', only 10%
of women reported a lifetime experience. This is closer to
the findings from the U.S. national survey on violence
against women, which asked respondents about stalking which
'involved a high level of fear'. In this study, 8% of women
reported a lifetime experience of behaviour which fitted
the description they were given (Tjaden and Thoennes,
1998).
The trafficking of women for sexual exploitation has
gained increasing attention over the last few years, as
awareness has increased of global trafficking in persons.
The hidden nature of trafficking makes it difficult to
assess accurately the numbers of women involved. Using a
range of data sources, including a survey of police forces
and a review of data on immigration patterns, organised
crime and prosecutions for prostitution related offences, a
recent study on the extent and nature of trafficking of
women in the UK estimated that between 142 and 1420 might
be trafficked into and within the UK per annum (Kelly and
Regan, 2000).
There are similar difficulties with estimating the
numbers of women working in prostitution. Routes Out Of
Prostitution (ROOP), a Glasgow based project working to
address prostitution as an issue of violence against women,
estimates that over 1000 women in Glasgow are involved in
prostitution (ROOP, 2003). This, however, is in the context
of acknowledging that the 'visible' face of prostitution is
on the streets, and that the numbers of women working in
indoor prostitution are largely unknown and difficult to
monitor (Kelly and Regan, 2000).
Women working in prostitution report much higher levels
of violence than other women in the population - 82% of
respondents in a San Francisco study had experienced
physical assault while working in prostitution and 68% had
experienced sexual assault
8 (Farley and Barkan, 1998). A study of women working in
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Leeds found that two thirds of the
women interviewed had experienced violence from clients
(Barnard et al, 2001).
The San Francisco study also found that 57% of the
respondents had experienced sexual assault in childhood.
This is at the higher end of estimates of the prevalence of
experiences of child sexual abuse in the general
population, which range from one in four (Creighton and
Russell, 1995) to one in eight (Baker and Duncan, 1985).
Although Kelly et al (1991) found that 59% of the young
women they surveyed had experienced some form of sexual
abuse before they reached 18, their definition of sexual
abuse included the spectrum of behaviours from flashing to
rape. Narrowing the definition to exclude flashing and
other 'less serious' abuses, the prevalence rate drops to 1
in 20 young women. This highlights some of the difficulties
inherent in comparing studies. Few prevalence studies have
been done in this area, and those that have use a wide
range of definitions, methodologies, and sample profiles.
The study by Kelly et al was designed to address some of
these issues, and to identify what adaptations to
methodology might help to provide a clearer picture of
childhood experiences of abuse. The authors recommend
taking a broad approach to 'defining', maintaining that
narrowing the definition used in a survey too much excludes
the possibility of gathering valuable qualitative data, for
example in relation to the seriousness of the abusive
experience for the individual at the time, and also in
relation to the long term consequences (Kelly, Regan and
Burton, 1991).
The use of narrow definitions of violence against women
excludes more than qualitative data. It is difficult to
count something which has not been named; but until it is
counted, how do we know it exists? For survivors of ritual
abuse, the narrow focus in most surveys on the type of
assault, e.g. 'rape' or 'physical assault', may exclude the
possibility of naming the context in which the assault
takes place, and thereby help to perpetuate the belief that
such abuse does not exist (Matthew, 2001, 2002; Scott,
2001). A small scale survey which sought to assess agency
awareness of ritual abuse asked respondents how many
survivors of ritual abuse were known to have made contact
with their agency between August 2002 and August 2003. 25
agencies responded; between them they reported contact with
96 survivors of ritual abuse (TRASH, publication
pending).
It is clear that although single issue studies can be
helpful in assessing the need for a specific service or
policy development - for example, the need for development
in housing policy to meet the needs of women fleeing
domestic abuse - they do not allow the linkages between
different types of gendered violence against women at
different times in the lifecycle to be fully explored. In
order to assess the full extent of 'violence against women'
in a society, a different, broader approach may be
required.
2.5 National surveys
The Canadian national survey in 1993 asked questions
about a wide range of experiences, and framed the questions
around the theme of women's safety. The results were
significantly higher than those found in other surveys. In
1993, Canadian police recorded 15,200 sexual assaults
against women; the General Social Survey (GSS)
9 recorded 316,000 sexual assaults against women. Based
on responses from 12,300 women, the Violence Against Women
Survey (VAWS) estimated that there had been 572,000 sexual
assaults against women in Canada that year. The pattern for
assaults against women by their partners was similar -
46,800 'assaults against wives' were recorded by the
police, 107,500 assaults were recorded by the GSS, and
201,000 assaults were estimated by the Violence Against
Women Survey. Citing these figures in 1998, Johnson
notes:
"The specialized survey of violence against women
captures almost twice as many incidents as the traditional
crime-victim survey, four times as many cases of wife
assault as are reported to the police, and about
38 times as many cases of sexual assault as police
statistics." (Johnson, 1998: 39-40)
She attributes this increase in large part to a
meticulous design process, in which every effort was made
to create an approach which would encourage women to
discuss their experiences of violence as fully and as
safely as possible with the interviewers. The design team
consulted with academic researchers, frontline
practitioners, policy makers and women survivors of male
violence. A random sample telephone survey was deemed to be
the best approach, for a population with 99% access to a
phone. The questionnaire design involved a rolling
programme of consultation through focus groups, moving from
general discussion through detailed analysis and testing of
the content of the questionnaire. Consideration was given
to how the questionnaire would be administered, including
the selection and training of interviewers. It was held to
be important that the interviewers be women, removing one
perceived barrier to disclosure. Potential interviewers
went through standard job screening to assess their
suitability for the post and then underwent a second
interview with a clinical psychologist to assess their
ability to deal with the particular stressors associated
with a large scale survey about violence and abuse.
Interviewers were provided with eight days training which
focussed on issues such as responding to disclosure and
distress and ensuring that interviewees were in a safe
place to participate in the interview. During the initial
stages of phone contact, interviewers provided women with a
'toll-free' number to call if the interview was
interrupted, or to discuss anything raised for them by the
interview (Johnson, 1998).
The results of the Canadian survey are significant, not
just because of the numbers of women who reported violent
experiences, but because of the links made between
different experiences of violence at different times in
women's lives, and in what is revealed about the context,
meaning and impact of violence in women's lives. Of the
12,300 women surveyed, 51% had experienced at least one
physical or sexual assault since age 16 and almost 60% had
been assaulted more than once. 25% of the women surveyed
had been physically and/or sexually assaulted by partners
or ex-partners - 20% of the women who were assaulted by a
partner were sexually assaulted. In all, 45% of the women
surveyed had been assaulted by someone known to them,
compared with 23% who had been assaulted by strangers. 38%
of women had been sexually assaulted by a man known to them
(Status of Women Canada, 2002).
Since 1983, Canada has had no specific offences of rape,
attempted rape or indecent assault. Instead, there are
three levels of 'sexual assault' ranging in severity from
"unwanted sexual touching" to "sexual violence resulting in
serious physical injury sustained by the victim" (Status of
Women Canada, 2002: 20). Over 90% of all incidents reported
to the police are recorded as level 1 assaults - minor
physical injuries or no injuries to the victim, with a
maximum possible sentence of 10 years. The 1993 survey
found that only 6% of all sexual assault incidents had been
reported to the police, and only 4% of incidents involving
'unwanted sexual touching' (Status of Women Canada, 2002).
The survey explored reasons for low reporting, which were
similar to those reported in UK surveys - the incident was
considered too minor (44%), women didn't think the police
could do anything (12%), or they wanted to keep it private
(12%). Interestingly, given how many sexual assaults were
committed by men known to women, fear of the perpetrator,
and not wanting the perpetrator arrested or jailed, were
given as reasons for not reporting by only 3% of the
women.
In their review of the development of national surveys
on violence against women, Walby and Myhill attempt to
define 'state of the art methodology'. They identify
several issues to be considered, including the context of
the survey; interviewing practices; training for
interviewers and ensuring a 'good fit' between interviewer
and interviewee; the sampling frame; the mode of enquiry,
and situating the event in relation to others (Walby and
Myhill, 2001). They conclude that dedicated surveys on
violence against women are likely to be more effective than
general crime surveys which include questions about
violence against women, since they pay greater attention to
maintaining the safety of interviewees, building rapport
and focussing on the meaning and impact of the violence as
much as on the act itself.
In their 2002 report on assessing violence against
women, Status of Women Canada
10 identify a set of indicators to be used as benchmarks
against which to measure progress on tackling violence
against women. These are designed to parallel the Economic
Gender Equality Indicators released in 1997 by the F/P/T
11 Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women. The
violence against women indicators follow six themes:
- Severity and prevalence of violence against
women
- Impact of violence against women
- Risk factors associated with violence against
women
- Institutional and community based responses
- Victims' use of services
- Public attitudes and perceptions
The authors stress that these indicators are limited by
the quality of the data available, and note that as data
collection methods improve, so must the indicators expand
and adapt over time (Status of Women Canada, 2002).
However, it is undoubtedly the case that the baseline data
gathered in Canada through the national surveys of violence
against women provide an invaluable benchmark against which
to measure the effectiveness of policy development and
legislative change (Hague, Kelly and Mullender, 2001).
2.6 Extent of the problem -
conclusions
In summary, a review of the research on the prevalence
and incidence of violence against women tells us that:
- violence against women is widespread, affecting
women of any age, class, race, religion, sexuality, or
ability
- women are most at risk from men they know
- factors which may increase women's vulnerability to
some types of violence include age, disability, and
poverty
- when asked, significant numbers of women describe
patterns of abusive behaviour and repeat victimisation,
rather than discrete assaults
- women experience violence at different points in
their lives, and significant numbers of women
experience more than one type of violence
- surveys which address violence against women in all
its forms may yield more information than 'single
issue' surveys about the meaning and impact of violence
in women's lives
- few studies have been designed specifically to
record the experiences of marginalised groups of
women
« Previous | Contents | Next »