Intimate Partner Violence Prevention
Scientific Information: Data Sources
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Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
National Violence Against Women Survey
Stalking in America: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey
Information on additional reports and products related to the National Violence Against Women Survey is available from
National Institute of Justice.
National Violent
Death Reporting System
CDC Data Sources
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the world's largest on-going telephone health survey system, tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984. The health departments of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands conduct the survey. CDC offers two optional modules to the BRFSS, an 8-question module on sexual violence and a 7-question module on intimate partner violence.
To further the understanding of violence against women, the National Institute of Justice and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, jointly sponsored the National Violence Against Women Survey. Interviews were obtained from 8,000 women and 8,005 men who were 18 years of age or older residing in households throughout the United States in 1996. Respondents were asked about (1) their general fear of violence; (2) emotional abuse they had experienced by marital or cohabiting partners; (3) physical assault they had experienced as children by adult caretakers; (4) physical assault they had experienced as adults by any type of perpetrator; (5) forcible rape or stalking they had experienced by any type of perpetrator; and (6) threatened violence they had experienced by any type of perpetrator. The following reports were generated from the survey data:
CDC has funded 17 states and established the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) to gather, share, and link state-level data on violent deaths. NVDRS provides CDC and states with a more complete understanding of violent deaths. This enables policy makers and community leaders to make informed decisions about violence prevention programs, including those that address intimate partner violence.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is developing the
National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Surveillance System (NISVSS)
in collaboration with the National Institute of Justice and the U.S.
Department of Defense.
Beginning in 2009, NISVSS will collect data using a random-digit-dial
telephone survey of English-and Spanish-speaking persons, aged 18 years and
older, that live in the United States. In addition, over-sampling for
American Indian and Alaska Native women will provide information on these
underserved and understudied segments of the American population. During the
first year of NISVSS's operation, data will also be collected from female
married spouses and from female active duty members of the U.S. Armed
Forces.
NISVSS
will generate accurate and reliable lifetime and 12-month incidence and
prevalence estimates on intimate partner violence (physical aggression,
psychological aggression, and sexual violence); sexual violence (unwanted
sexual situations, abusive sexual contact, and completed or attempted sex
without consent); and stalking victimization.
Each year, NISVSS will provide precise and stable annual prevalence
estimates for intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking
victimization at the national level. As available resources allow, data
collection will continue across multiple years. As sample sizes increase, it
is anticipated that stable state-level lifetime prevalence data will be
available for both women and men in most states (depending on population
size).
The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) is a surveillance project of CDC and state health departments. PRAMS collects state-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy. Data on physical abuse during and after pregnancy are collected.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System monitors health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability, including intimate partner violence (in the form of teen dating abuse), among young people in the United States.
Other Federal Data Sources
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Since the 1930s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been collecting data on crime in the United States. Each year, the FBI publishes a summary of Crime in the United States, Hate Crime Statistics, special studies, reports, and monographs.
National Crime Victimization Survey
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the primary source of information on criminal victimization in the United States. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of 77,200 households comprising nearly 134,000 persons on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The survey enables the Bureau of Justice Statistics to estimate the likelihood of victimization by rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, theft, household burglary, and motor vehicle theft. This information is provided for the population as a whole as well as for segments of the population such as women, the elderly, members of various racial groups, city dwellers, or other groups. The NCVS provides the largest national forum for victims to describe the impact of crime and characteristics of violent offenders.
Non-Federal Data Sources
National Comorbidity Study*
The baseline National Comorbidity Study, fielded from fall 1990 to spring 1992, was the first nationally representative mental health survey in the United States to use a fully structured research diagnostic interview to assess the prevalences and correlates of DSM-III-R disorders.
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health*
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) is a nationally representative study that explores the causes of health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7 through 12 and their outcomes in young adulthood. Add Health seeks to examine how social contexts (families, friends, peers, schools, neighborhoods, and communities) influence adolescents' health and risk behaviors.
National Survey of Families and Households
*
The National Survey of Families and Households was designed to provide a broad range of information on family life for research across disciplinary perspectives. A considerable amount of life-history information was collected, including: the respondent's family living arrangements in childhood, departures and returns to the parental home, and histories of marriage, cohabitation, education, fertility, and employment. The design provided the detailed description of past and current living arrangements and other characteristics and experiences, the analysis of the consequences of earlier patterns on current states, marital and parenting relationships, kin contact, and economic and psychological well-being. Interviews were conducted in 1987-88, 1992-94, and 2001-2003.
The National Survey of Family Growth
The National Survey of Family Growth gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and men's and women's health. The survey results are used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others to plan health services and health education programs, and to do statistical studies of families, fertility, and health.
World Health Organization's Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women*
This report presents initial results based on interviews with 24,000 women.
Report findings document the prevalence of intimate partner violence and its
association with women's physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health.
Data are included on non-partner violence, sexual abuse during childhood and
forced first sexual experience. The report concludes with 15 recommendations
to strengthen national commitment and action on violence against women.
Other Resources
Measuring Intimate Partner Violence Victimization and Perpetration: A Compendium of Assessment Tools
This compendium provides researchers and prevention specialists with a set of assessment tools with demonstrated reliability and validity for measuring the self-reported incidence and prevalence of intimate partner violence victimization and perpetration.
* Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
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Page last modified: November 13, 2008