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Sexual Violence Prevention
Scientific Information: Data Sources

Quick Facts

Sexual Violence: Facts at a Glance
This fact sheet provides up-to-date data and statistics on sexual violence.


CDC Data Sources

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
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 (U.S.) 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 violence-related modules to the BRFSS, an 8-question module on sexual violence and a 7-question module on intimate partner violence.

National Violence Against Women Survey
To further the understanding of violence against women, the National Institute of Justice and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC, 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 1995-1996. 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:
   

Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women

Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey

Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Rape Victimization: Findings from the 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 Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP)
NEISS-AIP provides nationally representative data about all types and causes of nonfatal injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments. CDC uses NEISS-AIP data to generate national estimates of nonfatal injuries, including those related to sexual violence.

National Violent Death Reporting System
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.

National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Surveillance System
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).

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 violence, among young people in the United States. The Youth Risk Behavior survey collects data every other year from a large nationally representative sample of high school students. Students are asked if they have ever been forced to have sexual intercourse.


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 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 about 76,000 persons in 42,000 households. The interviews are conducted twice annually and provide information about 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.


Additional Resources

Journal Articles

  • Basile KC. Prevalence of wife rape and other intimate partner sexual coercion in a nationally representative sample of women. Violence and Victims. 2002;17(5):511-24.
  • Elliott DM, Mok DS, Briere J. Adult sexual assault: prevalence, symptomatology, and sex differences in the general population. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 2004;17(3):203-11.
  • Fisher BS, Cullen FT, Turner MG. The sexual victimization of college women. Washington: Department of Justice (US), National Institute of Justice; 2000. Publication No. NCJ 182369. Available from URL: www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf or www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/svcw.txt.
  • Lisak D, Miller PM. Repeat rape and multiple offending among undetected rapists. Violence and Victims. 2002;17(1):73-84.

 

* 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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Content Source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention
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