Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The differences of DV studies in a few numbers

As seen here:

Between 600,000 and 6 million women are victims of domestic violence each year, and between 100,000 and 6 million men, depending on the type of survey used to obtain the data.
(Rennison, C. (2003, Feb). Intimate partner violence. Us. Dpt. of Justice/Office of Justice Programs. NXJ 197838.
Straus, M. & Gelles, R. (1990). Physical violence in American families. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.
Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (2000). Extent, nature, and consequences of intimate partner violence. National Institute of Justice, NCJ 181867.)

The surveys with the low incident numbers are likely crime surveys while the surveys with the high numbers are likely family violence surveys. Note the difference in incidence numbers and the difference in gender ratio. Family violence surveys find 10 times as many victims and have a ration of 1:1 while crime surveys have a ratio of 6:1. Both kind of studies measure different things. It is dishonest to use both of the statistics together in a way like this: 6 Million women have been victims of DV this year (family violence survey), while 85% of DV victims are women (crime survey).

That is all.

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