DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: THE MEASURED AND THE TO BE MEASURED

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DOMESTIC VIOLENCETHE MEASURED AND THE TO BE
MEASURED
Sunita Kishor (Ph.D.) Demographic and Health
Research Macro International, Inc. Maryland, USA
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Overview

• What we know
• .and the data with which we know it (DHS
  examples)
• Lessons learned
• .and the questions raised
• What we do not know

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What is the DHS?

• Nationally-representative household surveys with
  large samples (typically 6000 India-100,000)
• Usually done every 5-7 years
• Provide indicators for monitoring at the national
  and sometimes, sub-national level
• Comparable across countries and over time
• Includes information in selected countries on
  domestic violence (27) and violence against men

Violence measurement in the DHS yields
information on prevalence, risk factors, and
consequences of violence.
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Measurement Challenges

• Defining what violence to measure
• Ensuring validity of the measures the how
• Ensuring safety and ethical standards
• Determining what else to measure other than
  prevalence

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History of violence measurement in the DHS

• Earliest efforts
• Country-specific questions (Colombia 1990 1995)
• Questions developed and implemented as part of
  topic-specific studies
• 1993 Philippines Safe Motherhood Study
• 1995/96 Uganda Negotiating Reproductive Outcomes
  Study.
• 1995 Egypt DHS as part of the womens status
  module
• Special efforts were made in the 1998 Nicaragua
  DHS
• develop questions that increased the validity of
  the DV measure
• The current module
• incorporates lessons from the Egypt and Nicaragua
  exercises
• accompanied by guidelines adapted from WHO
  guidelines on its ethical implementation

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Validity of Data

• No catch-all term to capture violence
• Recommendation Ask about different types of
  violent acts separately, specifically, as in the
  Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS)
• Risk of underreporting of violence
• Recommendations Build rapport, ensure privacy,
  provide multiple opportunities to reveal abuse

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Forms of Spousal Violence Definitions

• Physical violence Any of the following acts of
  violence perpetrated by her husband
• Pushed her, shook her, or threw something at her
• Slapped her
• Twisted her arm or pulled her hair
• Punched her
• Kicked her, dragged her, or beat her up
• Tried to choke her or burn her on purpose
• Threatened her or attacked her with a weapon

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Forms of Spousal Violence Definitions

• Sexual violence Any of the following
• Forced her to have sexual intercourse when she
  did not want to
• Forced her to perform sexual acts she did not
  want to
• Emotional violence Any of the following
• Said or did something to humiliate her in front
  of others
• Threatened to hurt or harm her or someone close
  to her
• Insulted her to made her feel bad about herself

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Violence by Others

• Physical violence by others
• From the time you were 15 years old has anyone
  (other than your current/last husband) hit,
  slapped, kicked, or done anything to hurt you
  physically? (Who?)
• Can include ex-husbands
• Violence during pregnancy also uses similar
  question (Who?)
• Can include current husbands
• Sexual violence at any time in life
• At any time in your life, as a child or as an
  adult, has anyone ever forced you in any way to
  have sexual intercourse or perform any other
  sexual acts? (Who and Age at first occurrence
  determined)
• Can include current husbands

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Other Issues Examined

• Timing of initiation of spousal violence
• Injuries related to spousal violence
• Wives initiating spousal violence
• Data on known or potential correlates
• Help seeking by abused women

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DHS domestic violence data in 27 countries

• Africa
• Cameroon 2004
• DRC 2007
• Egypt 1995 2005
• Kenya 2003
• Liberia 2006/07
• Malawi 2004
• Mali 2006
• Namibia 2006
• Rwanda 2005
• South Africa 1998
• Uganda 2006
• Zambia 2001/02
• Zimbabwe 2005/06
• Asia/South Asia
• Bangladesh 2004
• Cambodia 2000 2005
• India 1998/99 2005/06

• Latin America/Caribbean
• Bolivia 2003
• Colombia 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005
• Dominican Republic 2002 2007
• Haiti 2000 2005
• Honduras 2005
• Nicaragua1997/98
• Peru 2000 2004
• Eurasia
• Azerbaijan 2006
• Moldova 2005
• Turkmenistan 2001
• Ukraine 2007

Data not yet available.
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Spousal Violence India 2005-06
Percent of ever-married women age 15-49
Only 1 of married women have ever initiated
violence against their husbands.
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At what marital duration does spousal violence
first occur?
Percent
87 of spousal violence initiated within 5 years
of marriage
India 2005-06
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Education and Spousal Violence India 2005-06
Percent of ever-married women
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What other factors are strongly associated with
the likelihood of spousal violence?
Percent of ever-married women
India 2005-06
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What other factors are strongly associated with
the likelihood of spousal violence?
Percent of ever-married women
India 2005-06
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Injuries Due to Spousal Violence
Percent of women who have experienced spousal
violence who had
India 2005-06
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What we do know

• Spousal violence varies from about 14 in
  Cambodia to 59 in Uganda
• Typically, half or more of the women who have
  ever experienced spousal violence have
  experienced it in the past 12 months
• Spousal sexual violence experienced by 5-20
• Physical violence most common form of violence
• Violence begins early in marriage
• Violence results in injuries
• Violence varies by education and wealth and has
  intergenerational effects
• However, not explained by alcohol or parental
  effects
• Further analysis of the data show that there are
  strong links to health outcomes for mothers and
  their children

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Questions Arising from Lessons Learned

• How do we measure trends?
• Men, the CTS, and measurement of violence against
  women
• Should we be moving from measuring prevalence to
  measuring incidence?

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Prevalence of Spousal Violence Uganda 2006

Percent age 15-49
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Consequences and Help Seeking Uganda 2006
Percent of ever-married women/men who have
experienced violence
who report injuries
who sought help
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Men, the CTS, and measures of VAW

• Question raised
• Are the instruments not able to distinguish the
  syndrome of violence against women from common
  couple violence?

• Answering this question is a challenge and in
  turn raises the following questions about
  measuring and defining violence
• Is it important who initiates the violence?
• Should factors such as helplessness and fear
  be considered?
• Should the violent acts be made more specific?
• Should frequency be taken into account?
• Should the definition of violence be any act from
  the list or a
• clustering of acts?

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For M E Prevalence or Incidence?
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For Specific Questions

• sunita.kishor_at_macrointernational.com

Photo credits Photos courtesy of M/MC Photoshare
at jhuccp.org/mmc
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measuredhs.com