Summary information

Study title

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights: Violence Against Women Survey, 2012

Creator

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)

Study number / PID

7730 (UKDA)

10.5255/UKDA-SN-7730-1 (DOI)

Data access

Restricted

Series

Not available

Abstract

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has carried out the first survey on women's experiences of violence across the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU). The survey responds to calls of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament for comparable data on violence against women. Before the FRA survey, available data across the EU on the scale and nature of women’s experiences of violence was fragmented and with many gaps. Existing administrative data (e.g. based on incidents recorded by the police) is not comparable across countries, and many incidents are never reported to the authorities or other service providers. Results from national surveys can also not be reliably compared due to differences in question formulation and survey methodology. Furthermore, some EU Member States have not carried out national surveys on violence against women, or the available data is old. The FRA survey is based on face-to-face interviews with 42,000 women across the EU, who were selected based on random sampling. They were asked about their experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence, including incidents of intimate partner violence ('domestic violence'). The survey also included questions on stalking, sexual harassment, experiences of violence in childhood by adult perpetrators, safety and fear of crime, as well as awareness of laws and support services. While all respondents were asked about experiencing various forms of violence in order to establish the prevalence of violence, women who had been victims of violence were asked further details about the nature and consequences of the incidents. These data can be analysed both at the EU-level and at the Member State level to assess and to develop policies to combat violence against women. Further information and publications can be found on the FRA website.  Main Topics:The main topics include: violence...
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Methodology

Data collection period

01/03/2012 - 31/08/2012

Country

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany (October 1990-), Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

Time dimension

Cross-sectional (one-time) study

Analysis unit

Individuals
Cross-national
National

Universe

Women aged 18–74 years old in each of the 28 EU Member States, in 2012.

Sampling procedure

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Kind of data

Numeric

Data collection mode

Face-to-face interview
Self-administered questionnaire

Access

Publisher

UK Data Service

Publication year

2015

Terms of data access

The Data Collection is available to UK Data Service registered users subject to the End User Licence Agreement.

Use of the data requires approval from the data owner or their nominee.

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