A Comparison of Annual Incidence Rates and Contextual Characteristics of Intimate-Perpetrated Violence Against Women From the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS)

It is not surprising that research employing diverse methodologies has yielded very different estimates of intimate-perpetrated violence against women. The purpose of this article is to provide a comparison of annual incident rates of rape and physical assault against women as estimated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)--sponsored National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute of Justice--cosponsored National Violence Against Women Survey. Several data restrictions were performed to make the data sets as comparable as possible, including restricting the NCVS data to include incidents of rape (not other sexual assaults) and physical assault against women 18 years of age and older. In addition, NCVS estimates included series incidents enumerated as "n" instead of 1, which is the custom for all BJS publications. The methodological eccentricities of each survey, which make comparisons tenuous, are described, and recommendations for policy are discussed
Author: 
Bachman,Ronet
Reprint Status: 
IN FILE
Start Page: 
839
End Page: 
867
Journal/Periodical Name: 
Violence Against Women
Volume: 
6
Issue: 
8
Abstract: 
The author asserts that research efforts employing diverse methodologies have yielded very different estimates of intimate-perpetrated violence against women. The article provides a comparison of annual incident rates of rape and physical assault against women as estimated by the National Violence Against Women Survey; co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute of Justice and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The author indicates that the datasets were made as comparable as possible via several data restrictions. These restrictions included restricting the NCVS data to include only incidents of rape (to the exclusion of other sexual assaults) and physical assault against women 18 years of age and older. The methodological differences of each survey, that made comparisons tenuous, are described and recommendations for policy are provided.
Topic Areas: 
Prevalence; statistics
Reference Type: 
JOUR
Reference ID: 
2364
Publication Date: 
2000/08/01