The latest research update on violence against women and girls (VAWG) provides valuable insights into ongoing and upcoming initiatives addressing this critical issue.
1. Overview of VAWG Research:
- VAWG encompasses various abuses affecting more women and girls than men and boys, including domestic homicide, domestic abuse, sexual assault, child abuse, female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, and workplace harassment.
- Aligned with the government’s 2021 strategy, efforts have been made to enhance measures of VAWG and address evidence gaps.
- Key initiatives include updating the VAWG data landscape, launching a VAWG data dashboard prototype, publishing estimates of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking, and piloting the Young People’s Safety Survey (YPSS) to replace the Children’s Crime Survey for England and Wales.
2. Latest Research Highlights:
- Data Landscape:
- Updated the Violence against Women and Girls: Data Landscape dataset, offering a comprehensive list of VAWG-related data from various sources.
- Data Dashboard:
- Launched Prototype 1.1 of the VAWG dashboard, incorporating user feedback and additional features on International Women’s Day 2023.
- Domestic Abuse:
- Released the annual Domestic Abuse in England and Wales overview bulletin on November 24, 2023.
- Planned qualitative research on women survivors’ experiences in temporary “safe” accommodation, set for Q1 2024.
- Sexual Offences:
- Published data on Sexual Offences in England and Wales for the year ending March 2022 in March 2023.
- Ongoing work to improve data collection on sexual victimization within the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
- Harassment:
- Launched a module in the CSEW to capture experiences of harassment, addressing the need to measure its broad nature.
- Preliminary estimates available, with a further update scheduled for December 7, 2023.
- Children’s Crime Survey Developments:
- Piloting the YPSS to replace the Children’s Crime Survey for England and Wales, with a large-scale pilot planned for spring 2024.
- Redeveloped questions in the CSEW to measure adults’ experiences of abuse during childhood.
- Children’s Attitudes to VAWG:
- Conducted research to understand attitudes of secondary school-aged children towards VAWG.
- Explored the possibility of a nationally representative survey to inform educational interventions.