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Executive Summary
Violence against women is a major social problem in the United
States, as well as throughout the world. Each year in this country,
300,000 women are forcibly raped, more than 4 million suffer an
aggravated or simple assault, and women account for one-fifth of all ho-
micide victims. Moreover, while homicide rates declined during the l990s
for both men and women, the decline in intimate-partner homicides oc-
curred much later in the decade for women than it did for men and was
greater for male than for female victims.
In recognition of these continuing problems, in 2000 Congress asked
the National Research Council to develop a detailed research agenda on
violence against women. To address this mandate, the National Acad-
emies appointed a steering committee of four distinguished scholars to
develop a workshop that would review research on violence against
women, focusing particularly, but not exclusively, on studies completed
between 1995 and 2000. The workshop deliberations and the conclusions
and recommendations subsequently developed by the steering commit-
tee are detailed in this final report.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Because the majority of extant research on violence against women
addresses intimate-partner violence, much of this report has a similar fo-
cus. The committee notes, however, that two-thirds of homicides against
women take place outside of this context, and that violence against women
is perpetrated by strangers and acquaintances as well as by domestic part-
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RESEARCH ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
ners. Moreover, studies of the prevalence of intimate-partner violence
show that women themselves commit these acts and not solely for defen-
sive purposes, although at a rate and level of severity far lower than is the
case for men.
Most research on violence against women has been conducted in iso-
lation from the larger body of work on violence in general (including re-
search such as that on violence by men, on violence by adolescents, and
on criminal careers). This intellectual separation of research on violence
against women stems from the premise that distinctive features of the
social and political context of violence against women, particularly the
context of intimate relationships, sets it apart from other forms of vio-
lence. The committee agrees that, as with medical research, a specialized
focus on women's victimization and offending behavior is important to
ensure that the distinctive correlates and contexts of these phenomena
and their aftermath are addressed and receive appropriate funding and
attention. However, we urge an end to the almost total separation that has
characterized the field.
Since there is still much to be learned about the etiology of violent
behavior, the committee questions whether the general origins and be-
havioral patterns of the various forms of violence are different enough to
warrant the degree of separation that has occurred. In fact, recent evi-
dence from longitudinal studies suggests the opposite. The committee
believes that research can be focused on a specific issue such as violence
against women, but still be firmly grounded in the larger literature on
violence generally. At this point in its development, some level of inte-
gration of research on violence against and by women with the larger
literature on crime and violence would enrich the former research intel-
lectually, increase the amount of attention it receives, extend the les-
sons that can be learned about violence against women, and provide a
sounder basis for prevention and deterrence strategies. In addition, find-
ings from research on violence against women could in turn be used to
inform research on other types of violence. The committee also finds that
the research agenda of the federal government on violence against
women would benefit from its integration with efforts to determine the
causes, consequences, prevention, treatment, and deterrence of violence
more broadly. Moreover, we believe that the government's research
agenda should encompass forms of violent victimization of women
other than intimate-partner violence.
PREVALENCE
Although existing national surveys have provided vital information
on the nature and scope of the violent victimization of women over the
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
3
past 10 years, the information on prevalence and incidence (rates of new
cases) is inadequate. Current prevalence information has been derived
from methodologically disparate survey data. Survey research has been
instrumental in setting some parameters for the scope of two types of
violence intimate-partner violence and sexual assault. Nevertheless, sur-
vey research has been less successful in providing reliable estimates of the
prevalence and incidence of such violence, as well as information about
the context in which it occurs, its developmental patterns over time, and
the ways in which women's victimization experiences may be linked to
women's offending behaviors. Only a handful of current surveys that col-
lect self-report victimization information from women are continuous;
most have varied in the sampling frames and survey instruments used,
and most were designed with other purposes in mind.
If trends are to be estimated and the general effectiveness of inter-
ventions assessed, prevalence data must be improved. The committee
recommends a more coordinated research strategy to help remedy this
problem. The committee also recommends that an effort be made to
investigate how to link existing datasets and how to link information
from these datasets with findings from clinical research. This effort
should include creating a framework for developing standard defini-
tions to overcome the lack of conceptual and operational clarity, compa-
rable samples, and interview protocols.
The steering committee believes that a program of research to assess
what can be learned from extant data sources might provide important
information on prevalence and on how best to proceed to develop more
accurate datasets especially whether a new and continuous national sur-
vey is needed. This assessment might also show whether linking existing
data can provide more information on the risks of, responses to, and con-
sequences of violence against women and the impacts of interventions.
CAUSES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
A growing body of empirical evidence reveals that perpetrators of
violence against women commonly have histories of violence and con-
duct problems outside of intimate relationships; the same is also true for
women who perpetrate violent behavior. However, there is no longitudi-
nal sample of the U.S. population currently examining causes of violence
against or by women.
The steering committee agrees with workshop presenters and attend-
ees that information from longitudinal studies of U.S. populations is
needed to examine the causes and consequences of violence against and
by women. Studies that address risk factors for women should have fe-
male respondents, but longitudinal population-based studies that include
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RESEARCH ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
both men and women also are critical. The latter studies are essential for
designing and evaluating the effects of primary prevention strategies and
for determining causes, especially the extent to which childhood precur-
sors of violent delinquency and adult crime are at the root of partner vio-
lence or other forms of violence against women. The design of data collec-
tion systems in such studies should follow from the research questions of
interest and should advance general knowledge of violent behavior and
its consequences. The committee recognizes that new funding would be
needed for longitudinal studies on violence against women, and be-
lieves that the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute
of Justice should collaborate on the design and implementation of such
studies. The committee recommends that work be initiated to examine
the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of successfully conducting longi-
tudinal studies on violence against and by women.
EVENT-BASED STUDIES
Recent studies on interpersonal violence among strangers illustrate
the confluence of several contextual factors including motivation, per-
ceptions of risk and opportunity, and social control attributes of the set-
ting that shapes the decision to perpetrate a violent event, as well as its
outcome. To understand the catalyst for a violent event among intimates,
researchers must examine male-female relationships, perceived imbal-
ances in power, control dynamics, identity threats, relationship problems,
and communication patterns. Such event-based research would comple-
ment studies of the individual propensities of offenders, focusing instead
on the occurrence of violence by identifying the specific conditions that
channel individual motivation and predispositions into violent actions, as
well as the responses of the justice and health care systems and the com-
munity. The committee therefore recommends more research address-
ing the situational contexts and dynamic interactions that lead to vio-
lence against women. Special attention should be given to research on
the processes underlying victim selection, location selection, and vic-
tim-offender interaction patterns.
SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL STUDIES
An emerging body of research provides evidence for community
effects on violence and social problems in cases in which gender is an
issue. Within the past several years, a number of studies have shown
that rates of violence against women vary across such social areas as
census tracts and neighborhoods, and that the geographic distribu-
tion of violent victimization of women overlaps to a large degree with
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
5
that of male victimization. These findings are perhaps easier to un-
derstand once we confront the fact that most violence against both
men and women is perpetrated by men.
Social and Spatial Epidemiology of Violence
The committee believes that current prevalence estimates for acts of
stranger-perpetrated violence such as robbery, assault, and rape may be
conservative for the neighborhoods in which poor women of color live,
and that this exposure to violence by strangers may contribute to factors
that characterize violent offending by women. Even intimate-partner vio-
lence appears to be susceptible to neighborhood effects. The committee
recommends research to estimate the extent of variation in violence
against women among census tracts or small neighborhoods, police pre-
cincts or districts, or other theoretically meaningful social area aggrega-
tions. Research should also be aimed at determining which features of
area composition influence rates and types of violence against women.
Understanding the social structural, social organizational, and social con-
trol capacities of neighborhoods is critical to explaining differences in rates
of violence against women. This research should compare data across gen-
der in order to determine any differences between male victimization and
violence against women.
Distribution of Services
Availability of services has been linked to variation in rates of inti-
mate-partner homicides against women. The committee recommends
that research examine whether access to local services can affect local-
ized rates of intimate-partner violence, and consider implications for
planning and locating preventive services. Research should examine, for
example, the relationship between violence "hot spots" and service loca-
tions to assess distances that pose barriers to the prevention or deterrence
of intimate-partner violence. Research on the locations of other services,
including counseling centers and medical services, should examine this
relationship as well.
Social Area Effects on Sanctions and Services
Social ecological factors may affect not only rates of violence, but also
the efficacy of legal sanctions and social interventions. The committee
recommends that research examine the covariation of individual and
social area factors with the responses of both victims and offenders to
legal sanctions and social interventions directed at violence against
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RESEARCH ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
women. Whether area effects are mediators or moderators of legal sanc-
tions or social interventions is a question of theoretical and practical im-
portance in the prevention of violence against women.
Data Needs
To create a data infrastructure that can incorporate social ecological
factors, modifications will be needed in the sampling strategies used in
survey research and epidemiological studies. Stratified sampling designs
in survey and epidemiological research should include samples of so-
cial areas as well as of individuals within areas. The selection of social
areas, along with the types of data collected, should reflect theoretical
questions. For example, studies of informal social control should include
survey data from individuals within the salient areas who can report on
social organization and dynamic processes of social control.
PREVENTION AND TREATMENT
The committee notes that the evaluation literature on the effects of
prevention and treatment strategies is particularly weak. As a previous
National Research Council committee found, the design of prevention and
control strategies programs and services available to victims and offend-
ers that aim to decrease the number of new cases of assault or abusive
behavior, reduce the risk of death or disability from violence, and extend
life after a violent event frequently is driven by ideology and stakeholder
interests rather than by plausible theories and scientific evidence of causes.
Many evaluations were initiated only after programs had been fully
implemented in the field. The research on outcomes of treatment—pro-
grams and services aimed at changing the behavior of violent offenders-
has only begun to emerge, and is in general of poor quality. Evaluations
are rarely experimental and thus are unable to rule out nontreatment ef-
fects, or they rely on official records that underestimate rates of violence.
In most cases, follow-up periods for measuring reoffending or other long-
term outcomes are of insufficient length. Another problem is that treat-
ment outcomes have not been uniformly identified, conceptualized, or
operationalized.
Instead of using post hoc evaluation designs, it may be more helpful
to use standard research and development methods, that is, to design a
program around established theory and then test its effects. Where ex-
perimental designs are not possible or feasible, such as in evaluating mul-
tidimensional, community-wide interventions, other methods, such as
the use of propensity scores or econometric models, may yield valid and
reliable results. Such rigorous evaluations are lacking for most preven-
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
lion and treatment approaches. This lack is due primarily to the low level
of funding provided for program evaluation in this area; current funding
levels make experimental or prospective designs in particular unsupport-
able.
The committee recommends that Congress provide adequate funds
to support rigorous research designs and long-term evaluations of pre-
vention and treatment programs in order to improve chances of effect-
ing long-term reductions in the violent victimization of women. Because
of inherent conflicts of interest (no program wants to be found ineffec-
tive), funds for program evaluation must be independent from the control
of program sponsors so that the ability to evaluate interventions will not
be constrained by legislative or other requirements placed on programs
or by political considerations. The steering committee recommends that,
because of their individual histories in conducting research and dem-
onstration work on these issues, the National Institutes of Health and
the National Institute of Justice collaborate to develop an integrated
program of rigorous evaluations of prevention, intervention, treatment,
and control strategies.
DETERRENCE
Most of the research on deterrence the use of sanctions to prevent
offenders from using violence has focused on specific deterrence aimed
at those who have already offended, with the goal of reducing repeat
intimate-partner violence. This research shows that legal sanctions do
have deterrent effects, although modest in magnitude, but that these ef-
fects vary by characteristics of perpetrators, their relationship with their
partners, their stake in social conformity, and factors influencing the de-
cision to impose sanctions. Recent research also indicates that certain le-
gal reforms or changes in sanctions for intimate-partner violence, such as
imposing more-certain or in some instances more-severe sanctions or re-
ducing opportunities to assault women physically or sexually, increase
general deterrence (defined as the impact of legal sanctions on the larger
population, that is, those who have neither violated the law nor been
punished).
While research shows that the collective actions of the criminal justice
system exert a substantial deterrent effect on crime, this fact is of limited
value in formulating policy for specific crime problems. The committee
recommends that future research on deterring violence against women
be folded into broader efforts to study the decision making of potential
perpetrators and the deterrence of criminal behavior generally. This is a
particularly important point given the scope and cost of program efforts
aimed at deterring and preventing violence against women. The commit-
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RESEARCH ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
tee believes that research in the following areas is critical to improving the
ability to deter violence against women.
The Long-Term Effects of Sanctioning Policies. If the principal de-
terrent effect of formal sanctions for violence against women (or other
crimes) derives from fear of social stigma, the extent to which such penal-
ties are actually meted out could either reinforce or erode such fear. The
committee recommends that future research examine how social stigma
for acts of violence against women is generated and either sustained or
eroded; such research would inform the development of more effective
policies and programs.
Formation of Perceptions of the Risk of Sanctions. There is a large
body of research analyzing the links between perceptions of the risk of
sanctions and behavior. However, very little is known about how such
perceptions are formed. The committee recommends that research be
conducted on how perceptions of the risk of sanctions are generated
and sustained over time for offenders who victimize women. Better
studies are also needed of the effects of the crime rate on actual sanction
levels and of how those effects in turn influence the formation of per-
ceptions of the risk of punishment. Finally, it is important to explore
Sherman's theory that initial deterrence (e.g., through arrest) can be
made permanent by continually experimenting with novel police strat-
egies, deployments, or enforcement priorities.
How Responses to Crime Vary Across Time and Space. While some
policies may be amenable to credible estimates of their average deterrent
effects (e.g., the effects of arrest policies on intimate-partner violence), the
capacity to translate those effects into predictions for specific places or
populations is limited. The committee urges research on the extent to
which levels of violence against women respond to policy in specific
cities or states rather than research on the average response across all
cities and states.
Links Between Intended and Actual Policy. Finally, the link between
intended and actual policy has not been well explored. The committee
recommends that research examine how sanctions are generated and
implemented so their effects on crime and on perceptions of the risk of
sanctions can be better understood.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
longitudinal studies
