To further the understanding of violence against women, the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), jointly sponsored the National Violence Against
Women (NVAW) Survey. To provide a context in which to place women's
experiences, the NVAW Survey sampled both women and men. Completed
interviews were obtained from 8,000 women and 8,005 men who were 18
years of age or older residing in households throughout the United
States. The female version of the survey was fielded from November
1995 to May 1996. The male version of the survey was fielded during
February to May 1996. Spanish versions of both the male and female
surveys were fielded from April to May 1996. Respondents to the NVAW
Survey were queried about (1) their general fear of violence and the
ways in which they managed their fears, (2) emotional abuse they had
experienced by marital and cohabitating partners, (3) physical assault
they had experienced as children by adult caretakers, (4) physical
assault they had experienced as adults by any type of perpetrator, (5)
forcible rape or stalking they had experienced by any type of
perpetrator, and (6) incidents of threatened violence they had
experienced by any type of perpetrator. Respondents disclosing
victimization were asked detailed questions about the characteristics
and consequences of victimization as they experienced it, including
injuries sustained and use of medical services. Incidents were
recorded that had occurred at any time during the respondent's
lifetime and also those that occurred within the 12 months prior to
the interview. Data were gathered on both male-to-female and
female-to-male intimate partner victimization as well as abuse by
same-sex partners. Due to the sensitive nature of the survey, female
respondents were interviewed by female interviewers. In order to test
for possible bias caused by the gender of the interviewers when
speaking to men, a split sample was used so that half of the male
respondents had female interviewers and the other half had male
interviewers. The questionnaires contained 14 sections, each covering
a different topic, as follows. Section A: Respondents' fears of
different types of violence, and behaviors they had adopted to
accommodate those fears. Section B: Respondent demographics and
household characteristics. Section C: The number of current and past
marital and opposite-sex and same-sex cohabitating relationships of the
respondent. Section D: Characteristics of the respondent's current
relationship and the demographics and other characteristics of their
spouse and/or partner. Section E: Power, control, and emotional abuse
by each spouse or partner. Sections F through I: Screening for
incidents of rape, physical assault, stalking, and threat
victimization, respectively. Sections J through M: Detailed
information on each incident of rape, physical assault, stalking, and
threat victimization, respectively, reported by the respondent for
each type of perpetrator identified in the victimization screening
section. Section N: Violence in the respondent's current
relationship, including steps taken because of violence in the
relationship and whether the violent behavior had stopped. The section
concluded with items to assess if the respondent had symptoms
associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Other variables in the
data include interviewer gender, respondent gender, number of adult
women and adult men in the household, number of different telephones
in the household, and region code.