Status Quo of National Data Sources Concerning Domestic Violence Across Eight European Countries

Abstract

Official police records and victimisation surveys are two focal sources of information on domestic violence (DV). Police data inform us about the incidents that come to the attention of the law enforcement authorities. Population-based surveys offer estimates on total prevalence of victimisation, its characteristics, and combined with police data, on official social control and the proportion of hidden crime. Internationally, there is great variation in both the quality and availability of police data concerning DV, as well as concerning measures and the mere existence of victimisation studies. One of the first tasks in the IMPRODOVA project was to create a map of this variation by examining the properties and availability of data sources across partner countries. The results indicate substantial deficiencies in data sources, the foremost problem being the lack of nationally representative and regularly repeated victimisation surveys. Concerning police data, regionally separate information systems and the potential unreliability of the data present the biggest challenges for examining DV and official social control of it.