NCJ Number
200058
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2003 Pages: 302-322
Date Published
March 2003
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article summarizes the findings from Spain's first nationally representative survey on intimate partner violence.
Abstract
In 1995 the Andalusian Institute of Criminology at the University of Seville decided to conduct a national survey on intimate partner violence. The Canadian Violence Against Women survey was the main model. The universe for the survey consisted of women who resided in Spain in cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants and who were 17-years-old or older and married, cohabiting, or recently divorced or separated. A total of 2,015 women completed the questionnaires between March 15 to May 20, 1999. The detailed section of the questionnaire included questions about the history of abuse, the responses that the victims adopted, and the social reactions to those responses. Although 284 (14 percent) of the women in the sample self-identified as abuse victims, only 90 of these women consented to complete the more detailed section of the questionnaire. The survey findings indicate that the levels of intimate partner abuse in Spain are not significantly different from the levels found in other countries of similar cultural and economic characteristics. This report concludes that in Spain, as in many other countries, intimate partner violence is a serious social problem. The prevalence of sexual abuse is as high as that of other forms of abuse, but women who are victims of sexual abuse seem less likely to perceive themselves as victims of abuse. 5 tables, 8 notes, and 39 references