This study investigated the relationship between domestic violence and welfare reform. Two specific goals were (1) to determine the impact of domestic violence on welfare tenure and employment over a three-year period, and (2) to examine the well-being of children of female welfare recipients who experienced domestic violence. In addition, the study examined issues related to mental health problems and alcohol and drug problems, both of which are associated with domestic violence. This study was based on three rounds of interviews with a random sample of welfare recipients in Kern and Stanislaus Counties, California, between April 1999 and December 2002. Although the interview instrument was slightly altered for each round, the questions in all three rounds focused on employment history, health, mental health, domestic violence victimization, children's well-being, and alcohol and drug use.

The major goals of the project were to use survey data about victimization experiences among American women to examine: (a) the consequences of victimization for women's physical and mental health, (b) how the impact of victimization on women's health sequelae is conditioned by the victim's invoking of family and community support, and (c) how among victims of intimate partner violence, such factors as the relationship between the victim and offender, the offender's characteristics, and police involvement condition the impact of victimization on the victim's subsequent physical and mental health. This data collection consists of the SPSS syntax used to recode existing variables and create new variables from the study, VIOLENCE AND THREATS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND MEN IN THE UNITED STATES, 1994-1996 (ICPSR 2566). The study, also known as the National Violence against Women Survey (NVAWS), surveyed 8,000 women 18 years of age or older residing in households throughout the United States in 1995 and 1996. The data for the NVAWS were gathered via a national, random-digit dialing sample of telephone households in the United States, stratified by United States Census region. The NVAWS respondents were asked about their lifetime experiences with four different kinds of violent victimization: sexual abuse, physical abuse, stalking, and intimidation. Using the data from the NVAWS, the researchers in this study performed three separate analyses. The study included outcome variables, focal variables, moderator variables, and control variables.

The goal of the Chicago Women's Health Risk Study (CWHRS) was to develop a reliable and validated profile of risk factors directly related to lethal or life-threatening outcomes in intimate partner violence, for use in agencies and organizations working to help women in abusive relationships. Data were collected to draw comparisons between abused women in situations resulting in fatal outcomes and those without fatal outcomes, as well as a baseline comparison of abused women and non-abused women, taking into account the interaction of events, circumstances, and interventions occurring over the course of a year or two. The CWHRS used a quasi-experimental design to gather survey data on 705 women at the point of service for any kind of treatment (related to abuse or not) sought at one of four medical sites serving populations in areas with high rates of intimate partner homicide (Chicago Women's Health Center, Cook County Hospital, Erie Family Health Center, and Roseland Public Health Center). Over 2,600 women were randomly screened in these settings, following strict protocols for safety and privacy. One goal of the design was that the sample would not systematically exclude high-risk but understudied populations, such as expectant mothers, women without regular sources of health care, and abused women in situations where the abuse is unknown to helping agencies. To accomplish this, the study used sensitive contact and interview procedures, developed sensitive instruments, and worked closely with each sample site. The CWHRS attempted to interview all women who answered "yes -- within the past year" to any of the three screening questions, and about 30 percent of women who did not answer yes, provided that the women were over age 17 and had been in an intimate relationship in the past year. In total, 705 women were interviewed, 497 of whom reported that they had experienced physical violence or a violent threat at the hands of an intimate partner in the past year (the abused, or AW, group). The remaining 208 women formed the comparison group (the non-abused, or NAW, group). Data from the initial interview sections comprise Parts 1-8. For some women, the AW versus NAW interview status was not the same as their screening status. When a woman told the interviewer that she had experienced violence or a violent threat in the past year, she and the interviewer completed a daily calendar history, including details of important events and each violent incident that had occurred the previous year. The study attempted to conduct one or two follow-up interviews over the following year with the 497 women categorized as AW. The follow-up rate was 66 percent. Data from this part of the clinic/hospital sample are found in Parts 9-12. In addition to the clinic/hospital sample, the CWHRS collected data on each of the 87 intimate partner homicides occurring in Chicago over a two-year period that involved at least one woman age 18 or older. Using the same interview schedule as for the clinic/hospital sample, CWHRS interviewers conducted personal interviews with one to three "proxy respondents" per case, people who were knowledgeable and credible sources of information about the couple and their relationship, and information was compiled from official or public records, such as court records, witness statements, and newspaper accounts (Parts 13-15). In homicides in which a woman was the homicide offender, attempts were made to contact and interview her. This "lethal" sample, all such homicides that took place in 1995 or 1996, was developed from two sources, HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399) and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. Part 1 includes demographic variables describing each respondent, such as age, race and ethnicity, level of education, employment status, screening status (AW or NAW), birthplace, and marital status. Variables in Part 2 include details about the woman's household, such as whether she was homeless, the

This longitudinal mixed-methods study examined to what extent female intimate partner violence (IPV) victim participation in prosecution was associated with their future safety. The study followed a cohort of female IPV victims with cases the police presented to the prosecutor, in the year 2000, in a single Midwestern United States county (Kalamazoo County, Michigan) for a four-year period (1999-2002) across multiple systems (police, prosecutor, criminal court, civil court, hospital Emergency Departments) to assess the victim's experience with participation in IPV prosecution and her associated future help seeking, health and safety. Since this study utilized retrospective administrative data, subsequent IPV was defined as a future documented IPV-related police incident or an Emergency Department visit for IPV or injury. The data abstraction and analysis of the administrative data was informed by focus groups with survivors, advocates, and medical and criminal justice service providers, along with in-depth qualitative analysis of a stratified random sample of individual IPV cases. The final analytic dataset created by the research team integrated two types of data: (1) in-depth data about the index assault case and characteristics of the couple involved, and (2) longitudinal data about prior and subsequent IPV events spanning multiple systems: police, prosecutor, emergency department, and family court protection orders.

This study explored the histories of physical and sexual victimization reported by incarcerated and non-incarcerated women. It sought to identify the survival strategies women activated at various points in their life span. In Phase One, 424 women were interviewed from March 2004 to March 2005 on a variety of topics covering victimization and disclosure experiences and risk and protective factors. Information from those interviews is contained in Part 1, Phase One, Interview Data. In Phase Two, 17 women from the prison and/or the community who had participated in the Phase One interviews were again interviewed in an effort to provide more depth about their experiences of victimization and of the resources, social services, and supports they may have received or not, subsequent to the victimization(s). Information from these qualitative follow-up interviews is contained in Parts 2-18. Variables cover topics such as personal attitudes, health and well-being, relationships with family and friends, coping with stress, emotional health, alcohol and drug use, childhood maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual experiences, services and resources received, traumatic experiences, suicide, resource generating strategies, legal issues, and demographics.

The project's primary research objective was to assess the degree to which violence, sabotage, and control present obstacles to waged work and job training for women in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It sought to develop and assess instruments and generate data to serve as guideposts for policy and service delivery. The study consisted of two parts: (1) a series of interviews with 40 female welfare recipients, and (2) a community literacy project that resulted in a collection of narratives by female welfare recipients. Interviews were conducted with 40 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipients who were enrolled at the Reemployment Transition Center (RTC) in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, between May 29, 2001, and June 27, 2001. After explaining the research project to the intake group, the interviewers met in private with interested potential subjects. The interviews consisted of an initial face-to-face retrospective interview (Parts 1 through 5), conducted when subjects enrolled at RTC, and three follow-up interviews designed to be administered quarterly. The first follow-up interview (Part 6) was conducted between October 15, 2001, and May 7, 2002. The second follow-up interview (Part 7) was conducted between March 12, 2002, and May 21, 2002. The final follow-up (Part 8) interview was conducted between July 3, 2002, and November 15, 2002. Follow-up interviews were in person or by telephone (depending on the respondent's preference). A key innovation of this research project was to gather data on school, work, welfare, and relationships with enough precision to trace the complex connections among battering, work, and welfare over the course of poor women's lives (Part 9). To do so, researchers collected data on the start and end dates of each period of education, each job, each period on welfare, and each relationship. These data enabled researchers to compare the number and length of spells at work and on welfare for women who did and women who did not report various obstacles, including battering. Finally, researchers summarized some elements of the longitudinal data such as relationship and employment information into a data file (Part 10). In all, there are 10 quantitative data files encompassing 1,895 variables. In addition to the 10 quantitative data files, there are respondent answers to open text questions (Part 11). Interviewers were able to record field notes, which included observations about the interview context, overall impressions of the process, elaborated answers to open-ended questions, etc. (Part 12). There are also 8 autobiographical narratives to serve as sources of qualitative data on the ways current and former welfare recipients experience and perceive work, welfare, and relationships (including abuse) (Part 13). The Part 1 (Retrospective Demographic and Hardship Data) data file contains demographic information including living arrangements and income. The Part 2 (Retrospective Education Data) data file contains information related to the respondent's prior education. The Part 3 (Retrospective Employment Data) data file contains information related to the respondent's employment history. The Part 4 (Retrospective Welfare Data) contains information related to the respondent's welfare history. The Part 5 (Retrospective Relationship Data) data file contains information related to the Work-Related Control, Abuse, and Sabotage Checklist (WORCASC) and the Work/School Abuse Scale (W/SAS), which asked questions about interference, sabotage, and violence in relationships. The Part 6 (First Follow-Up Interview Data), Part 7 (Second Follow-Up Interview Data), and Part 8 (Final Follow-Up Interview Data) data files include follow-up information to that collected in Parts 1-5. The Part 9 (Date and Spell Data) data file provides data on the start and end dates of each period of education, each job, each period on welfare, and each relationship, and the Part 10 (Summary Longitudinal Data) data file

This study involved the evaluation of the Second Responders Program in Richmond, Virginia as well as a process evaluation of the researcher/practitioner partnership formed between the Police Foundation, the Richmond Police Department, and the Richmond Department of Social Services. Findings were based on two waves of victim interviews with women who received Second Responder intervention and women who received only police intervention. Field researchers contacted eligible subjects and attempted to interview them within 1 week of the domestic violence incident to which police were called. The second interview took place 6 months later. Interviews took place between April, 1999 and December, 2000. The Part 1 (Wave 1 Data) file contains 158 cases and 318 variables. The Part 2 (Wave 2 Data) file contains 120 cases and 691 variables.

The goal of this study was to compile and analyze data about incidents of domestic violence in San Diego County, California, in order to enhance understanding of the nature and scope of violence against women. The following objectives were set to achieve this goal: (1) to develop a standardized interview instrument to be used by all emergency shelters for battered women in the region, and (2) to conduct interviews with shelter staff. For this study, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) collected information about domestic violence in San Diego County from clients admitted to battered women's shelters. The Compilation of Research and Evaluation (CORE) intake interview (Part 1) was initiated in March of 1997. Through this interview, researchers gathered data over a 22-month period, through December 1998, for 599 clients. The CORE discharge interview (Part 2) was theoretically completed at the time of exit with each client who completed the CORE intake interview in order to document the services received. However, data collection at exit was not reliable, due to factors beyond the researchers' control, and thus researchers did not receive a discharge form for each individual who had an intake form. For Part 1 (Intake Data), demographic variables include the client's primary language, and the client and batterer's age, education, race, how they supported themselves, their annual incomes, and their children's sex, age, and ethnicity. Other variables cover whether the client had been to this shelter within the last 12 months, the kind of housing the client had before she came to the shelter, person's admitted along with the client, drug and alcohol use by the client, the batterer, and the children, relationship between the client and the batterer (e.g., spouse, former spouse), if the client and batterer had been in the military, if the client or children were military dependents, the client's citizenship, if the client and batterer had any physical/mental limitations, abuse characteristics (e.g., physical, verbal, sexual, weapon involved), and the client's medical treatment history (e.g., went to hospital, had been abused while pregnant, witnessed abuse while growing up, had been involved in other abusive relationships, had attempted suicide). Additional variables provide legal information (number of times police had been called to the client's household as a result of domestic violence, if anyone in the household had been arrested as a result of those calls, if any charges were filed, if the client or batterer had been convicted of abuse), if the client had a restraining order against the batterer, how the client found out about the shelter, the number of times the client had been admitted to a domestic violence shelter, the client's assessment of her needs at the time of admittance, and the interviewer/counselor's assessment of the client's needs at the time of admittance. Part 2 (Discharge Data) provides information on services the client received from the shelter during her stay (food, clothing, permanent housing, transitional housing, financial assistance, employment, education, medical help, assistance with retrieving belongings, assistance with retrieving/replacing legal documents, law enforcement, temporary restraining order), and services this client received as a referral to another agency (attorney, divorce, child care, counseling, transportation, safety plan, victim/witness funds, mental health services, department of social services, Children's Services Bureau, help with immigration, drug treatment).

The purpose of this evaluation was to assess whether the STOP (Services/Training/Officers/Prosecution) Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program's financial support for direct victim services offered through private nonprofit victim service agencies helped victims of domestic violence and sexual assault improve their safety and well-being, and work successfully with the legal system and other relevant agencies. Researchers selected eight states whose state STOP agency had different levels of emphasis on creating collaborative structures in local service networks to help victims. Researchers collected information, as of November 15, 1999, about 201 nonprofit victim service agencies receiving STOP funding to deliver direct services, their services, and their community linkages. A Program Survey, Part 1 (Victim Impact Program Survey -- Fax to Subgrantees Data) and Part 2 (Victim Impact Program Survey -- Telephone Interview with Subgrantees Data) completed in spring 2000 used telephone interviews with the person most knowledgeable about STOP-funded activities to obtain this information. The sample included 201 nonprofit victim service agencies that were nationally representative of all private nonprofit victim service agencies receiving STOP funds for direct services. Among the purposes of the Program Survey data was selecting the communities in the eight focal states to include in the final stage of the study design -- the Help Seeker and the Community sample (Parts 3 and 4, respectively). The Help Seeker (Part 3) sample consisted of 958 women recruited from nonprofit victim service and legal system agencies who had contacted those agencies for assistance related to experiences of domestic violence and/or sexual assault. They were interviewed between June and October 2001. The Community sample (Part 4) was a random sample of 673 women in their communities who were 18 to 35 years of age. The sample was selected using random digit dialing (RDD), screening for women aged 18 to 35 in the victim service program catchment area from which researchers drew the Help Seeker sample. The women in the Community sample were interviewed between November 2001 and February 2002. The women's data were then linked to Program Survey data from their own community. Across the 4 data files there are 2,947 variables. Part 1 (Victim Impact Program Survey -- Fax to Subgrantees Data) contains information related to the role of the agency which received STOP funding, the characteristics of employees and volunteers of the agency, and the characteristics of victims the agency served. The data also include how many victims of domestic violence the agency assisted with obtaining protective/restraining orders and the number of victims helped through criminal justice advocacy activities. The agency approximated how many referrals they received from other sources and how many referrals they made to other agencies/organizations. There were also questions related to the STOP grant(s) received by the agencies and the agencies were asked about their data collection and evaluation efforts and in what form this information was maintained. Part 2 (Victim Impact Program Survey -- Telephone Interview with Subgrantees Data) contains background information regarding the agency and the respondent answering questions on behalf of the agency. Respondents were also asked whether their agency conducted needs assessments to identify community needs with respect to violence against women, to identify service solutions to meet those needs, and to summarize their STOP project goals and activities. The data file also includes questions about referrals and how their agency's STOP project related to other activities of the agency. Additionally, the respondent answered questions related to the coordination and communication between their agency, law enforcement, prosecution, and victim service agencies. There were also general community questions, and the respondent provided outreach

Research about ethnocultural influences on women's experience of and response to intimate partner violence (IPV) is scarce, contributing to culturally incongruent processes that may deter some survivors from engaging with community systems. To fill this gap in the literature, this project examined the ways that cultural beliefs and contexts serve as a lens through which European-American, Mexican-American, Korean-American, and Vietnamese-American women experience and respond to IPV in their lives. Community-based recruitment techniques were used to recruit female survivors of intimate partner violence from the four target ethnic groups. Data collection included qualitative interviews (n = 112) and online surveys (n = 193) with survivors of intimate partner violence as well as focus groups with service providers (n = 37). While there were many shared experiences across survivors from the four ethnic groups, important differences in survivors' interpretation of abuse, strategies for managing the abuse, and help-seeking experiences did emerge. These differences have important implications for the development of culturally competent prevention and intervention strategies for survivors from different ethnic groups. This collection only contains the online survey data. The focus group and individual interview data will be released at a future date.