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).

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.

The aim of this study was to examine the factors related to different patterns of male violence against women. Employing both intra-individual and sociocultural perspectives, the project focused on the relationship between violence against women and previously established risk factors for intimate partner violence including stressors related to work, economic status, and role transitions (e.g., pregnancy), as well as family power dynamics, status discrepancies, and alcohol use. The following research questions were addressed: (1) To what extent do Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic individuals engage in physical violence with their partners? (2) How are socioeconomic stressors associated with violent relationships among Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic couples? (3) To what extent are changes in patterns of physical violence against women associated with different stages of a relationship (e.g., cohabitation, early marriage, pregnancy, marriage)? (4) To what extent do culturally linked attitudes about family structure (family power dynamics) predict violence among Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic couples? (5) To what extent do family strengths and support systems contribute to the cessation of violence among Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic couples? (6) What is the role of alcohol use in violent relationships among Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic couples? The data used for this project came from the first and second waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) conducted by the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison [NATIONAL SURVEY OF FAMILIES AND HOUSEHOLDS: WAVE I, 1987-1988, AND WAVE II, 1992-1994 (ICPSR 6906)]. The NSFH was designed to cover a broad range of family structures, processes, and relationships with a large enough sample to permit subgroup analysis. For the purposes of this study, the analytical sample focused on only those couples who were cohabiting or married at the time of the first wave of the study and still with the same person at the time of the second wave (N=3,584). Since the study design included oversamples of previously understudied groups (i.e., Blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans), racial and ethnic comparisons were possible. In both waves of the NSFH several identical questions were asked regarding marital conflicts. Both married and cohabiting respondents were asked how often they used various tactics including heated arguments and hitting or throwing things at each other to resolve their conflicts. In addition, respondents were asked if any of their arguments became physical, how many of their fights resulted in either the respondent or their partner hitting, shoving, or throwing things, and if any injuries resulted as a consequence of these fights. This data collection consists of the SPSS syntax used to recode variables from the original NSFH dataset. In addition, new variables, including both composite variables (e.g., self-esteem, hostility, depression) and husband and wife versions of the variables (using information from both respondent and partner), were constructed. New variables were grouped into the following categories: demographic, personality, alcohol and drug use, relationship stages, gender role attitudes, division of labor, fairness in household chores, social support, and isolation. Psychological well-being scales were created to measure autonomy, positive relations with others, purpose in life, self-acceptance, environmental mastery, and personal growth. Additional scales were created to measure relationship conflict, sex role gender attitudes, personal mastery, alcohol use, and hostility. The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were also utilized.

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.

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.