A Comparison of Annual Incidence Rates and Contextual Characteristics of Intimate-Partner Violence Against Women from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS)

Abstract

It is not surprising that research employing diverse methodologies has yielded very different estimates of intimate-perpetrated violence against women. The purpose of this article is to provide a comparison of annual incident rates of rape and physical assault against women as estimated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)-sponsored National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute of Justice-cosponsored National Violence Against Women Survey. Several data restrictions were performed to make the data sets as comparable as possible, including restricting the NCVS data to include incidents of rape (not other sexual assaults) and physical assault against women 18 years of age and older. In addition, NCVS estimates included series incidents enumerated as “n” instead of 1, which is the custom for all BJS publications. The methodological eccentricities of each survey, which make comparisons tenuous, are described, and recommendations for policy are discussed.