In 2023, 62,685 duplicate victims of child abuse experienced physical abuse only in the United States, while 44,355 experienced sexual abuse only. The most common type of child abuse reported in that year was neglect, totaling 377,742 duplicate victims of neglect nationwide. However, not all U.S. states reported child abuse data in 2023, meaning figures may be incomplete.

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Child File data set consists of child-specific data of all reports of maltreatment to State child protective service agencies that received an investigation or assessment response. NCANDS is a Federally-sponsored national data collection effort created for the purpose of tracking the volume and nature of child maltreatment reporting each year within the United States. The Child File is the case-level component of the NCANDS. Child File data are collected annually through the voluntary participation of States. Participating States submit their data after going through a process in which the State's administrative system is mapped to the NCANDS data structure. Data elements include the demographics of children and their perpetrators, types of maltreatment, investigation or assessment dispositions, risk factors, and services provided as a result of the investigation or assessment.

The numbers of single perpetrator relationships (unique count) are counted once for each relationship category. Perpetrators with two or more relationships are counted in the multiple relationship category. Numbers are for the most recent federal fiscal year for which data are available.

To view more National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) findings, click link to summary page below: https://healthdata.gov/stories/s/kaeg-w7jc

In 2023, about 1,968 children died due to abuse or maltreatment in the United States. This is a slight decrease from the previous year, when 2,010 children died due to abuse or maltreatment across the country.

Numbers and rates of child victims by single year age and by state for the most recent federal fiscal year for which data are available.

To view more National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) findings, click link to summary page below: https://healthdata.gov/stories/s/kaeg-w7jc

This survey of prosecutors was undertaken to describe current practice and identify "promising practices" with respect to cases involving domestic violence and child victims or witnesses. It sought to answer the following questions: (1) What are the challenges facing prosecutors when children are exposed to domestic violence? (2) How are new laws regarding domestic violence committed in the presence of children, now operating in a small number of states, affecting practice? (3) What can prosecutors do to help battered women and their children? To gather data on these topics, the researchers conducted a national telephone survey of prosecutors. Questions asked include case assignment, jurisdiction of the prosecutor's office, caseload, protocol for coordinating cases, asking about domestic violence when investigating child abuse cases, asking about children when investigating domestic violence cases, and how the respondent found out when a child abuse case involved domestic violence or when a domestic violence case involved children. Other variables cover whether police routinely checked for prior Child Protective Services (CPS) reports, if these cases were heard by the same judge, in the same court, and were handled by the same prosecutor, if there were laws identifying exposure to domestic violence as child abuse, if there were laws applying or enhancing criminal penalties when children were exposed to domestic violence, if the state legislature was considering any such action, if prosecutors were using other avenues to enhance penalties, if there was pertinent caselaw, and if the respondent's office had a no-drop policy for domestic violence cases. Additional items focus on whether the presence of children influenced decisions to prosecute, if the office would report or prosecute a battered woman who abused her children, or failed to protect her children from abuse or from exposure to domestic violence, how often the office prosecuted such women, if there was a batterers' treatment program in the community, how often batterers were sentenced to attend the treatment program, if there were programs to which the respondent could refer battered mothers and children, what types of programs were operating, and if prosecutors had received training on domestic violence issues.

The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) series involved three rounds of data collection, NatSCEV I (baseline), this study NatSCEV II, and NatSCEV III. For more information on other parts to the series, please use the following links: NatSCEV I (ICPSR 35203) - http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35203.v1 NatSCEV III (ICPSR 36523) - http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36523.v1 The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence II was designed to obtain lifetime and one-year incidence estimates of a comprehensive range of childhood victimizations across gender, race, and developmental stage. Conducted between March, 2011 and January, 2012, it assessed the experiences of a nationally representative sample of 4,503 children aged 1 month to 18 years living in the contiguous United States (excluding New Hampshire). A nationwide sample which excluded any phone numbers with area codes assigned within the state of New Hampshire was constructed using four frames: (1) 801,317 landline telephone numbers from which telephone households could be drawn by random digit dialing (RDD); (2) 5,000 cell-phone telephone numbers from which a sample of cell phone users could be drawn by RDD; (3) an address-based sample (ABS) of 70,924 cell phone and residential numbers; and (4) a pre-screened sample of 3,573 telephone numbers of households with children from a recent national RDD survey. The compiled frame yielded 3,259 residential RDD interviews, 31 cell phone RDD interviews, 750 ABS interviews, and 463 pre-screened sample interviews for a total of 4,503 interviews. A short interview was conducted with an adult caregiver (usually a parent) to obtain family demographic information. One child was randomly selected from all eligible children in a household by selecting the child with the most recent birthday. If the selected child was 1 month to 9 years old, the main interview was conducted with the caregiver. If the selected child was 10-17 years old, the main interview was conducted with the child. The survey used an enhanced version of the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ), an inventory of childhood victimization. This version of the JVQ obtains reports on 53 forms of offenses against youth that cover six general areas of concern including: conventional crime, child maltreatment, peer and sibling victimization, sexual victimization, witnessing and indirect victimization, and internet victimization. Follow-up questions for each victimization item gathered additional information about the victimization incident.

In 2023, around 16,438 children in California who were the victims of child abuse were in foster care, the most out of any state. Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Illinois rounded out the five leading states for children in foster care in that year.

Numbers, percentages, and rates of referrals to child protectives services, by state for the most recent federal fiscal year for which data are available. A referral is a notification to the CPS agency of suspected child maltreatment. Referrals may include more than one child.

To view more National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) findings, click link to summary page below: https://healthdata.gov/stories/s/kaeg-w7jc

Child Protective Investigations (CPI) is authorized to investigate abuse and neglect allegedly committed by a person responsible for a child's care, custody or welfare and to protect abused and neglected children from further harm. This authorization is derived from the U.S. Social Securities Act, Texas Family Code, Human Resources Code, Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Indian Child Welfare Act and the Adam Walsh Act. CPI conducts either a traditional investigation or Alternative Response (AR). Both require CPI to assess safety and take needed actions to protect a child and assess the risk of future abuse or neglect in the foreseeable future. AR, however, allows for a more flexible, family engaging approach on lower priority cases involving alleged victims who are age 6 or older. AR differs from traditional investigations in that there is no substantiation of allegations, no entry of perpetrators into the Central Registry (a repository for reports of child abuse and neglect), and there a heightened focus on guiding the family to plan for safety in a way that works for them and therefore sustains the safety. Completed investigations only include those cases conducted as a traditional investigation that were not administratively closed or merged into another stage. An investigation can only be administratively closed if all allegations have a disposition of administrative closure. A completed investigation can include more than one alleged victim. Completed investigations do not include any Alternative Response cases. A description of Alternative Response and how it differs from a traditional investigation is in the glossary. FOOTNOTES An investigation represents a report of abuse or neglect and can involve multiple children. The data on completed investigations does not include investigative stages that were administratively closed or merged into another investigation. All completed investigations have a case disposition and a risk finding. Visit dfps.state.tx.us for information on Abuse/Neglect Investigations and all DFPS programs.

This project undertook the systematic collection of first-generation data concerning the nature, extent, and seriousness of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the United States. The project was organized around the following research objectives: (1) identification of the nature, extent, and underlying causes of CSE and the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) occurring in the United States, (2) identification of those subgroups of children that were at the greatest risk of being sexually exploited, (3) identification of subgroups of adult perpetrators of sex crimes against children, and (4) identification of the modes of operation and other methods used by organized criminal units to recruit children into sexually exploitative activities. The study involved surveying senior staff members of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and government organizations (GOs) in the United States known to be dealing with persons involved in the transnational trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Part 1 consists of survey data from nongovernment organizations. These were local child and family agencies serving runaway and homeless youth. Part 2 consists of survey data from government organizations. These organizations were divided into local, state, and federal agencies. Local organizations included municipal law enforcement, county law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders, and corrections. State organizations included state child welfare directors, prosecutors, and public defenders. Federal organizations included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Public Defenders, Immigration and Naturalization Service, United States Attorneys, United States Customs, and the United States Postal Service. Variables in Parts 1 and 2 include the organization's city, state, and ZIP code, the type of services provided or type of law enforcement agency, how the agency was funded, the scope of the agency's service area, how much emphasis was placed on CSEC as a policy issue or a service issue, conditions that might influence the number of CSEC cases, how staff were trained to deal with CSEC cases, how victims were identified, the number of children that experienced child abuse, sexual abuse, pornography, or other exploitation in 1999 and 2000 by age and gender, methods of recruitment, family history of victims, gang involvement, and substance abuse history of victims.

The Building Strong Families (BSF) project examined the effectiveness of programs designed to improve child well-being and strengthen the relationships of low-income couples through relationship skills education. It surveyed couples 15 months and 36 months after having applied to and been accepted into a Building Stronger Families (BSF) program at one of eight locations offering services to unwed couples expecting, or having recently had a baby. Major topics included family structure, parental involvement with children, relationships, personal and parental well-being, utilization of services such as workshops to help their relationship and parenting skills, paternity and child support, and family self-sufficiency. Respondents were asked for information on recently born children and relationship status, how much time they spent with their children, their level of satisfaction with their current relationship, substance use, if they had attended relationship and parental counseling, whether they were legally required to provide child support, employment, and family background. Additional information was asked about domestic violence and child abuse, legal trouble, past sexual history, and child development. The 36-month data collection effort also included direct assessments of parenting and child development. The quality of the parenting relationship was assessed for both mothers and fathers and was based on a semi-structured play activity, "the two-bag task." This interaction was videotaped and later coded by trained assessors on multiple dimensions of parenting. During assessments with mothers, the focal child's language development was also assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Demographic data includes race, education level, age, income, and marital status. The data collection is comprised of seven parts. Part 1: the BSF Eligibility and Baseline Survey Data file; Part 2: the BSF 15-Month Follow-up Survey Data file; Part 3: the program participation data file; Part 4: the BSF 15-month follow-up analysis file; Part 5: the BSF 36-Month Follow-up Survey Data file; Part 6: the mother-child in-home assessment; and Part 7: the BSF 36-Month Follow-up analysis file.

A troubling aspect of justice system response to intimate partner violence is custody courts' failure to protect children when mothers allege the father is abusive. Family courts' errors in assessing adult and child abuse, and punitive responses to abuse allegations, have been widely documented. A significant contributor to these errors is the pseudo-scientific theory of parental alienation (PA). Originally termed parental alienation syndrome (PAS), the theory suggests that when mothers allege that a child is not safe with the father, they are doing so illegitimately, to alienate the child from the father. PA labeling often results in dismissal of women's and children's reports of abuse, and sometimes trumps even expert child abuse evaluations. PAS was explicitly based on negative stereotypes of mothers and has been widely discredited. However, the term parental alienation is still widely used in ways that are virtually identical to PAS. However, because PA is nominally gender neutral (and not called a scientific syndrome), it continues to have substantial credibility in court. The first goal of the study was to ascertain whether empirical evidence indicated that parental alienation is also gender-biased in practice and outcome. Drawing from courts' own reports of facts, findings, and outcomes, such research could inform advocates and the courts regarding the validity or invalidity of relying on PA to strip mothers of their children and potentially subject children to ongoing abuse. Second, inspired by some tentative findings, the study sought to explore outcomes in custody/abuse litigation by gender and by differing types of abuse. The study relied solely on electronically available published opinions in child custody cases; to date, the researchers have identified 240 cases involving alienation and alienation plus abuse. The researchers sought to expand the database to include non-alienation abuse cases as a comparison, and to address additional questions about custody/abuse adjudications.

Abstract (en): These data examine the relationships between childhood abuse and/or neglect and later criminal and violent criminal behavior. In particular, the data focus on whether being a victim of violence and/or neglect in early childhood leads to being a criminal offender in adolescence or early adulthood and whether a relationship exists between childhood abuse or neglect and arrests as a juvenile, arrests as an adult, and arrests for violent offenses. For this data collection, adult and juvenile criminal histories of sampled cases with backgrounds of abuse or neglect were compared to those of a matched control group with no official record of abuse or neglect. Variables contained in Part 1 include demographic information (age, race, sex, and date of birth). In Part 2, information is presented on the abuse/neglect incident (type of abuse or neglect, duration of the incident, whether the child was removed from the home and, if so, for how long, results of the placement, and whether the individual was still alive). Part 3 contains family information (with whom the child was living at the time of the incident, family disruptions, and who reported the abuse or neglect) and data on the perpetrator of the incident (relation to the victim, age, race, sex, and whether living in the home of the victim). Part 4 contains information on the charges filed within adult arrest incidents (occasion for arrest, multiple counts of the same type of charge, year and location of arrest, and type of offense or charge), and Part 5 includes information on the charges filed within juvenile arrest incidents (year of juvenile charge, number of arrests, and type of offense or charge). The unit of analysis for Parts 1 through 3 is the individual at age 11 or younger, for Part 4 the charge within the adult arrest incident, and for Part 5 the charge within the juvenile arrest incident. ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.. All children under 12 years of age during the period 1967-1972 in a metropolitan area in the Midwest. Prospective cohorts research design matched with a control group cohort. 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 6 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions. Funding insitution(s): United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (86-IJ-CX-0033). (1) The data contain duplicate case numbers. (2) Parts 2 and 3 appear to contain a large amount of missing data. (3) The data apply only to reported and substantiated cases of childhood victimization. (4) Misdemeanor criminal behavior for individuals may not show up in the records checked.

Number of children under age 21 in foster care as of July 1 of each year, by age group. This is a point-in-time, unduplicated count of children under the supervision of county welfare departments and excludes cases under the supervision of county probation departments, out-of-state agencies, state adoptions district offices, and Indian child welfare departments. The total by age group may not add up to total number of children in foster care due to missing values. U.S. totals reflect children in foster care as of Sept. 30 each year. N/A means that data are not available. Note: Although U.S. data are not available for children ages 1-2 and 3-5, data for children ages 1-5, combined, is available on KIDS COUNT. Data Source: Needell, B., et al. (May 2014). Child Welfare Services Reports for California, U.C. Berkeley Center for Social Services Research; U.S. data come from Child Trends analysis of Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data available through the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, as cited on KIDS COUNT (May 2014). Retrieved on May 31, 2015.

This dataset summarizes the number of dependent children (less than 18 years old) removed from households due to parental drug abuse. The data indicates if the dependent children were placed in kinship care or not. The total number of children in this data set are provided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), which publishes 5 year estimates of the population. The most recent year of entries in this data set may be available before the corresponding ACS population estimates for that year are published. In that case, the data set uses values from the most recently published ACS estimates and notes the year from which those estimates are pulled. These values are updated once the Census Bureau releases the most recent estimates.” *Kinship care refers to the care of children by relatives or, in some jurisdictions, close family friends (often referred to as fictive kin). Relatives are the preferred resource for children who must be removed from their birth parents because it maintains the children's connections with their families. *The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) definition of parental drug abuse is “Principal caretaker’s compulsive use of drugs that is not of a temporary nature.”

This study aimed to investigate adolescent's cognitive processes and their thoughts and feelings when answering the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Child Abuse Screening Tool - ICAST-C. This study used face-to-face semi-structured cognitive interviews, employing a combination of think aloud, structured and spontaneous verbal probing, and observations. The sample in this study consisted of 53 adolescents aged 10-17 years across three contexts. Interviews were conducted with 17 participants in Romania, 20 participants in South Africa, and 16 participants in the Philippines. This study adopted a purposive sampling strategy. In addition to purposive sampling, this study employed maximum variation sampling. Maximum variation sampling is an appropriate strategy when the study aims to understand the variability of views existing in a particular group. Geographical and cultural variation, as well as variation in age, gender, and previous research exposure, were considerations in implementing this strategy. Both research-exposed (those who had answered a self-report violence measure) and research non-exposed (those who had not answered a self-report violence measure) participants were recruited. Apart from these considerations, participants were recruited on the basis of age (those aged between 10-17 years) and gender (male, female, and other gender identities).Globally, 95 million children become victims of physical, emotional and sexual child abuse every year. Child abuse has lifetime impacts including medical trauma, mental health distress, illness, school drop-out and unemployment. We know there is also a cycle of violence across generations. In other words, victims of child abuse are more likely to commit violent crime and to abuse their own children. They are also more likely to become a victim of violence again, both in childhood and in their adult relationships. Child abuse also has a hidden but massive impact on society because of illness and disability, costing an estimated 124 billion USD a year in the United States. But why do child abuse rates remain so inexplicably high? Child abuse is a complex problem that reaches across the home and community. In order to combat child abuse, we need to understand how many children are affected, where they are and who is most at risk. Then we need effective interventions to prevent and reduce child abuse. However, we know very little about either. A small number of high-income countries have social services data but these only identify the tip of the iceberg; most child abuse is never reported to services. To detect abuse within the whole population, we need to conduct surveys. That being said, the only child abuse measures available are lengthy and detailed, and they are therefore costly to carry out nationally. If a short child abuse measure existed, it could be included in larger, regularly conducted surveys (e.g. Demographic and Health Surveys or census). Interventions aim to prevent and reduce abuse, but there is currently no child abuse measure that can test whether such interventions have worked. A measure needs to be designed to detect changes in how severe and how often abusive behaviours occur. At the moment, researchers often use proxy measures for abuse, such as parenting stress. This study has two aims: (1) to develop a brief child abuse measure for the inclusion in large surveys, and (2) to test and validate a sensitive child abuse measure for use in intervention evaluation research. These will then be made available, together with a user manual, at no cost. To combat child abuse, we need strong collaborations between research and policy. I have already established strong partnerships with a number of academic institutions and international organisations in child protection. I have developed a prototype of the measure for intervention testing, and this is being used in six studies with 3800 participants in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Philippines. My collaborators will share the data, allowing me to conduct statistical analysis on how and whether the measure works. I will also conduct analyses testing whether the tool measures the same concepts across cultures. Finally, I will carry out qualitative research with key stakeholders in child protection to find the best questions for the short child abuse measure. To complement this, I will use statistical techniques on the pooled dataset to identify questions that can be used in surveys. This project can have a large impact on global child abuse prevention efforts. It will help researchers and policy-makers to measure accurately the number of children affected and determine whether interventions really work. It is an essential step in creating high quality evidence for protecting the world's children.

The goal of this study was to test specific hypotheses illustrating the relationships among serious victimization experiences, the mental health effects of victimization, substance abuse/use, and delinquent behavior in adolescents. The study assessed familial and nonfamilial types of violence. It was designed as a telephone survey of American youth aged 12-17 living in United States households and residing with a parent or guardian. One parent or guardian in each household was interviewed briefly to establish rapport, secure permission to interview the targeted adolescent, and to ensure the collection of comparative data to examine potential nonresponse bias from households without adolescent participation. All interviews with both parents and adolescents were conducted using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) technology. From the surveys of parents and adolescents, the principal investigators created one data file by attaching the data from the parents to the records of their respective adolescents. Adolescents were asked whether violence and drug abuse were problems in their schools and communities and what types of violence they had personally witnessed. They were also asked about other stressful events in their lives, such as the loss of a family member, divorce, unemployment, moving to a new home or school, serious illness or injury, and natural disaster. Questions regarding history of sexual assault, physical assault, and harsh physical discipline elicited a description of the event and perpetrator, extent of injuries, age at abuse, whether alcohol or drugs were involved, and who was informed of the incident. Information was also gathered on the delinquent behavior of respondents and their friends, including destruction of property, assault, theft, sexual assault, and gang activity. Other questions covered history of personal and family substance use and mental health indicators, such as major depression, post-traumatic stress disorders, weight changes, sleeping disorders, and problems concentrating. Demographic information was gathered from the adolescents on age, race, gender, number of people living in household, and grade in school. Parents were asked whether they were concerned about violent crime, affordable child care, drug abuse, educational quality, gangs, and the safety of their children at school. In addition, they were questioned about their own victimization experiences and whether they discussed personal safety issues with their children. Parents also supplied demographic information on gender, marital status, number of children, employment status, education, race, and income.

Human Trafficking Statistics: Human trafficking remains a pervasive global issue, with millions of individuals subjected to exploitation and abuse each year. According to recent statistics, an estimated 25 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking, with the majority being women and children. This lucrative criminal industry generates profits of over $150 billion annually, making it one of the most profitable illegal trades globally. As market research analysts, it's imperative to understand the scale and impact of human trafficking to develop effective strategies for prevention and intervention. Efforts to combat human trafficking have intensified in recent years, driven by increased awareness and advocacy. However, despite these efforts, the problem persists, with trafficking networks adapting to evade law enforcement and exploit vulnerabilities in communities. Through comprehensive data analysis and research, we can uncover trends, identify high-risk areas, and develop targeted interventions to disrupt trafficking networks and support survivors. In this context, understanding human trafficking statistics is crucial for informing policy decisions, resource allocation, and collaborative efforts to combat this grave violation of human rights. Editor’s Choice Every year, approximately 4.5 billion people become victims of forced sex trafficking. Two out of three immigrants become victims of human trafficking, regardless of their international travel method. There are 5.4 victims of modern slavery for every 1000 people worldwide. An estimated 40.3 million individuals are trapped in modern-day slavery, with 24.9 million in forced labor and 15.4 million in forced marriage. Around 16.55 million reported human trafficking cases have occurred in the Asia Pacific region. Out of 40 million human trafficking victims worldwide, 25% are children. The highest proportion of forced labor trafficking cases occurs in domestic work, accounting for 30%. The illicit earnings from human trafficking amount to approximately USD 150 billion annually. The sex trafficking industry globally exceeds the size of the worldwide cocaine market. Only 0.4% of survivors of human trafficking cases are detected. Currently, there are 49.6 million people in modern slavery worldwide, with 35% being children. Sex trafficking is the most common type of trafficking in the U.S. In 2022, there were 88 million child sexual abuse material (CSAM) files reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) tip line. Child sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 U.S. states. Human trafficking is a USD 150 billion industry globally. It ranks as the second most profitable illegal industry in the United States. 25 million people worldwide are denied their fundamental right to freedom. 30% of global human trafficking victims are children. Women constitute 49% of all victims of global trafficking. In 2019, 62% of victims in the US were identified as sex trafficking victims. In the same year, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grantees reported that 68% of clients served were victims of labor trafficking. Human traffickers in the US face a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison. In France, 74% of exploited victims in 2018 were victims of sex trafficking. You May Also Like To Read Domestic Violence Statistics Sexual Assault Statistics Crime Statistics FBI Crime Statistics Referral Marketing Statistics Prison Statistics GDPR Statistics Piracy Statistics Notable Ransomware Statistics DDoS Statistics Divorce Statistics

To further the understanding of violence against women, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), jointly sponsored the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey. To provide a context in which to place women's experiences, the NVAW Survey sampled both women and men. Completed interviews were obtained from 8,000 women and 8,005 men who were 18 years of age or older residing in households throughout the United States. The female version of the survey was fielded from November 1995 to May 1996. The male version of the survey was fielded during February to May 1996. Spanish versions of both the male and female surveys were fielded from April to May 1996. Respondents to the NVAW Survey were queried about (1) their general fear of violence and the ways in which they managed their fears, (2) emotional abuse they had experienced by marital and cohabitating partners, (3) physical assault they had experienced as children by adult caretakers, (4) physical assault they had experienced as adults by any type of perpetrator, (5) forcible rape or stalking they had experienced by any type of perpetrator, and (6) incidents of threatened violence they had experienced by any type of perpetrator. Respondents disclosing victimization were asked detailed questions about the characteristics and consequences of victimization as they experienced it, including injuries sustained and use of medical services. Incidents were recorded that had occurred at any time during the respondent's lifetime and also those that occurred within the 12 months prior to the interview. Data were gathered on both male-to-female and female-to-male intimate partner victimization as well as abuse by same-sex partners. Due to the sensitive nature of the survey, female respondents were interviewed by female interviewers. In order to test for possible bias caused by the gender of the interviewers when speaking to men, a split sample was used so that half of the male respondents had female interviewers and the other half had male interviewers. The questionnaires contained 14 sections, each covering a different topic, as follows. Section A: Respondents' fears of different types of violence, and behaviors they had adopted to accommodate those fears. Section B: Respondent demographics and household characteristics. Section C: The number of current and past marital and opposite-sex and same-sex cohabitating relationships of the respondent. Section D: Characteristics of the respondent's current relationship and the demographics and other characteristics of their spouse and/or partner. Section E: Power, control, and emotional abuse by each spouse or partner. Sections F through I: Screening for incidents of rape, physical assault, stalking, and threat victimization, respectively. Sections J through M: Detailed information on each incident of rape, physical assault, stalking, and threat victimization, respectively, reported by the respondent for each type of perpetrator identified in the victimization screening section. Section N: Violence in the respondent's current relationship, including steps taken because of violence in the relationship and whether the violent behavior had stopped. The section concluded with items to assess if the respondent had symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Other variables in the data include interviewer gender, respondent gender, number of adult women and adult men in the household, number of different telephones in the household, and region code.