Summary: The latest statistics commonly reported about rates of domestic violence victimization in Washington state are based on survey responses that are over ten years old. The CDC says updated figures are coming soon. They have already recommended against comparing the newer statistics to the previous statistics, however, meaning it will be unsuitable to draw definitive conclusions about the change over time in rates of domestic violence victimization.
New publications are pointing to old survey data
A report issued last year by the nonpartisan Washington State Institute for Public Policy provides an example of what recent publications are saying about domestic violence victimization rates among Washingtonians. The report says:
“In Washington State, 41% of women and 32% of men report experiencing domestic violence throughout their lifetimes.”
– Washington State Institute for Public Policy
(The term domestic violence in the quotation above refers to when an intimate partner commits physical violence, sexual assault, or stalking.)
Those same statistics — 41% of women and 32% of men — are given in a fact sheet about domestic violence in Washington published in 2021 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Many would feel surprised to hear that in Washington state 41% of women and 32% of men experience domestic violence during their lifetimes. It’s reasonable to wonder about the source of those statistics…which makes this a good opportunity to inform the reader about the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
What is the source of those numbers?
The Centers for Disease Control’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) is a nationally representative telephone survey that collects detailed information on sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization of people ages 18 and older. The survey collects data on past-year experiences of violence as well as lifetime experiences.
The most recent CDC report with state-specific estimates of domestic violence victimization (as opposed to national estimates) was published in 2017. That report relied on survey data from 2010 to 2012. Therefore, a dataset from over ten years ago is the source for the “41% of women and 32% of men” statistics given above. In other words, the most recent official estimates we have for rates of domestic violence victimization among men and women in Washington are based on surveys taken over a decade ago.
See related: The CDC has a webpage specifically on the topic of male victims of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking
New report from the CDC coming soon
On their website the CDC says they will publish a report soon that has newer state-by-state estimates of domestic violence victimization rates (see screenshot below). Somewhat disappointingly, that new report will be based on surveys that were completed several years ago, in 2016 and 2017. Five years or more is apparently how long it takes to crunch the numbers and produce these reports.
Here are a couple comments on what we already know about the upcoming report based on a document the CDC released about its methodology:
- The CDC recommends against comparing victimization rate estimates from the 2016/2017 surveys to estimates from the 2010–2012 surveys due to differences in the survey instruments. That’s a bit of a bummer, as it means it will be unsuitable to draw conclusions about the change over time in past-year and lifetime domestic violence victimization rates in Washington.
- Both the previous report and the upcoming report relied on survey data that excluded institutionalized people and people experiencing homelessness. Given that males are a large majority of the imprisoned population and a majority of those living without shelter, and given the likelihood that imprisoned and homeless men are equally likely or more likely than the American population as a whole to have experienced sexual violence or intimate partner violence, the CDC’s methodology may be biasing the male victimization rates downward slightly.
Present or past?
Referring back to the recent publications that state the percentages of women and men in Washington who experience domestic violence, we offer this suggestion:
If estimates about the rates of a particular behavior carried out among the general population are based on survey data that are over ten years old, it seems appropriate that the statistics should either not be written in the present tense, or that a parenthetical statement should be included disclosing the year the data were collected.
We will review the CDC’s next report once it is released and potentially share our observations.