Rate of domestic violence
Dimension: Threats
Area: Gender-based violence
Category: Domestic violence
Definition: Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of abuse that one person commits to another with the objective of gaining or maintaining power or control over that person. This type of violence occurs between two or more people that have an intimate relationship. The means used to maintain control over someone include any form of physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological abuse (UN, n.d.).
- Unit of measure: Crimes of domestic violence.
- Formula:
Numerator: # of legal claims related to domestic violence in a territory.
Denominator: Total population that lives in the territory.
Data sources:
- Annual statistics published by the prosecutor’s office.
- Statistics of the national police department.
- National census
- Official population projections
Comments and limitations: Only those cases of domestic violence that are reported by the victim are considered. This can lead to a bias in the data because of the lack of complaints to the authority. Other difficulty in measuring this indicator is the classification of crimes domestic violence. It should be carefully evaluated the methodology to classify crimes as gender-based violence.
- United Nations (n.d.). What is Domestic Violence? https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/what-is-domestic-abuse