"I thought it was just a part of life." VAWG survey report published today

[334bu]

mobile.twitter.com/DrJessTaylor/status/1388042155319517185

Shocking results. Surpring? Unfortunately not!

But there is nothing to suggest this study is less reliable than any other of this kind

It was specifically (at least initially) recruiting women who believed they had been abused, not all women.

And the huge sample size surely gives some validity in itself

It is shocking that that many women came forward to say that they were abused. Sample size is important, but how representative it is is critical. This sample was generally pretty good in most categories ethnicity, religion etc. But it was recruiting women who thought they had been abused, it did not specifically try and also recruit women who had not been abused. So all of the answers are coming from a sample pool of women who have been abused. We don't know the size of that pool compared to women who have not been abused - this is where the issue lies.

I guess one approach to collect representative data would be to 'piggyback' onto an existing large-scale survey and include some additional questions about VAWG. But I think it is likely to be an ethical nightmare collecting robust data about violence against women and girls. I know that the Crime Survey for England and Wales is somewhat restricted in what it can ask about this due to ethical constraints, although it does have stats on domestic violence and sexual assault, in the context of these being a 'crime'.

I do think the criticism of the research are a bit unfair. Yes it was not a representative sample of the population but it is a huge sample and covers a wide demographic range (she did say in the livestream what some of the limitations were such as not enough women over 60 took part).

The British Crime Survey until recently excluded women over 59 and they still have quite a random upper age limit. It is impossible to design a study without methodological limitations.

Some of the findings are shocking but honestly not surprising. Like 51 % of those who responded had been sexually assaulted in their sleep. You know from the number of people saying this isn’t rape that this is something that is very widespread.