ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how survey research has been utilised to study family violence and especially male violence against women. It considers how surveys of violence against women have tried to solve some of the ethical and methodological problems related to studying violence against women. Historically, acts of violence against women, such as battery or rape, were not seen as criminal acts in many jurisdictions. Sylvia Walby and Myhill analyse the evolution of survey research of violence against women. In addition to the surveys focusing on domestic violence and violence against women, several surveys focusing solely on sexual violence have been carried out, many of them in the United States. Although the dedicated violence against women surveys all address the same issues and the structures of the questionnaires are closely related, it is difficult to compare the findings, even when examining items that seem less problematic to measure than, say, sexual victimisation in intimate relationships.
