You asked
For the Crime Survey for England and Wales, specifically for domestic abuse statistics, can you please provide;
A chronology of changes deletions or additions to the data capture since 2010
The rationale and due diligence for each
Any organisations involved or the ONS worked in partnership with to derive the metrics and the due diligence that was followed
The current inputs and data capture that give the output for these statistics
The metadata to support each domestic abuse statistic since 2010
We said
Thank you for your request.
Since 2010, there have been three main changes to the domestic abuse questions within the domestic abuse, sexual victimisation and stalking module of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). New questions were introduced into the survey from the year ending March 2011 on a split sample basis and were further revised in the year ending March 2013 survey. Estimates for earlier years, including 2010, were calculated from the original questions with an adjustment applied to make them comparable to the new questions. Information regarding the question changes and rationale can be found within the methodological note 'Intimate Personal Violence split sample experiment CSEW 2012/13'.
In April 2017, new questions were introduced on a split sample basis as part of ongoing research to develop a measure of coercive and controlling behaviour. The questions were removed from the module from April 2019 as it was concluded that further development was needed. More information regarding the questions which were tested, the rationale, and the results can be found within the report 'Developing a measure of coercive and controlling behaviour'.
In April 2017, the age limit for the module was increased to respondents aged 74 years. The module was previously restricted to respondents aged 16 to 59 years. For more information regarding this change, please see section 2.3 of our User Guide.
The management of the CSEW transferred from the Home Office to ONS in April 2012. In November 2015, the ONS Domestic Abuse Statistics Steering Group was set up and the group held regular meetings until 2019. The group was set up to:
- review the questions on domestic abuse asked in the Crime Survey for England and Wales to ensure they accurately capture the data required
- review domestic abuse statistics produced and published by the ONS to ensure they meet user requirements for information on domestic abuse
The group included representatives from across government, academia and the voluntary sector. Annex A within the 'Developing a measure of coercive and controlling behaviour' report details the members included within this group. Over the years members of the group were involved in discussions around question changes and testing, understanding of legal terminology and changes to definitions, and were also able to provide a victim's perspective.
The latest version of the domestic abuse, sexual victimisation and stalking module can be found within the 2019/20 CSEW adult questionnaire. These questions are used to produce our domestic abuse victimisation estimates. Our latest domestic abuse publication can be found here. We publish a quality and methodology information (QMI) report specific to domestic abuse which details the quality and methodology information. Our user guide also includes detailed information regarding the development of the domestic abuse, sexual victimisation and stalking module.
If you have any crime-related queries in future, you can email crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help you.