More emphasis on prevention needed to combat violence against women

FRA’s groundbreaking report on violence against women, which was based on a survey of 42,000 women throughout the EU, revealed the extent of abuse suffered by women at home, work, in public and online. It provides EU-wide data on women’s experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence for the first time, helping a wide variety of groups to take action in line with the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Following the release of the findings in 2014, FRA has been active in engaging with EU institutions, national governments, international bodies and non-governmental organizations to discuss the results and ensure they are taken up at national level to inform developments in law, policy, and practice.

The dataset of FRA’s violence against women survey is stored with the UK Data Service (link is external), and is available free of charge. A number of researchers across the EU have already applied to use the data set, contributing to the increasing body of knowledge about women’s experiences of of violence and opportunities for early intervention to prevent further victimisation.

Detailed information on how the data was collected can be found in the technical report that accompanies the survey. Detailed survey results for each of the member states are available using the interactive online data explorer on FRA’s website. An in-depth analysis of the results with FRA proposals for action to be taken at EU- and member state-level can be found in the main report.