The LeSuBiA study: Life situation, safety and stress in everyday life

There is a considerable need for a darkfield study on violence, which has been on the political agenda for many years. Only with reliable data can we develop efficient and effective measures to combat gender-specific violence. Presently, no cross-gender survey in Germany is available to directly compare genders. In addition, there is a lack of up-to-date information on the relationship between reported and unreported violence – particularly in the areas of intimate partner violence, sexualised violence and violence in the digital space.

LeSuBiA closes this gap. It collects new darkfield figures on the violence suffered by women and men in Germany and thus even goes beyond the requirements of the Istanbul Convention, which focused primarily on violence against women. It deliberately chose a cross-gender approach to enable the investigation of differences and similarities in violence and thus fulfil the growing interest in gender-differentiated findings.

The results serve as an evidence-based foundation for decisions on effective protection for women, men and their children against violence. They should improve protection against and prevention of violence for everyone affected. In addition, the project results are intended to raise awareness concerning intimate partner violence, sexualised violence, stalking and digital violence.

LeSuBiA asks questions about the current life situation, safety and stress in everyday life. It collects information on the respondents’ experiences, attitudes and behaviour on this topic as well as on social structural characteristics and the living environment.

A special focus of the survey lies on collecting data on experiences of violence in (ex-)couple relationships, sexualised violence and violence in the digital space. The aim is also to gain insights into gender-specific differences in the darkfield. The study also considers experiences with the police, justice system and victim support services.

LeSuBiA is a classic darkfield victim survey. Such surveys gain insights into the true overall incidence of certain offences, including the so-called (relative) darkfield, by measuring the proportion of victims and victimisation within the population during a certain period. Data on reporting behaviour and the proportion of cases reported to the police provide information on the relationship between the known and unknown darkfield. The latter describes offences that have not come to the attention of the police, the goal being to obtain a comprehensive picture of the scope and structure of crime beyond the officially registered offences.

When developing the survey design, the aim was to gather the greatest possible sample and data quality. It is based on selecting respondents for the cross-sectional survey on a random population sample (register sample) of people aged 16 to 85 living in private households in Germany. People with a migration background from Poland, Turkey, the former Soviet Union and refugee countries are enrolled disproportionately as part of an additional sample to analyse the individual migration groups separately. The survey is designed as a so-called sequential mixed-mode survey to achieve the highest possible participation rate. In the first step, a personal oral CAPI (computer-assisted personal interview) is conducted with all target persons, provided the Coronavirus situation in the survey year permits. The respondents themselves complete another part of the survey on the computer (CAPI/CASI, computer-assisted self-interview) to obtain open and honest answers to particularly sensitive questions. In the second stage, people who do not participate in the face-to-face survey can complete a shortened online CAWI (computer-assisted web interview).

The questionnaire is largely standardised, and the target net number of cases for the face-to-face survey is 15,000 people. Added to this are the participants in the subsequent online survey and the respondents from the additional sample (totalling approx. 22,000 cases). The online questionnaire is available in Arabic, Polish, Russian and Turkish.

The study’s survey design follows extremely elaborate methods of empirical social research, developed and elaborated in close cooperation with a scientific advisory board. The survey is scheduled to be conducted in 2023/2024; the results are expected in the form of a report in 2025.

Die Studie wird durch das Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ), das Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat (BMI) und das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) gemeinsam durchgeführt und verantwortet. Zur Durchführung der Datenerhebung wurde das Umfrageinstitut Kantar Public beauftragt.

Quelle: https://www.bka.de (Zugriff 22.6.2023)