The survey entitled "Life situation, Safety and Strain in Everyday Life" (in German: "Lebenssituation, Sicherheit und Belastung im Alltag", abbreviated as LeSuBiA) aims to explore the unreported and unrecorded cases among violent incidents committed in Germany.
Political requirement and objectives
Violence is an obstacle to equal participation both on the individual and social level and at the same time violates fundamental democratic values.
The current coalition agreement announced the Federal Government's intention to develop an interdepartmental political strategy against violence focusing on violence prevention and the rights of those affected. The suppression of violence is given high priority and forms a key component of many of the Federal Government's projects.
Significant gender differences can be observed on the part of the perpetrators and victims. These differences can be recorded in the Police Crime Statistics (PCS) only to a limited extent. The PCS solely contains information on criminal offences which have become known to the police (reported crime). Information on the total number of violent offences - whether reported or not - can only be collected and analysed by doing research into unreported, and hence undetected, crime.
The need for a study on unreported violent crime is great and has been on the political agenda for many years. Only on the basis of reliable data will it be possible to develop efficient and effective measures to combat violence. The most recent representative data on women's exposure to violence in Germany were gathered by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in 2014. The first representative victim survey regarding violence against women was carried out in Germany in 2004. In the same year, a pilot study on men's exposure to violence was presented. Either women or men only were interviewed for these studies. A survey involving all genders which would allow a direct comparison between them has not been carried out in Germany to date. In addition, there is a lack of current information on the proportion between reported and unreported violence, in particular in the areas of partnership violence, sexualised violence and violence in the digital space.
This gap is closed by LeSuBiA. The LeSuBiA survey collects new data on unreported cases of violence against women and men in Germany. With this approach, LeSuBiA goes even beyond the demands laid down in the Istanbul Convention, which are primarily focused on violence against women. A cross-gender approach was chosen on purpose to meet the growing interest in studies exploring gender differences. In terms of contents, LeSuBiA as far as possible draws on the studies published by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) in 2004 under the titles "Gewalt gegen Frauen" ("Violence against women") and "Gewalt gegen Männer" ("Violence against men") as well as the EU survey on gender-based violence (EU-GBV).
The findings will provide a factual basis on which decisions can be taken to protect women and men and their children effectively against violence. They are intended to help prevent violence, protect those affected against violence and offer adequate assistance. In addition, the project results should contribute to raising and increasing awareness of the issues of partnership violence, sexualised violence, stalking and digital violence.
Background
The design of the study takes into account the recommendations and the understanding of violence laid down in the Istanbul Convention and, as far as considered useful in terms of contents and methodology, aims to follow up on and be compatible with the national studies carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) in 2004 and the Eurostat survey on gender-based violence (EU-GBV) currently underway.
Istanbul-Convention
By ratifying the Istanbul Convention, Germany has undertaken to prevent and combat all forms of gender-based violence. The Council of Europe's Convention was issued as an international agreement by the Council of Europe in 2011. It comprises 81 articles on protection against violence. The agreement was ratified by Germany in 2017 and has been legally binding since 1 February 2018. Germany has thus committed itself to combating violence, improving victim protection, preventing offences and punishing perpetrators stringently. These obligations include "to conduct population-based surveys at regular intervals to assess the prevalence of and trends in all forms of violence covered by the scope of this Convention" (Article 11 (2) of the Istanbul Convention). The LeSuBiA survey complies with this obligation in particular.
BMFSFJ studies of 2004
In 2004, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) carried out the first two studies examining exposure to violence, one focusing on women and the other on men.
In this survey, more than 10,000 women between the ages of 16 and 85 were asked about their experiences of violence in different stages of their lives. In this way, the study created the basis for "goal-oriented measures and strategies for reducing gender based violence, and improving assistance and support for women experiencing abuse". This is the only representative study so far that allows a comprehensive analysis of the extent of violence experienced by women in Germany and the effects of such violence.
This survey for the first time looked at men as victims of violence, both in a domestic and non-domestic context. Among other things, 266 men were asked questions, both orally and in writing that were randomly selected. Due to the small number of cases, the study is not representative.
Eurostat GBV
In 2016, Eurostat established a task force on the development of a survey on gender-based violence (GBV) to fulfil the requirements of the Istanbul Convention. Its mandate was to develop and implement an approach to conducting an EU-wide victim survey on gender-based violence. The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) participated in the task force and, together with other EU countries, developed a survey questionnaire and a methodology to measure gender-based violence as stipulated in the Istanbul Convention. After pilot surveys were carried out in a number of Member States between 2018 and 2019, the main survey is currently being conducted in 14 Member States. The first results were published in 2022. Germany decided not to take part in the project. After considering various methodological, content-related and practical reasons, we consciously decided to choose a cross-gender approach more closely related to the previously conducted national surveys mentioned above. This was the birth of LeSuBiA. LeSuBiA nevertheless tries to be compatible with the Eurostat survey and thus to ensure international comparability.
Contents of the survey
LeSuBiA asks questions about persons' current living conditions, their safety as well as stresses and strains of everyday life. The study collects information on the respondents' experiences, attitudes and behaviours with regard to this subject as well as data on socio-structural factors and the respondents' living environment.
A particular focus is on collecting information about their experiences of violence in (ex-) partner relationships, of sexualised violence and of violence in the digital space. The aim of the survey is to gain insights into gender-specific differences with regard to unreported violent crime. The study also takes into account persons' experiences with the police, judicial authorities and victim support services.
Methodology
LeSuBiA is a typical victim survey examining unreported crime. Victim surveys aim to gain knowledge of the total number of criminal offences including unreported offences. Hence, their aim is to find out how many criminal offences are committed in Germany, whether they are recorded by the authorities or not. For this purpose, persons are selected at random from the population and asked about their experience with relevant incidents within a certain period of time.
The study endeavours to achieve the highest possible quality when selecting study participants and gathering data. The participants aged 16 to 85 are selected through random population sampling (so-called register sampling) from households in Germany. Persons with a migrant background from Poland, Turkey and the former Soviet Union as well as refugees from selected countries of origin are disproportionately drawn by additional sampling so that the individual migration groups can be analysed separately.
The survey is designed as a so-called mixed-mode survey, with mainly face-to-face interviews (CAPI/CASI) being conducted. Under certain circumstances, the interview is carried out as a sequential survey via the Internet (CAWI), for instance if a person cannot take part in a face-to-face interview because of language difficulties. The online questionnaire is translated into Arabic, English, Polish, Russian and Turkish.
The questionnaire is standardised, and the intended net number of respondents is 22,000.
The survey design follows high standards and methods of empirical social research, which have been developed and elaborated in close cooperation with a scientific advisory board.
The survey is planned to be conducted in 2023/2024.
The results are expected to be published in the form of a report in 2025.
Project participants
The study is conducted jointly by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) as the responsible bodies.
The research organisation Verian (formerly Kantar Public) was commissioned to collect the survey data.