Violence Against Women Survey Guide
WHAT IS THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SURVEY?
Violence Against Women Survey is a survey developed and administered by Statistics Canada, which includes a collection of data on violence against women. At Memorial University, it is accessible on the Internet via University of Western Ontario Int ernet Data Library System (IDLS). IDLS is an Internet-based system for providing access to and retrieval of machine readable data files. The objectives of this survey were to provide reliable estimates of the nature and extent of violence against wom en by male partners, acquaintances, and strangers and to examine women's fear of violence in order to support current and future federal government activities.
The target population in this survey was English and French speaking women 18 years of age and over in Canada excluding:
1) residents of the Yukon and Northwest Territories and
2) full-time residents of institutions
The Random Digit Dialling approach was used to select households.
The Violence Against Women Survey was conducted between February 1993 and the end of May 1993. The following issues were addressed: perceptions of personal safety and measures taken to reduce risk of violent victimization; sexual harrassment; exper iences of physical and sexual assault by strangers, dates/boyfriends, husbands and common-law partners and other known men; power/control and emotional abuse by husband/partners; spouse abuse in family of origin; the impact of the experience on women w ho report violence; who they turn to for help; and, involvement and satisfaction with the criminal justice system. Two questionnaires were used to conduct the survey:
1) Control Form - A control form was completed for each telephone number selected in the sample. It collected basic demographic information for all household members, including age, sex, marital status and relationship to a reference person.
2) Violence Against Women Questionnaire - A woman 18 years of age or older was randomly selected from all eligible respondents in the household and a Violence Against Women questionnaire was completed for this person.
Details about non-spousal violence were gathered through a Victimization Report, and details about violence by husbands and common-law partners were gathered through an Intimate Abuse Report.
HOW TO ACCESS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SURVEY
You may access the Violence Against Women Survey from the Internet by typing the URL which is:
http://www.sscl.uwo.ca/sscl/drl/ndls/vivsw93.html
SCOPE OF THIS GUIDE
This guide has been prepared for users who have some familiarity with using Netscape and
will guide the user through IDLS (Internet Data Library System). There is more detailed documentation on the Violence Against Women Survey in the accompanying binder (MEDIA HV 6250.4 W65 V56 1994).
MOVING AROUND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SURVEY
IDLS is intended to be a straight forward system to use. The main menu includes six buttons, which may be selected depending on the task the user wishes to accomplish.
1) VIEW FILE DESCRIPTION
2) SELECT VARIABLES
3) ENTER E-MAIL ADDRESS
4) SUPPLEMENTAL FILES
5) RETRIEVE DATA
6) HELP WITH IDLS
To access each button, use the mouse pad and click on the button.
HELP WITH IDLS - the help note gives an overview of the Internet Data Library System (IDLS).
VIEW FILE DESCRIPTION - The file description, which will appear in the lower window may contain information about the population sampled, sampling techniques used, information about the investigators etc.
When you are done with this file, use the BACK button provided by your browser. It is recommended that you look at the file description before beginning to select variables.
THE PROCESS OF RETRIEVING INFORMATION INVOLVES FOUR STEPS. THESE STEPS MUST BE FOLLOWED IN ORDER.
1.Click on SELECT VARIABLES - Only those variables which you select by clicking in the check-box to the left of the variable name will be retrieved when you submit your request. If you click on the variable label to the right of
the variable name, information specific to the variable will be displayed in the upper window of your screen. Once you have selected the variables you wish to use, you can go to step 2-4.
2. This step is optional-
Click on ENTER E-MAIL ADDRESS - When you submit your request, it will take a variable length of time for the data to be returned to you. If you are still attached to IDLS when the retrieval is completed, you will be prompted to download the file. If you wish to exit, by providing your e-mail address the system has the ability to notify you where the data you have requested is stored, and what the URL for that file is.
You should expect to wait a few minutes. The more variables requested, the longer you should expect to wait.
Once you have entered your e-mail address, you can go to step 3.
3.This step is optional: as many or as few supplemental files desired can be selected.
Click on SUPPLEMENTAL FILES -IDLS can automatically generate SPSS, SAS and BMDP data set descriptions for the subset of data which you request. This will include record/column locations, variable and value labels, and missing
value declarations, as appropriate.
4. Click on RETRIEVE DATA - When you click on this button, a button will appear
labelled CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH THE DATA RETRIEVAL JOB. By clicking on this button, you submit a request to the SSCL computer system to construct your data subset.
The data that you requested will be extracted from the source data file and a new file created. This subset, and any supplemental files you have requested, will be compressed using a ZIP program.
Once these tasks are completed, you will be sent an E-mail message containing your request. You will be sent a second e-mail message which tells you the URL of the file where your data is stored.
If you are still connected to IDLS, a message will appear when the data requested is ready. This message will be similar to the following:
Download idls123456789.zip
By clicking on this, you can FTP the data to your computer.
NOTE: THIS FILE HAS BEEN ZIPPED. IN ORDER TO ACCESS IT YOU
MUST HAVE AN UNZIP PROGRAM.
Once you click on the message, a box will appear asking you what you wish to do with the file:
Open it
Save it to disk
Choose one option and click OK.
Depending on the type of unzip program available to you, you will now be prompted through the unzipping process.
FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE
For help in using IDLS or the VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SURVEY, contact the staff at the Media and Data Centre. REVISED 11/98
March 24, 2010
Gillian Byrne
