Annex: Methodology

• Author: European Institute for Gender Equality (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 63-82

Annex: Methodology

63Intimate partner violence and witness intervention: what are the deciding factors?

Annex: Methodology

Methodology for the desk

research

The review of evidence (carried out at the level

of the EU and the Member States) was a scop-

ing exercise rather than a systematic review or a

rapid ev idence assessment. Given the expected

uneven evidence base on witness reporting of

intimate partner violence across Member States

and at the EU level, instead of adopting a fixed

procedure, the report relied on the knowledge

of national experts guided by a search proto-

col and data-extrac tion template. While these

tools helped to ensure consistency between out-

puts, they allowed for flexibility in choosing the

search terms and databases most appropriate in

the national context. National expert s adapted

the databases and search terms outlined in the

search protocol to the national language or con-

text (see Table A.2). References to resources within

the most relevant studies identified through the

database search were used to look for other and

more recent publications on the subject.

To ensure the search was restricted to relevant

studies, exclusion criteria were specif ied in the

search protocol (see Box A.1). National experts

were instructed to restric t the search to sources:

relating to witness reporting of intimate part-

ner violence against women (not reporting

by victims, or intimate partner violence more

generally);

relating to intimate partner violence against

women;

relating to adult witnesses of intimate part-

ner violence against women (excluding minor

witnesses);

published in the last 10 years (since 2009).

Initially, the desk research at the EU level was

restricted to items published in the last 10 years.

However, given the scarcity of evidence, highly

relevant work on the subject was included even

if the publication date was before 2009. The

geographical scope being restricted to the EU,

studies from outside the EU (mostly Australia

and the United States) were only included if they

were highly relevant and filled a gap in the lit-

erature identified at the EU and Member State

level. Restric ting the scope of the desk research

to sources utilising the exact definition of inti-

mate par tner violence used in this report would

have resulted in a prohibitively small number of

sources. The review also included sources relat-

ing to witness repor ting of domestic violence or

domestic abuse if it was clear that intimate part-

ner violence fell within the definition of domes-

tic violence or abuse used in these s tudies

(Table A.1).

One of the objectives of the desk research was

to map and identify the types of environments in

which reporting of intimate partner violence by

witnesses most often occurs. An environment in

this context was taken to include spaces in which

a witness learns about or comes to suspect inti-

mate partner violence (e.g. at home, in the local

neighbourhood, at work, at the doctors surgery),

as well as the location of the authorities to whom

a report is made (e.g. police station).

Annex: Methodology

European Institute for Gender Equality64

Box A.1. Search protocol

Exclusions and restrictions

Evidence on the following topics falls outside the scope of this review.

Victim repor ting of intimate partner violence. Please exclude such studies. There may be some

instances where sources relating to intimate partner violence in general (including victims) are

relevant, e.g. the legal definition of intimate partner violence and changes in legislation. How-

ever, evidence on and approaches to encourage reporting of intimate par tner violence should

relate to witnesses specifically.

Studies published before 2009. Please exclude studies published more than 10 years ago,

although you may wish to include references to historical change predating this, e.g. changes in

legislation.

Studies relating to children/minors as witnesses of intimate partner violence. The focus is exclu-

sively on adults (18 years of age or older) who report intimate partner violence.

Studies relating to male victims of intimate partner violence.

Search methodology

This is a scoping exercise rather than a s ystematic review or a rapid evidence assessment. Sources

listed in Table A.1 are indicative only.

Table A.1. List of sources

Academic literature Grey literature Other sources

Database Lexis/Nexis Academic

Web of Knowledge

JSTOR

Google Scholar

OpenGrey

Google

government websites

national statistics repositories

Type of source journal articles

books

reports ocial statistics

policy documents

legislative documents

Table A.2. Suggested search terms

Intimate partner violence Witness reporting Member State

(‘violence ’ OR ‘abuse’)

AND

(‘partner ’ OR ‘spouse’ OR ‘ hus-

band’ OR ‘wif e’ OR ‘boyfrie nd’ OR

‘girlfriend’ OR ‘famil y’)

AND

(‘home’ OR ‘domestic’ OR ‘inti-

mate’ OR ‘relationship ’ OR ‘physi-

cal’ OR ‘sexual ’ OR ‘psychological’

OR ‘economic’ )

AND (witne ss* OR suspec t* OR

bystand*  OR aware O R dis-

close OR observe OR know

OR find ou t)

AND

(report  OR tell  O R authorit*

OR profession* OR case )

AND (country identif ier)