Reporting and Gender-Based Violence

Though Gender based Violence (GBV) has numerous adverse health effects, it is immensely underreported. Even the existing estimated are partially bias. Estimating GBV based on health systems data or on police reports may cause underestimation of the total prevalence.

In order to fix this underestimation of reporting of GBV, this paper disseminated the formal and informal sources conditional on having experienced GBV and characterized differences between women who report and those who do not. It explored Demographic and Health Survey data from 284,281 women in 24 countries collected between 2004 and 2011. The paper executed descriptive analysis and multivariate logistic regressions examining characteristics associated with reporting to formal sources. Forty percent of women experiencing GBV previously disclosed to someone; where only 7% reported to a formal source. The major factors behind increased formal reporting are the formerly married and never married status, urban residence, and increasing age.

Reference:

Palermo, T., Bleck, J., & Peterman, A. (2014). Tip of the iceberg: reporting and gender-based violence in developing countries. American journal of epidemiology, 179(5), 602-612.

https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/179/5/602/143069/Tip-of-the-Iceberg-Reporting-and-Gender-Based