Latest Evidence
Here is a selection of the latest evidence on violence against women and girls (VAWG):
ADOLESCENCE AND VAWG
Preventing VAWG victimisation in adolescent girls (November 2017)
This systematic review of reviews synthesises evidence on the impact of interventions to prevent violence against adolescent girls and young women aged 10–24 years. It finds that violence against adolescent girls is understudied, with most research looking only at the impact on one form of violence.
Interventions that show promise in addressing violence amongst adolescent girls include community engagement, skill-building to enhance voice/agency, and social network expansion.
The findings highlight the need for future interventions to target polyvictimization (experiencing different types of violence), compare impacts across adolescence, and include a focus on groups of adolescents that may be more vulnerable to violence, such as urban, out-of-school, married, and displaced and conflict-affected girls.
Ending violence in childhood (October 2017)
This report from the Know Violence in Childhood Initiative documents the nature and scale of different forms of violence experienced by children. In 2015, 3 in 4 children worldwide had experienced some form of violence. Adolescent girls were found to be most at risk of sexual violence, with an estimated 18 million adolescent girls aged 15– 19 who had ever experienced sexual abuse and 55 million adolescent girls in the same age-group who had experienced physical violence since age 15.
Three main approaches are proposed to prevent childhood violence: enhance capacities of caregivers and children; eliminate the root causes of violence; and embed violence prevention in institutions and services.
Selected research papers from the Know Violence working group are also available in a special issue of the Journal of Psychology, Health and Medicine