Poly- and Distinct- Victimization in Histories of Violence Against Women

We report results from pre-testing an Europe-wide Survey on Violence against Women. A questionnaire on women’s experiences of stalking, harassment, psychological, physical, and sexual violence by non-, ex-, and current partners was tested on 10 known victims of violence in intimate relations and 20 randomly selected women. Multiple Correspondence Analysis uncovered two profiles of victimization: women poly-victimized in multiple life ambits and women distinctly victimized in only some of them. Known-victims of intimate partner’s violence (IPV) were more likely to be poly-victimized than randomly selected women. Heterogeneity in women’s socio-economic conditions could only partly account for IPV’s over-representation among poly-victimized women. This gave more credence to an interpretation that highlights the role played by previous traumatic experiences of victimization on re-victimization.