The Societal Violence Scale seeks to develop measures of societal violence based on annual US State Department's Human Rights reports. The Societal Violence Scale ranks countries on a 5-point scale (from the lowest level of societal violence to the highest) based on three criteria. First, the authors look at the scope: the proportion of society that is victimized. Thus, widespread violence against women (who account for 50 percent of the population) figures more heavily in the final score than widespread abuses against human rights defenders, who represent a very small number. The authors also look at the severity of abuses. For example, evidence that human rights defenders are killed weighs more heavily than beatings of human rights defenders. Likewise, while women are routinely subjected to sexual violence and domestic violence, the addition of other types of violence against women like gang rape, sex trafficking, and/or FGM/C adds to the assessment of severity.
Last updated by source: 2021-10-15
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(Gibney et al.,
2021)
The Societal Violence Scale is coded on a 5-point scale where: 1 - Societal violence is limited in scope and severity, with relatively few victims and few perpetrators. 2 - Societal violence is a problem, affecting a significant number of victims, albeit across few victim categories and of a less severe nature. 3 - Societal violence is widespread and serious in nature. It affects a significant number of people across several victim categories. 4 - Societal violence is pervasive in scope, severe in nature, assumes a variety of forms and affects a large proportion of the population typically across several victim categories and perpetrators. 5 - Societal violence is ubiquitous in scope, egregious in nature and assumes a variety of forms. If affects a large proportion of the population, commonly crossing numerous victim groups and perpetrators.
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