This file was prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM staff.
Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu.


                           Appendix B

               METHODOLOGY OF THE TIMELINE SURVEY

  Chapter II's timeline compiles reports of violent crimes against
women gathered from across the country. To present a snapshot of a
week in the life of violence against American women, data was
gathered from those institutions women are most likely to contact
after they have been victimized -- rape crisis centers, emergency
rooms, police stations, and domestic violence centers. The states
selected for this survey represent every region of the country --
the far west, the southwest, the northeast, the midwest, and the
south. The states selected also fall into every socio-economic
category. And, within those states, we contacted centers in a
variety of areas -- rural, urban, and suburban.

The Responses We Received

  The vast majority of responses we received were from service
providers -- rape crisis centers and domestic violence centers. In
most cases, their response to our inquiries did not attempt to
provide all incidents of violence occurring at a particular
location, because the number of incidents involved was too large.
Instead, respondents provided us with what they considered to be a
"representative" list, based on the kinds of calls or reports they
typically receive. Indeed, respondents were specifically cautioned
against providing only the most serious acts of violence. In
addition, verbal disputes with no serious threatening aspect were
eliminated from the list -- as outside the scope of the survey.

What the Survey Does Not Show

  The incidents in our timeline do not present a census of the
actual amount of violence that occurs in our homes or on our
streets. First, the timeline represents only the incidents reported
to us, not adjudicated complaints. Moreover, only those incidents
reported to the institutions we surveyed were included in the
timeline. Other institutions which women might have reported
violent crimes to -- churches, synagogues, and other groups -- were
not surveyed. Obviously, women who told only friends, family and
relatives or no one at all, were not captured in our survey.
Second, this is not a complete list of even those crimes reported
to the institutions we contacted. Third, we did not contact every
institution which is likely to receive reports of violent crimes
against women.

  Because respondents provided us with "representative" samples,
the timeline cannot be used to predict the actual proportions of
different types of violence, different types of victims, or
different locations of violence. The incidents presented in the
timeline were not selected to represent the actual proportions of
each specific type of violence, each specific type of relationship
between offender and victim, or each specific location of the
violence. They were, however, selected to represent a broad
cross-section of violent crimes against women during one week.
Thus, the timeline presented here, and the stories detailed in it,
are a sample, not a census, of cases of violence against women
during the week of September 1-September 7, 1992.