Literal question
At any time in your life, as a child or as an adult, has anyone ever forced you in any way to have sexual intercourse or perform any other sexual acts when you did not want to?
Interviewer instructions
Questions DVD22A-DV25B are trying to find out whether the respondent has a history of forced sexual intercourse or sexual acts. No definition of force is being given here-force can include physical force, emotional force or anything else that the respondent considers as force, such as threats to her or her children, etc. What is important is that the respondent believes that she was being forced to have sex or perform sexual acts when she did not want to.
DVD22A and DVD22B are essentially the same question but are worded somewhat differently by marital status of the respondent. DVD22A is asked if the respondent is ever-married or has ever lived with a partner and DVD22B is asked if the respondent has never been married or lived with a man. These questions are very important but difficult. There are three different things that you have to keep in mind when asking either of these questions:
1. The questions are asking not only about sexual intercourse, but also about being forced to do anything sexual. Sexual violence does not always take the form of sexual intercourse. Thus, a woman who has said she has never had sexual intercourse may have been forced to perform other sexual acts against her will which would also be considered sexual violence.
2. The questions are also trying to capture sexual violence that may have occurred when the respondent was a child and not just in the recent past. Childhood sexual abuse is very difficult to capture and respondents sometimes find it difficult to talk about.
3. The term 'forced in any way' is included with the idea that, especially in childhood abuse, the force can take many different forms. For example, it may be in the form of emotional blackmail where the abusing adult may be using the threat of withdrawing their love from the child.
4. Finally, if the respondent seems nervous or looks worried, you must assure her again about the confidentiality of the information she is giving you. Tell her again that anything she says will not be told to anyone and no one will know that she was asked these questions.
When asking DVD22A and DVD22B, remember to word the question correctly for ever-married women as shown in the instruction for DVD16.
DVD22A is for ever-married women: Ever-married women have already been asked about spousal/partner sexual abuse in earlier questions. In this question, they are being asked about sexual abuse by any person other than their current or previous husband/partner. They are being asked to report their experience of any kind of sexual abuse ever in their lifetime, including both childhood and adulthood. DVD22B is for women who have never been married or lived with a man.
Given the complexity of what DVD22A and DV22B are asking and the extreme delicacy of these questions, be careful to word them exactly as is given for both sets of women. Read the questions slowly with the right phrases emphasized. Let the respondent take her time to answer. For DV22A, if the respondent answers YES, skip to DVD23. If the respondent answers NO or refuses to answer, then proceed to the filter DV24A. For DV22B, if the never-married respondent says NO or refuses to answer, skip to DVD24A, otherwise ask DVD23.