Development and validation of the LoVI: the Laws on Violence against women and girls Index

Kathryn M Yount,Lori Heise,Cari Jo Clark,Lauren Maxwell,Ruchira T Naved,Patricia C Lewis

doi:10.1186/s12914-020-00233-z

Abstract

BackgroundViolence against women and girls (VAWG) is a human-rights violation with adverse long-term and inter-generational consequences. Redefining VAWG as legally unacceptable is one strategy for social change. The co-occurrence of national laws against VAWG is understudied, and tools to monitor the national legal environment are lacking. We developed the Laws on Violence against Women and Girls Index (LoVI) to measure global progress to develop comprehensive national legislation against child marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and marital rape.MethodsUsing data from 2016 and 2018 for 189 countries from the World Bank Women, Business, and the Law database, we used factor analysis to assess the dimensionality of the LoVI. We examined the distribution of the LoVI across countries and regions, and the relationship of national rankings on the LoVI with those for other indicators from the United Nations, Demographic and Health Surveys, and World Factbook.ResultsA single LoVI factor showed good model fit in the factor analysis. National LoVI rankings were positively associated with gender equality in human development and economic rights-related rankings and negatively associated with rates of justifying wife beating and of lifetime and prior-year physical and/or sexual IPV. The LoVI was not associated with national indicators for human development and income inequality.ConclusionThe LoVI is a concise, coherent, validated index to monitor the progress of nations on adopting comprehensive legislation to advance 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 5, to eliminate VAWG.

Highlights

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a human-rights violation with adverse long-term and inter-generational consequences
The LoVI measures the comprehensiveness of national anti-violence legislation with respect to four types of VAWG: child marriage, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence (IPV), and marital rape
National Laws on VAWG LoVI The LoVI was created from four composite indicators that captured the comprehensiveness of national legislation against child marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and marital rape

Summary

Introduction

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a human-rights violation with adverse long-term and inter-generational consequences. We developed the Laws on Violence against Women and Girls Index (LoVI) to measure global progress to develop comprehensive national legislation against child marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and marital rape. The LoVI measures the comprehensiveness of national anti-violence legislation with respect to four types of VAWG: child marriage, sexual harassment, IPV, and marital rape These forms of violence were selected because they exist to varying degrees in all countries and capture risks experienced disproportionately by women and girls. These forms of violence occur at different life stages (childhood and adulthood), in different venues (home, work, and school) and in different types of relationships (intimate partnerships, marriage, and colleague/peer relations). Legislation about these forms of violence capture salient expressions of State opposition to historical forms of male entitlement involving access to, control over, and even ownership of women’s bodies

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