The LeSuBiA study (‘Life Situation, Safety and Stress in Everyday Life’) is a cross-gender population survey on experiences of violence in Germany. A joint project by the BMFSFJ, BMI and BKA, it is the first major German study since the BMFSFJ prevalence study in 2004. What is new is that, as a representative gender-comparative prevalence study, it includes both men and women and focuses on intimate partner violence as well as sexualised and digital forms of violence (other contexts of violence, such as physical and psychological violence in public spaces and the workplace, were not included). Key hopes within professional practice were to be able to trace developments in violence against women over time and to create further foundations for the implementation of the Istanbul Convention.
However, the study has so far only been able to meet these expectations to a limited extent. It lacks a focus on violence against women within gender relations, its social background, and the structural embedding of gender-based violence. This focus is of crucial importance for developing appropriate political measures and prevention strategies. For this reason, the data collected by LeSuBiA must be supplemented by further analyses and qualitative studies that capture, for example, patterns of violence dynamics and the conditions under which they arise.
