Though both the UKHLS and the CSEW collect data via face-to-face computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI), the means by which the indicator on physical violence is collected is fairly different in each dataset. The UKHLS directly poses the following question to respondents: “In the last 12 months, have you been physically attacked in any of the places listed on the card? If so, which ones?”. Whereas the CSEW poses a series of screener questions regarding victimisation in the netherlands rcs data past 12 months, after which respondents are asked to provide a detailed account of each incident of victimisation. Trained coders subsequently assess these accounts to determine whether what has been reported by respondents represents a crime and, if so, which one. To determine an equivalent index as that collected in the UKHLS, we combined several offence codes.
Even though the questions are asked differently, the prevalence of violence in the two datasets was very similar at about 2.3% in the UKHLS and 2.1% in the CSEW, shown in table 1. When we look at differences in the prevalence between key demographic groups in figure 1, the UKHLS and CSEW show similar prevalence for men, between age groups, for most ethnic groups and for household income. The UKHLS appears to pick up slightly more violence experienced by women and Asian (British) people compared to the CSEW. Importantly, physical violence is similarly associated with self-rated general health in both data sources. Together, this suggests that the UKHLS’s indicator on physical violence is very similar to the CSEW indicator for physical violence victimisation.