This website describes a measurement device that I created for intimate partner violence (IPV) that addresses the flaws that exist in current devices. The device is designed to measure IPV perpetration and victimization as well as childhood exposure to IPV, but we will only discuss the first two aspects here.

Intimate partner violence, or IPV, is defined as “physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression (including coercive tactics) by a current or former intimate partner” (Breiding et al. 2015:11).

This statistic is deeply concerning yet flawed due to insufficient measurement techniques. Click the arrows below to learn more.

This statistic does not consider:

IPV causes significant harm to victims and society as a whole. To come up with successful early intervention and prevention strategies for IPV, of which there are few, we need to understand how and why people become involved in abuse. Precise measurement for IPV is essential to developing this understanding.

Consider a person with a medical disease. A disease must be accurately diagnosed before treatment, but successful diagnosis requires precise measurement of the underlying symptoms.

If we do not measure enough of the correct symptoms, especially those that can appear early in the disease's progression, we will fail to diagnose the disease, meaning it will go untreated and continue to worsen until it completely overtakes the host.

We can view IPV as a "disease" for which we must accurately measure its symptoms (such as psychological abuse) to be able to identify it early enough to implement successful interventions.

To accurately measure IPV, we must use a device that measures all of its symptoms and can be used in the entire population.

First, we must examine the flaws in current measurement devices for IPV.