Violence Against Women Online Resources Annual Report :
October 1, 2002 - September 30, 2003

Sarah Peterson
Graduate Assistant
Violence Against Women Online Resources

Publication Date: December 2003

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Funding
• Organizational Structure
• Site Usage
  • User Sessions
  • Hits
  • Most Active Countries
  • Top Ten Documents
• Site Development
• User Profiles and Information Request Statistics
  • Number of Requests per Month
  • Types of Requests
  • Types of Technical Assistance
  • Identity of Requester
• Significant Accomplishments

Executive Summary

Violence Against Women Online Resources (VAWOR) is a web site that provides law, criminal justice, and social service professionals with current information on interventions to stop violence against women. It is a cooperative project between the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA) within the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota and the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice.

Violence Against Women Online Resources offers over 200 full text documents related to sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking. VAWOR staff solicit content for the site from national and international organizations in order to disseminate state-of-the art resource materials for criminal justice professionals, state coalitions, tribal coalitions and victim advocacy groups about effective interventions to violence against women. The site integrates stratified resources into a comprehensive, centralized, user-friendly site that meets the demands of busy professionals who require immediate access to quality resources. Between October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003, VAWOR added 30 new items to the site's Document Library, which contains papers, reports, research findings, curricula, presentations, training manuals and multi-media resources related to violence against women.

Site usage has steadily inclined since its development in 1997. Today, the site averages 1,138 user sessions per day. This was a 3% increase over the previous year when the average number of sessions per day was approximately 1,096. A four-year glance at user sessions demonstrates that the number of user sessions per day has increased 131% since 1999, when the average number of user sessions was 491. Site users primarily come from the United States, however, usage statistics reveal that VAWOR also has an international presence in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Singapore, Germany, and many other countries.

VAWOR also provides individualized technical assistance through its automated web form. More than 450 requests for information were sent to VAWOR staff between October 1, 2002 and September 30, 2003. A variety of people submitted requests for information. Victims, professionals, students, and concerned citizens were all represented in our requester data. In the past year the majority (49%) of requests were identified as technical assistance, such as research and networking, followed by requests for crisis support/advocacy (27%).

VAWOR staff are proud of the increasing usage of the website and the accomplishments achieved in the past year. One of the most significant accomplishments of the 2003-2004 year was the conversion of all VAWOR documents to XML. XML allows for easy representation of documents in many different formats (i.e. plain-text version, PDF, and alternate HTML versions such as pages without images) and the ability to break long documents into many shorter pages from a single file. This conversion will facilitate staff efficiency and greater accessibility for users, especially those with disabilities. Another source of pride for VAWOR staff this past year has been the receipt of a Google grant. This grant enabled the VAWOR website to be more prominently displayed on Google's search engine, increasing VAWOR's visibility on the Web. At the end of this reporting period VAWOR staff received notice that the Google grant would be extended because of the success of the project. VAWOR staff are also pleased to receive support from the Office of Violence Against Women to commission eight authors to develop unique, research manuscripts where a lack of information related to violence against women exists.

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Introduction

This document highlights the activities and achievements of the Violence Against Women Online Resources website during the Federal fiscal year, October 1, 2002 through September 30, 2003. This report describes the project's funding, staffing structure, usage statistics, and new content acquisitions during the report period. It also describes VAWOR's technical assistance activities and provides a summary of significant accomplishments.

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Funding

VAWOR is supported by grant number 98-WT-VX-K001 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

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Organizational Structure

Violence Against Women Online Resources is maintained by approximately 3.3 FTE staff, which include a full-time director, one half-time technical contractor, one-half time Document Development Coordinator, three graduate assistants and an office assistant. The site is advised by a 20-member National Advisory Board comprised of criminal justice, social service, and related professionals. The primary responsibilities of the board are to set topic priorities for the commissioned document project and to review new content for the site.

The following list is a breakdown of VAWOR staff and their responsibilities:

• The Executive Director of the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA), Jeffery Edleson, supervises the Director of Violence Against Women Online Resources.
• Ann Kranz, VAWOR Director, manages the daily operations of the site, including project design, management and staff supervision. She acts as the key liaison to the Office on Violence Against Women and the National Advisory Board.
• Russ Burdick, Internet Systems Designer and Administer, is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the site's mail, web, and database servers. He performs security audits and updates, web programming and administration.
• Jennifer Root, Document Development Coordinator, oversees the VAWOR graduate assistants and office assistant and manages the commissioned document process.
• Sarah Peterson, Graduate Assistant, works as a document development assistant on the commissioned document project and responds to requests for technical assistance received through the site's web form.
• Yukiko Nakajima, Graduate Assistant, works as a coding specialist and supports the project by identifying and obtaining material for the site, coding content into XML and HTML, and entering and updating data into the site's databases.
• Stephanie Kolari, Graduate Assistant, performs coding specialist duties and supports the development of the website.
• Jeanna Christenson, Office Assistant, works with project staff to coordinate correspondence, order supplies, and provide support related to online publishing.

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Site Usage

Since its inception in 1997, Violence Against Women Online Resources has experienced tremendous growth in site usage. The graph below illustrates the growth in the average number of user sessions per day over the past four years. Since 1999 the number of user sessions per day has increased 131% going from 491 sessions in 1999 to 1,138 sessions in 2003. Such data provides insight about how many times per day users conduct a session on the site. A "user"is considered a unique person accessing the site. A user commits "hits"on the site when visiting various pages on the website. Therefore, one user may commit several hits during a single user session. However, because a single person can also perform multiple sessions in a given day, this table does not inform us about the number of unique people accessing the site per day.

The following charts and tables provide detailed information on the site usage for the 2002-2003 reporting period. The average number of user sessions and average number of hits per day are broken down by month. A "hit"can be thought of the number of times the entire site was accessed by users. Information on what countries most utilize the website are provided along with what documents are the most utilized.

User Sessions

The table below illustrates the number of user sessions per day. The average number of sessions per day ranged this reporting period between 785 sessions per day in December 2002 to 1,580 sessions per day in April of 2003. On average, the site experienced approximately 1,138 user sessions per day between October 1, 2002 - September 30, 2003. This was a 3% increase over the previous year when the average number of sessions per day was approximately 1,096.

Hits

As illustrated in the chart below, the average number of hits per day ranged from 6,538 in December 2002 to 25,183 in April 2003. On average, the site received approximately 13,356 hits per day, an increase of 121% from the previous year. During the previous year, the average number of hits per day was 6,056.

Most Active Countries

The chart below represents the top 10 most active countries in terms of total hits during the 2002-2003 reporting period. When looking at the chart it is important to keep in mind that this information is based on where the domain name of the visitor is registered and that the domain name may not always be an accurate identifier of the actual geographic location of the visitor. As seen in the chart below, the majority of user hits (3,932,144), were considered unresolved or unknown because they accessed the site through a .com, .net, or .org address and the origin of the domain name could not be determined. From the origins of the domain names that could be determined, the most hits originated from domain names that were registered in the U.S.

Top Ten Documents

The following charts represent the top ten downloaded PDF documents and the top ten most accessed HTML documents on the site. Some of these documents are available in both PDF and HTML formats, while others are only available in one of these formats.

Notes:

• Successfully Investigating Acquaintance Sexual Assault: A National Training Manual is a comprehensive manual with about 60 parts that can be downloaded separately. When computing the top 10-downloaded PDF documents the parts of the manual were kept separate and one section, Suspect Materials, was the most downloaded document. It should be noted that other sections of the manual were also frequently downloaded and although no other individual section made the top 10, the combined number of downloaded sections reached almost 28,000 making the manual by the National Center for Women and Policing the most consistently downloaded VAWOR document. This was also true of the viewed html documents. Components of the manual were viewed over 16,000 times with the section DNA Evidence and Issues the seventh most viewed document as shown in the table above.
• It is important to note the significance of the number of times "Marital Rape" by Raquel Bergen was accessed. This document has consistently been one of the top 10 downloaded documents for the past four years. Additional statistical data reveals that the document "Marital Rape"is also one of the top exited pages. Since users were accessing this document and immediately exiting the site, this leads us to believe that some users may be seeking material outside the context of technical assistance regarding violence against women and perhaps are instead seeking pornographic material.

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Site Development

Violence Against Women Online Resources houses over 200 full text documents related to sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking. Staff members solicit content for the site from national and international organizations. The site houses papers, reports, research findings, curricula, presentations, training manuals and multi-media resources related to violence against women.

From October 1, 2002 -September 30, 2003, VAWOR added 30 new documents to the website. The documents, all of which were previously published, are listed below:

1. Hidden in the Home: Abuse of Domestic Workers with Special Visas in the United States
2. Broken Rainbow Conference Report 2002
3. Bibliography of Trafficking
4. A Comparative Study of Women Trafficked in the Migration Process: Patterns, Profiles, and Health Consequences of Sexual Exploitation in Five Countries
5. Evaluating Domestic Violence Programs
6. Violence Against Women Online Resources: Overview and Usage October 1, 2001- September 30, 2002
7. The Impact of Violence in the Lives of Working Women: Creating Solutions- Creating Change
8. Women's Experiences of Abuse as a Risk Factor for Incarceration
9. Tell the World What Happened to Men: Findings and Recommendations from Washington State Domestic Violence Fatality Review
10. Honoring Their Lives, Learning from Their Deaths: Findings and Recommendations from the Washington State Domestic Violence Fatality Review
11. Domestic Abuse in Later Life
12. Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
13. Intimate and Caregiver Violence Against Women with Disabilities
14. Working with Victims of Crime with Disabilities
15. Civil Causes of Action for Stalking Victims
16. Stalking Laws and Implementation Practices: A National Review for Policymakers and Practitioners
17. Immigrant and Refugee Power and Control Wheel
18. Victim-Defendants: An Emerging Challenge in Responding to Domestic Violence in Seattle and the King County Region
19. Sexual Violence and Adolescents
20. Raising Public Awareness on Domestic Violence in Indian Country
21. Parenting in the Context of Domestic Violence
22. Innovative Strategies to Address Domestic Violence in Asian and Pacific Islander Communities: Examining Models, Themes, and Interventions
23. Developing Culturally-Relevant Responses to Domestic Abuse: Asha Family Services, Inc.
24. Violence, Pregnancy and Abortion: Issues of Women's Rights and Public Health
25. Swallowing the Hurt: Exploring the Links Between Anorexia, Bulimia, and Violence Against Women and Girls
26. Intersecting Inequalities: Immigrant Women of Colour, Violence and Health Care
27. Increasing Agency Accessibility for People with Disabilities: DV Agency Self-Assessment Guide
28. Suggestions for Starting or Refocusing a Women of Color Caucus
29. Sexual Violence Resource List
30. Sexual Assault in Rural Communities

Commissioned Documents

At the end of this reporting period VAWOR was awarded grant money to commission eight authors to write original documents for Violence Against Women Online Resources. This is the second time the Office on Violence Against Women has awarded VAWOR money to commission authors to develop unique, research manuscripts where a lack of information related to violence against women exists. In the fall of 2003 the VAWOR staff and National Advisory Board started to identify research priorities from which the document topics will be drawn. After identifying the research priorities, VAWOR staff will begin searching for and commissioning authors to develop these original documents. During the document development process, VAWOR staff will work closely with authors and advisory board reviewers to develop these documents, which will be posted to the site within the next year.

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User Profiles and Information Request Statistics

Violence Against Women Online Resources provides individualized technical assistance to site users who submit requests electronically through the site's automated web form. Steps are taken to protect user's safety and to ensure that the user understands the type of service VAWOR provides. Users are educated about the technical assistance VAWOR provides and are encouraged to use the resources listed if they are in need of emergency or direct service. They are also educated about internet safety and privacy and are given questions to think about before proceeding with the web form. In the past year VAWOR has received 458 information requests from people in search of technical assistance, crisis support, advocacy, and other types of information.

The graph below illustrates the decrease in information requests that have occurred over the past two years. In 2001, 696 requests were processed by VAWOR, in 2002 the number of requests received dropped 6% to 655, and this past year VAWOR experienced a 30% decrease in information requests. VAWOR staff view this significant decline in information requests over the past two years as a positive sign that the site is user friendly and users are able to find what they need amongst the steadily increasing number of documents and resources available on the site. It also reflects a success in our efforts to increase user safety and education about our technical assistance service.

The following charts show detailed information about the 458 information requests received this reporting period from October 1, 2002 through September 30, 2003. Data is recorded on each information request received and the charts below provide information regarding the number of requests per month, type of requests, topic of technical assistance and the identity of the requestor.

Number of Requests per Month

The average number of information requests received on a monthly basis in this reporting period was 38. The chart below illustrates the range in the frequency of requests. The fewest requests for information in one month were 25 in December 2002 and the most requests received in a month were 49 in October 2002.

Types of Requests

VAWOR identifies the type of request received as either a (1) solicitation/ad, (2) technical assistance, (3) crisis support, (4) other or (5) undisclosed. These five categories are defined by VAWOR as:

1. Solicitation/Ad: Advertisements, chain letters, press releases, mass (listserv) messages, and announcements.
2. Technical Assistance: Request for information/resources such as article permission, article information, site navigation, grants/funding, organizational information, action alerts, events/training, and other inquiries regarding locating services/information to related to violence against women.
3. Crisis Support/Advocacy: Request for information about supportive/emergency resources for victim/survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking.
4. Other: Requests that do not adequately meet the definition of 1-3 as stated above.
5. Undisclosed: Email that does not clearly state a specific request and does not adequately meet the definition of 1-4 stated above.

As the pie chart below depicts, the majority (49%) of requests were identified as technical assistance in this past year. Requests for crisis support/advocacy, typically sent by primary and secondary victims, represented 27% of the requests received.

Types of Technical Assistance

The category Technical Assistance is further broken down into descriptive types of technical assistance. VAWOR defines these types as:

1. Training: Requests that indicate/reflect interest in locating training, training manuals, creating training manuals/opportunities, or other activities that are associated with training related to violence against women.
2. Research: Requests that are looking for research material, statistics, data, charts, stories, photos, etc. that are to be used for the purposes of publications, research papers, journals, briefs, articles, presentations, seminars, etc.
3. Networking: Requests that indicate interest in becoming connected with other people/organizations with similar interests related to violence against women.
4. Article Information: Requests that indicate they are looking for a particular author of a document, publishing company, organizational publications, additional materials or other inquiries related to articles/documents.
5. Other: Requests that do not adequately meet the definition of 1-4.

As seen in this chart, the majority (71%) of requests for technical assistance are regarding research.

Identity of Requester

For each email request that is received, VAWOR gleans demographic information about the requestor.

1. Concerned Citizen: Requestor does not identify as a primary or secondary victim. Is interested in helping/volunteering/gathering information to work towards ending violence against women.
2. Social Service Professional: Advocates, social workers, day care personnel, counselors.
3. Criminal Justice Professional: Police officers and other members of a police department, judges, attorneys, probation officers, juvenile and adult court administrators, corrections officers, legal advocates.
4. Health Care Professional: Nurses, doctors, paramedics, mental health professionals, health care aides, and therapists.
5. Student: Requestor identifies being a student and/or requesting materials for the purpose of a school paper/project/presentation.
6. Other: Requestor does not adequately meet the definition of the above stated categories (1-7). Including teachers, media and other professions that do not fit into the categories noted above.
7. Undisclosed: The identity of the requestor cannot be determined.

As illustrated by the graph below a variety of people utilized VAWOR technical assistance. The largest category of requestors (27%) is comprised of primary victims (those who experience violence), followed by those consumers who did not disclose their identity (20%), students (20%), and social services professionals (11%).

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Significant Accomplishments

Violence Against Women Online Resources continues to be a highly utilized website that has grown in content and usage in the past year and has enjoyed numerous accomplishments.

• VAWOR user sessions increased 3% this past year with an average of 1,138 user sessions per day.
• Thirty new full text documents were added to the VAWOR library increasing the content of the library to over 200 items.
• VAWOR staff answered over 450 requests for information from people in search of technical assistance, crisis support and advocacy, and other types of information.
• The website was transferred to a new server and all documents were converted to XML, enhancing the site's overall usability and improving access for people with disabilities.
• The VAWOR staff and advisory board started the commissioned document process by identifying areas where a lack of information related to violence against women exists.
• VAWOR was awarded a Goggle Grant increasing the visibility of the site on the web.

VAWOR staff are proud of the many accomplishments over the past year and look forward to the upcoming year with expectations that the site will continue to grow in content and use as VAWOR continues to support professionals in ending violence against women.

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This document was not developed by Violence Against Women Online Resources. The document's author or sponsoring organization granted VAWOR permission for placement on this site. Points of view in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

This web site is a cooperative project of Office on Violence Against Women and Minnesota Center Against Violence & Abuse at the University of Minnesota and is supported by grant number 2004-WT-AX-K075 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

Additional information about this site can be obtained by reading Email us for more information and assistance.

©Copyright 1998-2005 Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA)

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