As the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, we conduct research to inform policymaking and implementation. This project brief summarizes our research on violence against children and women.

1. PROJECT BRIEF
Violence
against children
and women
How can we effectively
prevent and respond
to violence across the
life course?
©
UNICEF/UN040431/Panjeta

2. Overview
Global estimates suggest that more than half (1 billion)
of the world’s children aged 2–17 experienced physical,
sexual and/or emotional abuse during the past year.
Across their lifetime, 1 in 3 women in the world,
around 736 million, are subjected to physical or sexual
violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence
from a non-partner. And younger women (aged 15-24
years) are at greatest risk. Violence, in any form,
can have devastating consequences to physical and
mental health and negatively impact education and
professional attainment. Exposure to violence early in
life is also linked to later victimization and perpetration
of violence. The experience of violence is shaped by
gender norms and other intersecting characteristics,
including race, disability, poverty and education. But
how can increased knowledge about the interplay
of these risk factors improve efforts to prevent and
respond to violence? And how can we better respond
to the intersections of violence against children and
women across the life course?
Approach
Our work is underpinned by a gender-transformative
approach to preventing and responding to violence,
meaning one that addresses the causes of gender-based
inequalities and works to transform harmful gender roles,
norms and power imbalances. We focus, in particular on:
• Violence against adolescents, including intimate
partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence by any
perpetrator
• Violent discipline of children, including its intersections
with violence against women
1. Buildevidence: Effective policies and programmes
should relyon rigorousevidence – from both administrative
data and population-based studies – collected at regular
intervals.We identify knowledge gaps and support studies
to advanceour understandingof:
• The magnitude, characteristics and consequences of
violence against children and women
• Effective gender-transformative strategies to prevent
and respond to violence against children and women
2. Strengthen networks and capacities:We lead and
support global networks to strengthen capacities for
generating and using knowledge to end violence and
provide technical assistance to UNICEF offices and
external partners.
3.Translate evidence into action:We work to ensure that
evidence informs policies and programs to create positive
and lasting changes in children’s and women’s lives.
Goal
UNICEF Innocenti’s research sheds light on how
entrenched inequalities and harmful norms
compound individuals’ vulnerability to violence.
Only by better understanding the nature, risk and
protective factors can violence be prevented. UNICEF
Innocenti is particularly committed to improving
understanding of, and actions to address the gender
dimensions of violence against children, including its
intersections with violence against women.
Project Highlights
Our work focuses on addressing the gender
dimensions of violence across the life-course.
Different types of violence occur and intersect at
different stages in life, with violence against children
and women often taking place within the same
families and leading to intergenerational cycles of
violence. Innocenti has identified key knowledge
gaps on VAC in low- and middle-income countries
and is currently supporting a number of studies that
will advance our understanding of the intersections
between violence against children and women and
how best to address them, including: co-occurrence
of violent discipline of children and intimate partner
violence against women; risk factors that are shared
across specific types of violence against children
and violence against women; promising and effecti-
ve interventions to jointly prevent violence against
children and against women. This knowledge will be
shared widely and used to collaboratively identify
research priorities and increase coordination of
efforts to address violence against children and
women on the ground.
PROJECT BRIEF
Contact Info
Alessandra Guedes
Manager, Gender and Development Research
aguedes@unicef.org
Violence and COVID-19
COVID-19 containment measures increased risks
of violence against children and women, and
presented considerable obstacles for responding
to survivors. UNICEF Innocenti is using evidence
to raise awareness of the increased risks posed by
the pandemic and advocating for the integration
of efforts to prevent violence against children and
women within governments’ pandemic response
plans. Given the challenges of collecting data on
violence against children and violence against
women in lockdown conditions, we produced
guidance for ethical violence data collection and
alternative and innovative methodologies to assess
the pandemic’s impact on the levels of violence
against children.