31 Domestic Violence Survey Questions for Research & Support
Explore 25 domestic violence survey questions, including examples on safety, support, and awareness, to help shape a sensitive, effective survey.
When you ask thoughtful domestic violence survey questions, you can help identify patterns of abuse, understand support needs, and inform prevention. Good questions do more than fill boxes.
Domestic violence can include physical, sexual, psychological, financial, and technology-facilitated abuse, so your domestic abuse questions should look beyond visible injuries.
Here’s the thing: research surveys explore experiences and trends, while professional screening and domestic violence assessment questions serve different purposes, including identifying concerns and evaluating risk. Whatever your setting, keep participation voluntary, protect privacy, and make sure people can respond safely, including choosing not to answer. An online survey tool can help you create and share research surveys.
1. Domestic Violence Screening Questions for Initial Identification
Sample questions
“In the past 12 months, have you felt afraid of a current or former partner?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner threatened to hurt you or someone you care about?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner tried to control whom you see or where you go?”
“Would you like information about confidential support services?”
These illustrative domestic violence screening questions are conversation starters, not a validated screening instrument or diagnostic tool. Think invitation, not pop quiz.
For clinical screening, you need established, population-appropriate tools and trained staff, rather than an improvised set of domestic abuse questions. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Ask domestic violence questions only when privacy is reasonably assured, never with a partner present. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Include “Prefer not to answer,” and explain confidentiality limits before collecting disclosures. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Do not add immediate-danger questions unless you have a defined, appropriately staffed response process. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Why & When to Use
You can use brief screening to open a confidential conversation in appropriate healthcare or support settings where follow-up support is available. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Here’s the thing: a negative response does not rule out abuse, because screening can miss experiences and people may not feel safe disclosing. (uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org)
Initial identification is only a starting point, not the comprehensive exploration of experiences, risks, and needs covered by domestic violence assessment questions. (nationalacademies.org)
A 2025 systematic review found domestic violence screening tools’ sensitivity ranged from 26%–87% across nine studies involving 9,800 women (source).
How to create a domestic violence survey with HeySurvey
1. Start a new survey.
Click the template button below to open a ready-made survey. You can begin without an account, then edit the survey name and wording in the editor. Before sharing, consider whether collecting names, email addresses, or other identifying details is truly necessary.
2. Add and review questions.
Edit the template questions or click Add Question to create your own. Use choice questions for structured answers and text questions for optional written responses. Keep questions clear, respectful, and nonjudgmental; let respondents skip sensitive questions where possible. Add a brief introduction explaining the survey’s purpose, who will see responses, and that participation is voluntary. Avoid promising anonymity or confidentiality unless you can ensure it. Use Preview to check the survey and its flow.
3. Publish the survey.
When the survey is ready, click Publish. You’ll need a HeySurvey account to publish and access responses. Copy the shareable link and distribute it carefully. For a sensitive topic, provide a discreet way to exit and include locally relevant support resources, while reminding respondents to answer only when it feels safe to do so. Create your survey with an online survey tool.
2. Physical and Sexual Domestic Abuse Survey Questions
Sample questions
“In the past 12 months, has a current or former partner pushed, slapped, hit, or kicked you?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner thrown an object at you that could cause harm?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner pressured you into sexual activity you did not want?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner used force or threats to make you participate in sexual activity?”
Use behavior-specific domestic abuse questions instead of asking only, “Have you been abused?” Your domestic violence questions should describe experiences, not make respondents decode labels. (cdc.gov)
Keep physical violence, sexual coercion, and forced sexual activity separate. (cdc.gov)
Keep the 12-month timeframe and define frequency options, such as “Never,” “Once,” “2–5 times,” and “6 or more times.” (who.int)
Make sensitive items skippable; avoid requesting graphic descriptions. (who.int)
Plus, surveys involving children require specialized safeguarding and consent or assent procedures, not simply shorter questions. (unicef.org)
Why & When to Use
You can use a domestic violence survey to estimate prevalence and frequency; separate categories reveal patterns one broad question can hide. (cdc.gov)
When comparing studies, choose validated measures rather than treating these illustrative domestic violence assessment questions as a ready-made instrument. No need to reinvent the questionnaire wheel. (who.int)
CDC reports that behavior-specific domestic violence questions support reliable reporting without requiring respondents to label experiences as abuse. (cdc.gov) Source
3. Emotional Abuse and Coercive Control Survey Questions
Sample questions
“In the past 12 months, has a partner repeatedly insulted or humiliated you?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner tried to stop you from seeing friends or family?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner threatened to harm a pet to influence your behavior?”
“In the past 12 months, have you changed your behavior because you feared a partner’s reaction?”
Use these domestic violence questions to explore patterns of intimidation, isolation, and restriction, rather than treating ordinary relationship disagreements as abuse. (stacks.cdc.gov)
When drafting domestic abuse questions, keep your wording concrete, not “toxic.” Your questionnaire needs specifics, not a vocabulary quiz.
Add follow-ups about frequency, fear, and effects on everyday choices to your domestic violence assessment questions. (ptsd.va.gov)
Avoid wording that suggests respondents caused a partner’s behavior.
Use “partner” without assuming gender, sexual orientation, marriage, or monogamy.
Why & When to Use
You can use these domestic violence screening questions to explore nonphysical abuse that physical-violence-only questionnaires may miss. Psychological abuse can occur without physical or sexual violence. (ptsd.va.gov)
Plus, your domestic violence survey can examine how controlling behaviors restrict independence and access to friends, family, transportation, or money, rather than simply counting arguments. (stacks.cdc.gov)
4. Financial Abuse and Technology-Facilitated Abuse Questions
Sample questions
“In the past 12 months, has a partner prevented you from accessing money needed for essentials?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner interfered with your ability to work or study?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner created debt in your name without your agreement?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner accessed your accounts or messages without your freely given agreement?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner used location tracking to monitor you against your wishes?”
Your domestic violence questions should distinguish freely given agreement from coercion: shared finances or digital access alone do not establish abuse. (thehotline.org)
Keep employment interference, restricted resources, unauthorized debt, and unwanted monitoring separate in your domestic violence assessment questions. Each addresses a different behavior. (thehotline.org)
Before sending a domestic violence survey, consider whether shared devices, account access, or notifications could expose participation. (techsafety.org)
Keep your domestic abuse questions focused on experiences, not account details, passwords, device identifiers, or unnecessary financial information. You’re creating a questionnaire, not conducting a financial audit.
Why & When to Use
Use these questions to understand barriers to financial independence and digital privacy. (techsafety.org)
Plus, use findings to guide offers of economic assistance, employment support, and specialist technology-safety services, based on respondents’ preferences. (dfpi.ca.gov)
Among 93 women with abusive partners, changes in economic abuse significantly predicted changes in financial resources over four months (source).
5. Domestic Violence Impact, Help-Seeking, and Support Needs Questions
Sample questions
“In the past 12 months, how have a partner’s behaviors affected your ability to work or study?”
“Have concerns about a partner’s behavior affected your access to healthcare?”
“Have you wanted support related to a partner’s behavior but been unable to obtain it?”
“What has made getting support difficult? Select all that apply.”
“Which types of support, if any, would you find useful?”
Your domestic violence questions should focus on respondents’ needs and choices, not assumptions about what help they should want.
Keep domestic violence assessment questions specific: use separate items for health, housing, employment, childcare, accessibility, and financial consequences where needed.
Offer barrier options such as cost, transport, privacy concerns, language access, and fear of consequences.
Include “No support wanted,” “Not applicable,” and “Prefer not to answer” wherever relevant.
Provide general resource information without requiring contact details. Your questionnaire should open doors, not add paperwork hurdles.
Keep domestic abuse questions free of blame: avoid “Why didn’t you leave?” and wording that makes survivors responsible for another person’s behavior.
Why & When to Use
Use these questions for service planning, needs assessments, and program improvement.
Plus, findings can highlight gaps between available services and respondents’ priorities, helping you identify where access, support options, or delivery could improve.
6. Community Awareness and Domestic Violence Prevention Research Questions
Sample questions
“Which of the following behaviors do you recognize as possible forms of domestic abuse?”
“How confident are you that you could find confidential domestic violence support locally?”
“What might prevent someone in your community from seeking support?”
“How confident are you that you could respond supportively if someone disclosed abuse?”
“Which prevention topics would be most useful in your community?”
Your participant-facing domestic violence questions should use everyday language, while broader research questions about domestic violence guide your analysis, such as “What barriers limit awareness of local services?”
Keep knowledge, attitudes, service awareness, and prevention priorities separate in your domestic violence survey.
Write domestic abuse questions without suggesting abuse affects only certain communities.
For knowledge questions, provide accurate educational explanations after respondents answer, without shaming mistakes. You’re supporting learning, not hosting a surprise pop quiz.
Explain sampling limitations before comparing demographic groups, including who your survey may have missed.
Plus, keep community-awareness items distinct from personal domestic violence assessment questions so respondents understand what you’re asking.
Why & When to Use
Use these questionnaires on domestic violence for community needs assessments and prevention-program evaluation.
Awareness surveys tell you about understanding and priorities, not abuse prevalence, unless they include appropriate experience-based questions; sampling also affects how broadly you can apply findings.
7. Best Practices for Writing and Administering Domestic Violence Surveys
Sample questions
“Is it safe for you to answer these questions privately right now?”
“In the past 12 months, has a partner stopped you from contacting friends?”
Your domestic violence questions should put safety and choice first. Keep domestic abuse questions clear: nobody needs a sentence-shaped obstacle course.
Dos
Explain your purpose, audience, voluntary participation, intended data use, privacy protections, access permissions, and confidentiality or reporting limits.
Use plain, behavior-specific domestic violence assessment questions with consistent timeframes and one concept per item.
Offer suitable response scales and options to skip or stop.
Minimize identifying data; establish secure access, retention, and deletion procedures.
Involve qualified domestic violence specialists and fairly compensate survivor advisers.
Pilot for clarity, accessibility, cultural relevance, and distress; seek applicable ethics review and plan safeguarding before recruitment.
Provide local support information without promising help your survey cannot deliver.
Don’ts
Administer surveys where an abusive person could observe answers.
Promise anonymity when identifiers or metadata could reveal respondents.
Pressure anyone to disclose, report, leave, or accept services.
Use leading, blaming, graphic, or double-barreled questions.
Present custom domestic violence assessment questions as validated risk scoring.
Collect detailed incident narratives without necessity and ethical justification.
Send identifiable follow-ups without explicit agreement about safe contact.
Why & When to Use
Use these practices before launching any domestic violence survey. Plus, revisit them whenever your audience, delivery method, or data use changes.
8. Turning Domestic Violence Survey Insights Into Action
Sample questions
“Which support services have you needed but been unable to access in the past 12 months?”
“What would make it easier for you to access support safely?”
Your domestic violence questions should lead to safe, practical improvements. Give your findings a job, not just a chart.
Analyze Findings Responsibly
Report response counts, missing answers, recall periods, and sampling limitations.
Never treat skipped domestic abuse questions as evidence that abuse did not occur.
Suppress small-group results and potentially identifying details in published findings.
Keep prevalence, service needs, and community attitudes separate rather than combining them into an unsupported score.
Translate Findings Into Practical Improvements
Map support gaps to specific actions, responsible teams, and realistic timelines.
Prioritize language access, confidential referrals, financial assistance, and staff training according to identified needs.
Review interpretations with qualified specialists and survivor advisers without exposing respondents.
Track service-access improvements and use ethically designed follow-up surveys, not unnecessary repeat disclosures.
Why & When to Use
Use this approach when reviewing a domestic violence survey or revising domestic violence assessment questions. Plus, revisit your action plan as service needs change.
Close With a Safety-First Takeaway
Effective domestic violence questions serve a clear purpose, protect respondent choice, and lead to useful action.
Before collecting answers, select an appropriate survey type and establish privacy, safeguarding, and response procedures.
Turning Survey Insights Into Action
Good data should do more than sit in a spreadsheet looking important.
Why & When to Use
Use this closing section when you want to show how domestic violence questions lead to real-world decisions, not just a final report.
The true value of a domestic violence survey shows up after analysis, when findings shape services, policy, staff training, prevention work, and survivor-centered support.
Here’s the thing: strong domestic violence assessment questions are only half the job.
You also need a practical plan for what happens next, so the results improve safety, access, and support instead of collecting digital dust.
A useful way to organize findings is by theme:
Screening findings that show who is being identified and who is being missed
Risk findings that point to urgent safety concerns or referral needs
Impact findings that reveal health, housing, work, school, or emotional effects
Service-gap findings that highlight barriers in systems meant to help
Plus, this structure makes domestic violence survey results easier to act on.
From there, translate the data into next steps like program updates, training priorities, and outreach strategies for groups facing the biggest barriers.
On top of that, report sensitive findings carefully, using privacy-safe summaries and cautious interpretation.
The best questionnaires on domestic violence do not stop at better research questions about domestic violence.
They help you build safer, smarter, more responsive intervention.
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