The study deals with the topics of safety and violence in North Rhine-Westphalia. For the first time in North Rhine-Westphalia, it is intended to provide a scientifically sound and comprehensive picture of the phenomenon of violence against women and girls as well as boys and men.

In addition to structural findings on violent crimes from the bright field (crimes known to the police) and dark field (crimes not known to the police), the study will also look at people's feelings of safety in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The citizens' perspective on the topics of security and violence is of interest in order to be able to shape prevention work, victim protection and security work in general in North Rhine-Westphalia in the interests of the population. In addition, the results can provide important insights that can be used in the daily work of the police, for example in patrol duty or in the criminal investigation department.

Another important goal was to gain insights on the basis of which preventive measures and psychosocial support services for women and men affected by violence can be further developed in a targeted manner.

The basis for assessing the crime situation in North Rhine-Westphalia is the Police Crime Statistics (PKS), which are compiled nationwide according to uniform criteria. The PKS records the crimes known to the police, including attempts, as well as the suspects identified. The PKS thus depicts the so-called bright field of criminal offenses, such as violent crime.

However, it can be assumed that there are cases of violence of which the police are not aware (so-called dark field). With the help of the survey, findings from the bright field are supplemented by those from the dark field, so that a more complete picture of the crime situation in North Rhine-Westphalia emerges.

In addition, citizens are surveyed on other topics representative of North Rhine-Westphalia (see "What was the survey about?"), which reflect the perspective of the population and thus provide important insights for comprehensive and needs-based security work in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The survey (technically: victimization survey) dealt with the following topics:

• Attitudes towards crime and feelings of safety
• Frequency of experiences of violence (physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, violence in partnerships, prejudice crime)
• Forms of violence (time of crime, place of crime, context of crime, gender and origin of perpetrators, previous relationship between victims and perpetrators)
• Reporting behavior of victims of violence
• Health and psychological consequences for victims of violence
• Use of and satisfaction with help and support services
• Awareness of and need for help and support services

The Criminalistic-Criminological Research Center of the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia surveyed around 60,000 citizens on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Ministry of Homeland, Municipal Affairs, Building and Gender Equality of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The survey was conducted by the company "infas - Institute for Applied Social Sciences".

The costs for the study amount to around 500,000 euros, which were provided by the Ministry of Regional Identity, Communities and Local Government, Building and Gender Equality of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Yes, the survey was conducted on the basis of an audited data protection concept. The relevant legal provisions were complied with in full.

The survey was anonymous and voluntary, and the complete protection of the data of the interviewees was assured by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Office of Criminal Investigation and the company "infas Institute for Applied Social Science".

A total of 60,002 people from 81 selected North Rhine-Westphalian municipalities over the age of 16 with their main place of residence in North Rhine-Westphalia were surveyed. The 81 (senior) mayors of the municipalities selected for the survey were informed about the study in a letter from Minister Scharrenbach and Minister Reul.

The respondents were selected at random by means of representative sampling at the residents' registration offices of the 81 municipalities.

Citizens were surveyed in the following 81 municipalities:

Aachen, Altena, Bad Berleburg, Bad Driburg, Bad Lippspringe, Bad Salzuflen, Bedburg, Bergisch Gladbach, Bielefeld, Bocholt, Bochum, Bonn, Bottrop, Dörentrup, Dormagen, Dorsten, Dortmund, Duisburg, Dülmen, Düsseldorf, Engelskirchen, Erkelenz, Erkrath, Espelkamp, Essen, Frechen, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Hamm, Hattingen, Hennef (Sieg), Herford, Herne, Jüchen, Kamp-Lintfort, Kevelaer, Kirchlengern, Cologne, Krefeld, Langenberg, Leichlingen, Lennestadt, Leverkusen, Lippstadt, Lüdenscheid, Lünen, Marl, Meinerzhagen, Merzenich, Metelen, Möhnesee, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Münster, Nettetal, Neuss, Oberhausen, Oelde, Paderborn, Pulheim, Radevormwald, Rahden, Recklinghausen, Remscheid, Rheinbach, Rheine, Rietberg, Schwelm, Solingen, Stadtlohn, Steinfurt, Straelen, Sundern (Sauerland), Troisdorf, Velbert, Viersen, Werne, Wesel, Wuppertal, Würselen, Zülpich.

The survey is carried out in writing by post using a comprehensive questionnaire. As a first step, citizens were informed on August 20, 2019 that they had been selected for this study.

Shortly afterwards - at the beginning of September 2019 - people received another letter with the questionnaire and a stamped envelope for returning it. Two weeks later, the respondents received a combined thank-you and reminder letter to thank them for taking part in the survey or to remind them to do so. The survey was completed at the beginning of November 2019.

The selected citizens had the opportunity to call a toll-free number or send an email if they had any questions about the questionnaire or the study. The contact details were communicated to the citizens in the cover letter.

The survey achieved a very good response rate of over 40 percent.

A total of 60,002 North Rhine-Westphalian citizens aged 16 and over were asked to take part in the survey using statistical methods. 3,218 (5.4%) of the 60,002 citizens could not be reached as they had already died, moved abroad or moved within Germany by the time of the survey. The adjusted gross sample therefore comprises 56,784 citizens.

A total of 24,600 questionnaires were returned, of which 24,522 were completed. Of the 24,522 returned questionnaires, 672 cases (2.7%) were excluded for the data analyses. This includes cases in which people stated that they were born before January 1, 2003, i.e. cases in which people completed the questionnaire who could not have been selected in the sampling process due to their young age, as well as cases in which the respondents did not complete 50 percent or more of the questionnaire. The data was analyzed accordingly on the basis of 23,850 cases.

A comprehensive research report on the study was compiled at the Criminalistic-Criminological Research Center of the State Office of Criminal Investigation of North Rhine-Westphalia. It contains findings on the North Rhine-Westphalian population's sense of security, the prevalence and manifestations of violence, the reporting behavior of the North Rhine-Westphalian population and the help and support services available to those affected by violence in North Rhine-Westphalia. The first pages of the research report contain a brief summary of the most important findings.

Further information can be found on the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Municipal Affairs, Building and Digital Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia https://www.mhkbd.nrw/sites/default/files/media/document/file/Forschungsbericht_Studie_Sicherheit_und_Gewalt_in_Nordrhein-Westfalen.pdf.

The questionnaire was sent to a representative sample of 60,002 North Rhine-Westphalian citizens. Response behavior can vary in citizen surveys. For example, women are often more willing to participate than men, older people are more likely to respond than younger people and people with a migration background tend to be underrepresented. Such distortions can be corrected using statistical procedures (data weighting). Where statistically necessary, such data weighting was applied in the analysis.

The results of the study are representative of the North Rhine-Westphalian population in terms of age, gender, school-leaving qualification, professional qualification, employment status, migration background, political location size class and household size.

The citizens surveyed were guaranteed compliance with the statutory data protection provisions. Against this background, it is not possible to carry out a municipality-specific evaluation or to disclose the data to municipalities.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is participating in the study "Security and Crime in Germany" (SKiD). This is a population survey co-financed by the European Union's Internal Security Fund, which will be conducted for the first time in fall 2020 in cooperation between the federal government and the federal states. The survey will address many similar topics.

In a special module, the federal states can select a focus topic for their federal state. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the focus will be on the topic of safety in public spaces and additional questions will be asked.

Further information on this study can be found on the project homepage of the State Office of Criminal Investigation of North Rhine-Westphalia and the project homepage of the Federal Criminal Police Office at: https://www.bka.de/DE/UnsereAufgaben/Forschung/ForschungsprojekteUndErgebnisse/Dunkelfeldforschung/SKiD/skid_node.html.