APPENDIX OVERVIEW OF CHANGES TO THE CURF
INTRODUCTION
A review of the 2005 Personal Safety Survey (PSS) Expanded Confidentialised Unit Record File (CURF) was undertaken and identified a number of quality issues on the file. A broad description of the issues identified and a list of the main data items impacted are provided below. None of these issues affect the key estimates included in the publication Personal Safety Survey, Australia, 2005 (cat. no. 4906.0).
For CURF users who have previously undertaken analyses on the CURF it is strongly recommended that this work be reviewed to ensure any revisions or changes to the file are taken into account.
The item list below documents the corrections and other changes.
The original CURF, released in December 2006 contained six levels:
- Person level;
- Harassment level;
- Stalking level;
- Violence level;
- Partner level; and
- Abuse level.
The main areas where issues have been identified with the data relate to the:
- Person level;
- Violence level; and
- Stalking level.
OVERVIEW OF CHANGES
The revised CURF contains seven levels:
One of the key changes was splitting the former Violence level into 2 separate levels to create:
- Violence prevalence level; and
- Violence most recent incident level.
This change is hoped to make the CURF easier to use and avoid confusion as to which items to use to extract information about prevalence rates.
A summary of the key changes to items on each level of the revised CURF is provided below. For more detailed information on changes to individual items and new items included on the CURF, please refer to 'Original data item list with revisions noted' in the data item list, which can be accessed via the 'Downloads' page of this publication.
Person level
The main items/groups that were revised on the Person level are:
- Education items for respondent and their partner;
- Hours worked for respondent and their partner;
- Age of partner;
- Country of birth of partner;
- Year of arrival of partner;
- Family composition of household; and
- Income items including quintiles and deciles.
Some items were moved to the Person level:
- Emotional abuse (major revision to item and it has moved from Violence partner level); and
- Whether current partner violent towards others (major revision to item and it has moved from Violence partner level)
Violence prevalence level
The original CURF did not include all information about a person's experience of violence. Where a person experienced more than one incident of a particular type of violence, information was only on the CURF for the respondent's most recent incidents of violence (information about their other experiences of that type of violence was missing). There were 1,066 person records impacted by this error.
In order to present this additional information, the Violence level has been split into two levels - Violence prevalence level and Violence most recent incident level.
The main items that were revised for the Violence prevalence level include:
- Type of perpetrator;
- Knowledge of perpetrator (where 'Other known person' reported as perpetrator type); and
- When most recent incident of violence occurred (this now includes ALL incidents for all respondents).
Items that are no longer included on Violence prevalence level are:
- Whether ever experienced violence (now part of Index items - Sex of perpetrator/Type of violence experienced/Type of perpetrator)
Violence most recent incident level
This new level on the CURF excludes 711 records where the respondent's most recent incident occurred 20 or more years ago (no details for these incidents are collected and the records are not applicable for this level). In addition, other items have been identified for revision.
The main items that were revised include:
- Whether anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced in the 12 months after the most recent incident (a much larger applicable population is included on the revised CURF);
- Whether anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced during the last 12 months as a result of the most recent incident (a much larger applicable population is included on the revised CURF);
- Whether took time off work in the 12 months after the most recent incident;
- Relationship to male perpetrator in most recent incident; and
- How often felt anxiety or fear in the last 12 months (non-partner violence).
Items with less major revisions include:
- Whether services used after the most recent incident;
- Reason(s) for not using crisis services after the most recent incident;
- Reason(s) for not using legal services after the most recent incident;
- Reason(s) for not using financial services after the most recent incident;
- Reason(s) for not using any other support service including a telephone help line after the most recent incident;
- Changes in aspects of life resulting from injuries received and/or anxiety or fear experienced in the 12 months after the most recent incident;
- Changes in aspects of life resulting from anxiety or fear experienced in the 12 months after the most recent incident; and
- Changes in aspects of life resulting from physical injury in the 12 months after the most recent incident.
Items that are no longer included on the Violence most recent incident level are:
- Whether experienced violence more than once (deleted due to conceptual error);
- Whether most recent incident experienced during the last 12 months (now part of Index item - Sex of perpetrator/Type of violence experienced); and
- Whether ever experienced violence (now part of Index item - Type of violence experienced).
New items include:
- How often felt anxiety or fear in the last 12 months (non-partner violence); and
- Contribution of alcohol or drugs to the incident.
Violence partner level
Items that are no longer included on the Violence partner level are:
- Sex of partner (is on Person level);
- Experienced violence by a partner (now part of Index item - Type of violence experienced);
- When most recent incident of violence by a current partner occurred (now part of Index item - Type of violence experienced); and
- When most recent incident of violence by a previous partner occurred (now part of Index item - Type of violence experienced).
Items that were replaced are:
- Experienced anxiety or fear for personal safety during the last 12 months as a result of partner violence - see new item DPOFTER How often (on average) during the last 12 months anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced as a result of partner violence; and
- How often anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced during relationship with previous partner - see new item DPOFTER How often (on average) during the last 12 months anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced as a result of partner violence.
New items include:
- How often (on average) during the relationship violence occurred; and
- Length of relationship with partner before first incident of violence.
Abuse level
Items that are no longer included on the Abuse level are:
- Ever experienced abuse (now part of Index item - Type of abuse experienced).
Harassment level
Items that are no longer included on the Harassment level are:
- Whether ever experienced harassment (now part of Index item - Sex of perpetrator of harassment/Type of harassment experienced).
Stalking level
Items that are no longer included on the Stalking level are:
- Whether stalked (now part of Index item - Sex of perpetrator of stalking).
Items that have undergone major revisions include:
- Type of stalking behaviour in most recent stalking.
Items that have undergone less major revisions include:
- Whether took time off work in the 12 months after most recent stalking.
Items that were replaced include:
- Anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced in the 12 months after most recent stalking - see new item SFREQ12 How often felt anxiety or fear in last 12 months after stalking;
- Anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced during the last 12 months as a result of most recent stalking - see new item SWTHR12 Anxiety or fear for personal safety in last 12 months as a result of most recent incident of stalking; and
- How often (on average) during the last 12 months anxiety or fear for personal safety experienced as a result of most recent stalking - see new item SFREQ12 How often felt anxiety or fear in last 12 months after stalking.
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