Costs of domestic violence

Linking and analyzing data from police crime statistics

The feasibility study for this project showed that the actual study could be launched.
On April 2, 2025, KidsToo signed an agreement with the Soziale Arbeit department of the Berner Fachhochschule to carry out the study under the direction of Prof. Dorian Kessler.

The project’s central database is police crime statistics.
Other planned databases cover individuals and households, health, productivity, education, delinquency and social benefits.

Objectives

The objectives of the study are :

  • Establish a typology of domestic violence, taking into account the perpetrator-victim constellation, the frequency of reports within the same couple and the type of offence.
  • Calculate and represent the frequency of certain types of couple events in order to show the frequency of punctual versus continuous forms of procedural violence (e.g. coercive control) with DARVO* strategies and their evolution over time.
  • Carry out cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons of those affected and the reference group for all areas of the study, taking into account the costs of different forms of partner violence.
  • Aggregate the results into a global estimate of the costs of domestic violence in terms of health, productivity, the behavior of children and young people, and access to social benefits.

Results to be published mid-2028

*DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender