As public consciousness of violence against women has grown over the past 50 years, NIJ research has played a large role in understanding the forms this violence takes and shaping the justice system's response.
This article — part of a special issue of the NIJ Journal commemorating the Institute's 50th anniversary — narrates the history of NIJ's portfolio of research on violence against women.
Beginning with the 1984 Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment, the article traces NIJ's research through the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 and the Institute's partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2000 to conduct the National Violence Against Women Survey.
More recently, NIJ's work has focused on intimate partner violence, special populations such as teens and American Indian and Alaska Native women, and sexual assault.
