The Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS): Using VACS data to drive programmes and policies

The Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) are nationally representative surveys of males and females aged 13–24 years, designed to measure the burden of sexual, physical, and emotional violence experienced in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. As of 2020, 22 countries have implemented or are implementing a VACS.

Since the first article using VACS data was published in 2009, several peer-reviewed articles have been published on the VACS. However, no publications have analysed the breadth of the work and how the data are represented in the literature. Between 2009 and July 2020, 50 peer-reviewed articles with data from 11 countries were published.