Methods for Studying Family Violence

First things first…

What is SOCIOLOGY?? One of the youngest “sciences” Sociological methods have

attempted to re-create the key tenets of natural science methods in the social world:

a. Objectivityb. Generalizabilityc. Repeatability

Gregor Mendle

Discovered the laws of inheritance as they relate to dominant and recessive genes.

He “fudged” his data in order to make a real finding more compelling

This is the reason natural science and social science are based on the principle of objectivity.

Random assignment: the process by which subjects are assigned to their conditions “randomly” rather than based on some quality or characteristic that they have.

Manipulation of the independent variable: In order to isolate the cause of a change, the researcher must be controlling the variation in the independent variable and not

allowing it to vary on its own.

EXPERIMENT

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Control of third variables: allows the researcher to isolate the independent variable they are changing in order to be certain that it is the single cause of

the change in the dependent variable.

How does this pertain to what we are studying??

In order to truly test the intergenerational transmission of violence thesis, social scientists would have to identify hundreds of children at birth

Randomly assign them to a condition—either exposure to violence in childhood or no exposure to violence in childhood

Then track their experiences with violence in adulthood.

This however is not plausible.

Investigate this topic:

Drawing correlation conclusions: indications or evidence that events coexist.

Sampling Interviews and surveys: Face-to-face interviews Qualitative research:

generate descriptive data

An African American woman who was interviewed in North Carolina.

She grew up in a liquor house.

This arrangement usually involves exchange for sex.

“You can’t imagine what it’s like to have to sit on the laps of men when you are a ten year-old. I hadn’t even learned to ride a bike yet.”

Qualitative Techniques

1. ETHNOGRAPHY

Examples related to family violence would include: • Volunteering at a shelter for battered women and

their children and observing the experiences of the women and their children as they attempt to escape the violence

• OR sitting in an emergency room at a local hospital to observe the kinds of injuries that victims of domestic violence or child abuse seek treatment for.

2. OBSERVATIONAL METHODS

Qualitative Data

STRENGTHS

Produced by the subjects themselves rather than their experiences being forced or may not really capture these experiences accurately.

Provide opportunities for researchers to see the violence or to hear about it in the subject’s own voice and interpreted through his or her own framework.

WEAKNESSES

Replicability and generalizability

And of importance to our discussion here is the fact that when the phenomenon itself is strongly shaped by power—in this case gender and age—the biases of the researcher can be even more damaging to the integrity of the study.

HATTERY & SMITH

They conducted an interview with an African American woman who lived in a shelter for

battered women. When she spoke about the violence in her home she looked exclusively at Hattery (white woman) as if Smith (black man) was not in the

room. When she spoke of her neighborhood and described how white people would only come around if they needed drugs she would look

only at Smith. Based on RACE or GENDER

IN THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE

Epistemology refers to “ways of knowing.”

The way we “know” things is significantly shaped by our social location—our place in the world.

EPISTEMOLOGY

Regardless of their individual experiences, women and men have different “ways of knowing” about

sexual abuse and rape. This knowledge is likely to influence

every aspect of the research process, including the choice of

research questions, the selection of subjects, the methods chosen, and

the analysis.

VS

QUANTITATIVE METHODS

Definition: techniques or strategies for collecting numeric data—and usually vast quantities of it—that require statistical techniques in order to analyze it.

Majority of sociological research is survey research

Two types of surveys used to generate data about various forms of family violence: self-report research and crime reports

In the last twelve months has your partner ever hit you with an object?

Yes No

Surveys and Family Violence

Categories of Surveying

(1) Random digit dialing or RDD: combines the survey with computer technology that aids in both the sampling and the administration of the survey.

The survey is loaded into a computer system, and a trained phone interviewer administers the survey to respondents over the telephone

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(2) Generate data on family violence is conducted by government and law enforcement agencies

Bureau of Justice Statistics the government clearinghouse for all data related to crime, the criminal justice system, law enforcement, and corrections, conducts the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) every six months.

Uniform Crime Reports require that all law enforcement agencies send a “report” each month directly to the FBI

STRENGHTS

Standard questions offer the possibility for replication

Allows scholars and policy makers to estimate the prevalence of various types of family violence both overall and in distinct populations.

nonprofit agencies that serve victims

and provide intervention services for offenders rely on these numbers

WEAKNESSES

Numbers tell a different kind of “story” than the stories told by individual men, women, and children.

designed to elicit standard responses to short questions or statements and very rarely include the kinds of questions that will elicit detailed responses.

do not include measures of frequency

Ecological fallacy

SURVEY RESEARCH

CONFLICT TACTICS SCALE The most widely utilized and most

controversial of the large-scale surveys that have been utilized to measure family violence.

Many criticisms on itStudies that rely on the CTS alone, by

failing to distinguish between certain types of violence, frequency, level of injury, and so on, may tend to overestimate situational couple violence and underestimate intimate terrorism