Family Violence in America: Part 2

2 Methods and Methodology

The discussion of domestic violence in this paper is based on the analysis of three qualitative interviews. I contacted the administrator of the website “We are HER,” where she publishes stories written by victims of sexual or domestic abuse, all anonymously. I presented her my topic for this paper and asked if there were any volunteers who would like to talk to me about domestic violence. The administrator reached out to the contributors from the website and eventually gave me three email addresses. I set a date to talk to the three participants individually via Skype, without camera. All of them are from the United States and also currently live there. The interviews lasted between 32 minutes and one hour and four minutes. The interviews were semi-structured, following along a few prepared questions but mostly reacting to the interviewees' stories and descriptions. It was not the intention to present concepts of violence to the interviewees but rather to gather their own accounts. The interviews do not seek for relevant indicators such as age, occupation, ethnicity and gender. The thereby implied theoretical backgrounds are not the issue of this paper and are also unnecessary on such a small scale. There is one factor which this paper cannot mask out, which is that from their names, voices and descriptions I can conclude that all three of the interviewees are women.

The goal of the interviews is to learn about individual cases of violence, people’s situated accounts and experiences.

Because of the emotional aspect of the issue of domestic violence, in-depth interviews can offer a personal and intimate insight into the topic which surveys cannot provide. The goal of the interviews is to learn about individual cases of violence, people’s situated accounts and experiences. Constructions of social explanations are rooted on emphasis, on depth, complexity and roundedness of data, rather than on broad understanding which is gathered in surveys (Mason 65). Adapting to the situation and asking each interviewee different questions gives a fairer and fuller representation of the interviewee’s perspective than quantitative studies. This paper is not concerned with explanations or preventions of violence on a large scale. A small sample of three interviews cannot provide insights like these for it is not representative. It is important here to see the interview in the context of the social interaction in which it is produced (Mason 65). The confidentiality between the interviewer and the interviewees is an aspect that made it easier for them to talk freely and in their own words. The sample for this paper is also very specific. At the point of the interview, the interviewees were no longer in violent and abusive relationships and have started to open up and have written about what had happened to them on the website “We are HER”. Their voluntary participation in this study indicates that they are in a state of mind where they are able to talk about their abuse and have already reflected upon it. This paper relies on the interviewee’s own accounts for answering the questions which they do by using their memory. It is not interested in recreating the objective reality from their accounts but rather to get a glimpse at the interviewee’s perspective on the social relations within the family and the dynamics in violent situations.

The first question is identical in all three interviews and asks for the first memory of violence occurring in the home or between family members. This formulation implies that violence outside of the family is not the point of interest.

The first question is identical in all three interviews and asks for the first memory of violence occurring in the home or between family members. This formulation implies that violence outside of the family is not the point of interest. Asking for the first memory further implies that it could be a long time ago and thereby asks whether violence has already occurred in the childhood of the interviewees. Many studies indicate that violent behavior is a learned response, which the following chapter will discuss. What follows are questions in terms of descriptions of the individual situations in order to gather the interviewee’s own personal narrative. The focus lies on how the violence was carried out and how the parties included or involved in the situation reacted and behaved. Another question prepared beforehand is concerned with any kind of outside help, which means outside the family, and how the victims were able to get out of the violent situations or relationships.Miss the first part of her research? Catch up here.