Napier Press Sociology

Sociology Student Publications

  • Home
  • Buy Books
  • For Teachers
  • Student Activities
    • Book One Activities
    • Book Two Activities
  • Free Student Workbooks
    • Book One Workbooks
    • Book Two Workbooks
  • Book Samples
  • Book Reviews
  • FAQs
  • eBooks
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Families and Households / Couples / Problems with Studying Domestic Violence

Problems with Studying Domestic Violence

March 12, 2014 by John Amy

  • One of the main problems in studying domestic violence is the difficulty of obtaining valid information on the subject.
  • Official police statistics rely on reports they receive from individuals and the recording of these incidents by the police
  • With other methods, such as interviews or self-completed questionnaires, people may refuse to answer, misunderstand the question, lie, exaggerate or forget. The researcher may also misunderstand or misclassify the answers given.
  • It is possible that male researchers may receive different answers from female researchers.
  • There are also difficulties in defining domestic violence in the first place.

Working in small groups, find answers to the following questions:

  1. What problems might there be in defining domestic violence? How would you define it? How might different definitions affect the results of research?
  2. Suggest reasons why domestic violence may be under-reported to the police
  3. Suggest reasons why the police may not record fully all complaints of domestic violence
  4. Suggest some examples of the ways in which interviews might produce invalid results
  5. . Why might a victim of domestic violence respond differently to questions asked by male and female researchers?
  6. Explain what is meant by ‘validity’. How may all these difficulties reduce the validity of a study of domestic violence?

Sociology: Couples Book Reference: AS Level, Page 25

Buy Books

Book One and Two plus Revision Guides

Buy Books

Book One Activities

Activities and questions linked to Book One Sociology

Enter

Book Two Activities

Activities and questions linked to Book Two Sociology

Enter

Shopping Cart

Copyrights © 2021 Napier Press Sociology · Design by Promo