NCJ Number
210315
Date Published
2005
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This chapter illustrates the significance of cultural and ethnic competence in social research through a qualitative and quantitative study of child victims of domestic abuse.
Abstract
Previous research on child victims of domestic violence has largely been based on adults’ interpretations of the impact of this type of violence on children. Moreover, much previous analysis of child victims has been based on White children, completely eschewing not only children’s voices but also eschewing from research attention the non-White population. As such, the study presented in this chapter addressed these research gaps by conducting focused interviews with White children and children of color (mainly of South Asian origin) regarding their knowledge of domestic violence and their experiences of living with domestic violence. Qualitative methods were combined with quantitative methods to give voice to the experiences of children, free from the interpretations of adults. The authors assert that their shared ethnicity with the child research victims gave them an “insider” status with their research subjects, thus enabling them to capture richer data from their interviews. They illustrate through their interviews the way in which their shared understanding of cultural traditions, collective values, and experiences of racism allowed for a deeper and more meaningful rapport among researcher and the “researched.” While the authors claim they are not suggesting that only minority researchers can study minority subjects, they do contend that an awareness of cultural competence and the impact of racism directly affect the quality of research data that can be gathered. Notes, bibliography