First, it must be noted what does domestic violence generally includes as a field of research. Usually, it encompasses all areas of violence where the perpetrator(s) and victim(s) belong to the same family or at least to the same household. It does not touch the areas where the violative process happens between distant people or someone not related by family and personal connection in any way.
The main areas of skeptical curiosity making the research possible consist of several aspects. Those are the exact interpretation of what domestic violence encompasses, issues in methods of data collection, and working with the victims of abuse. Despite the general acquaintance of the broad public with domestic abuse, it remains an itchy field of study which needs careful aim to proceed. It is one of the main factors which stimulate the study’s conduction, and among the rest, one can also mention the number of unexplored violence questions yet to be answered.
It is necessary to choose an appropriate type of research so that the study could achieve the most definitive results. Given the areas of skeptical curiosity, exploratory research appears to be a satisfying option. It must rely on the information from other research papers and form a basis for questions and hypotheses to be answered in the future. Since it is unwise to run over the vast amount of issues in the current format of the paper, overviewing the main problems and creating a template for the subsequent studies would be enough.
While using the classification of research questions given by Grinnell, Williams, and Unrau (2019), one can utilize several types to figure out the fundamental questions of skeptical curiosity. The existence and descriptive types would suit well enough for study. The first ones can prove the existence of one or another problem, and the second ones can use the already conducted research regarding some of these problems.
With the types in mind, one can already pick up examples of questions for the defined areas. Firstly, there is a question of the “domestic violence” term’s exact definition since the concept itself consists of several aspects. It can be considered more of a descriptive, because of the multiple researchers elaborating on the term. As such, according to Saltzman, domestic violence relates to forms of violence such as threats, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse (as cited in Edwards, Neal, & Rodenhizer-Stämpfli, 2016). Because of the latter, instead of the “domestic abuse” term, there are several alternatives in social research, an “intimate partner abuse” term considered as the most common. However, researchers also note that “There is no one clear universal definition of DVA [domestic violence and abuse]” (McGarry, & Ali, 2016, p. 468). For this reason, any social researcher should remain careful in interpretation, depending on the situation.
Secondly, one must mention the methods of research issue as several questions of an existing type. Despite the current sociological means to collect and process the necessary data, it might not always be proven correct. For example, in cases of extreme abuse, victims may hide their pain, which affects the gathered amount of data. Thus, it raises the question about data assembling procedures based on the individual approach and reworking the present-day statistics. Moreover, social workers face a similar issue in the methods of prevention or treatment of domestic abuse. Formerly, prevention only used to deploy describing methods which were not exactly helpful, but currently, it has changed the approach into a system based on each of the social groups’ qualities. However, the right path is not always predictable since the dynamics of the groups continuously change. The treatment of abuse has been transformed into comfortable grounds, frequently anonymous or protected from extra attention. However, one more question related to the field would be the following: is it always possible to keep the victims protected? In other words, unnecessary intrusion into personal life must be avoided, but in some cases, social workers must take more bold steps in solving the abuse problem.
Finally, there are additional existence questions regarding the phycological nature of abuse. They are focused on self-realization and consent of the targeted audience, which matter more significantly than one usually thinks. According to FitzPatrick, Elphingston-Jolly, Friend, & Payne (2018), the personality of victims can be split into the Prescribed Self meeting the expectations of the abuser, and the Agentic Self, a hidden but genuine representation of themselves. This information again proves the complexity of domestic abuse as a psychological phenomenon. Hence, the necessity of a more in-depth psychological insight in every case of domestic violence while dealing with them stays intact. Moreover, one also should question if the psychological methods themselves should be often deployed for the treatment of domestic violence.
To sum up, domestic abuse is a complex phenomenon that requires deep insight for further research. Because of this reason, the primary research is focused on exploring the areas of skeptical curiosity through existence and descriptive questions. They revolve around the term’s exact definition, the choice of data collection and prevention methods, and the value of phycological factors. All mentioned methods should heavily depend on the individualities of the audience, its groups, and single persons. If done correctly, it would continue to move the struggle against abuse in the right direction.
References
Edwards, K. M., Neal, A. M., & Rodenhizer-Stämpfli, K. A. (2016). Domestic violence prevention. In Teasdale, B. & Bradley, M. S. (Eds.), Preventing Crime and Violence (pp. 215–227). Springer International Publishing.
FitzPatrick, M., Elphingston-Jolly, B., Friend, L., & Payne, P. (2018). Possessions and self in the identity work of survivors of domestic violence. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29(22), 167-186.
Grinnell, Jr., R., Williams, M. & Unrau, Y. (2019). Research methods for social workers: An introduction (12th ed.). Michigan: Pair Bond Publications.
McGarry, J., & Ali, P. (2016). Researching domestic violence and abuse in healthcare settings: Challenges and issues. Journal of Research in Nursing, 21(5-6), 465–476.