Criminological Research Topics Aims And Rationale Social Work Essay
The case of Sabina Akthar is a tragic case, which shows negligence of the Crown Prosecution Service(CPS). Sabina Akthar and Malik Mannan had married through arrange marriage in Bangladesh. When Akthar found out that her husband had a mistress, problems occurred in their marriage. Akthar had faced domestic violence from her husband and as result made complaints to the police. Mannan was arrested and about a month later he was released on bail. Mannan’s bail conditions included clauses such as; he was not to contact his wife or visit her home. After Mannan had broken his bail conditions on several instances he was re-arrested. However on this occasion he was released without charge and also his bail order was dropped. After Mannan was released he carried on sending Akthar text messages in which he threatened to kill her. Few days after these messages Mannan had stabbed Akthar from her heart, which caused Akthar’s death. After the young woman’s death the Crown Prosecutions Service accepted that they were negligent in the way they have handled the case and apologised to Sabina Akthar’s family (Guardian 2009).
The British Crime Survey’s (BCS) measurement of the culture effect on domestic violence is different to the police statistics. According to statistics the culture effect on domestic violence plays an important role here.
The aim of my research is to define how culture has an effect on domestic violence in the United Kingdom amongst the white ethnicity. Due to the experience I have gained through volunteering in the Coventry Refugee Centre I have gained knowledge about different countries and the cultures those countries have.
In the United Kingdom victims of domestic violence are mainly women and children. For many women their home is where they suffer abuse at hands of somebody who is really close to them. Most victims of domestic violence face long term physical and psychological damages. The person who abuses them does not give them any chance to make their own decision; therefore after a while some victims believe that there is no way out of their sufferings and gives up on trying to escape.
This research seeks to determine the impact of cultural effect on domestic violence in women and children in United Kingdom.
Key literature
Domestic violence also known and expressed as fie beating or intimate partner violence usually coexists with child abuse about half of the time (Hamel. J, Tonia L. Nicholls 2007). Husbands who beat their wives are much likely to apply for permanent residence for their undocumented wives than husbands who do not beat their wives. Therefore immigration status appears to be another way in which abusive husbands control their wives in the UK. Abusive husbands often threaten their wives with deportation if they do not comply with the husband’s wishes. Frequently undocumented abused wives are afraid to cooperate with child protection authorities for fear that their husbands might retaliate by turning them into immigration authorities. Women who cooperate with investigations of child abuse and or domestic violence have unusually good access to legal permanent residency but they are unlikely to be aware of this. Battered immigrant women face several impediments to seeking protection and services. These impediments including language barriers, negative perceptions of the law enforcement and legal system, fear of deportation, cultural and religious issues and discrimination (Gabriel 1994).
When it comes to the culture effect on domestic violence Uganda has the highest crime rates of domestic violence, 41 % of women reported being beaten or physically harmed by their husbands. This can be related to the economic factors and conditions as well as different life styles and cultural variation in Uganda.
According to the statistic the media has been considered one of many contributing factors in domestic violence. It has been criticized for its portrayal of violence in movies, television and printed form resulting in the desensitization of people with regard to their tolerance of violence. On the other hand the media has also been used as a modern communication tool in increasing public awareness of domestic violence and increasing support for ongoing research, funding education and prevention and treatment programs and support for improvement in the laws the criminal justice system and the public policy.
The impact of income inequality and social structure may also create more domestic violence towards women. Men’s unemployment or part time employment has been associated with increased rates of domestic violence. (Natalie, Sokoloff and Pratt 2005). Recent study found that unemployment was a significant predictor of violence. This suggests some men might perceive employment as a critical component of their masculine identity and resort to violence as an effort to regain lost status.
Some studies report that middle class Asian women are more likely to experience domestic violence than white middle class women among some ethnic and racial minority groups are attributable in part to poverty. Some research has suggested that the discrepancy between employment and income places women at risk. When women earn more than men or have a higher education qualification and employment skills, many men feel psychologically threatened and some use violence to reassert power in their relationship.
Many immigrants coming to England to find a better life to live for themselves and for their children but the barriers the immigrant face are really tremendous. New culture that they face as well as language barriers their husbands take advantage of this and start intimating their partner’s that their husbands may report their views to the UK immigrations service. Different countries and cultures may have their own values and attitudes toward a woman place family, marriage, sex roles and divorce and women may not notice that the domestic violence is against the law they may not know that they have the legal option to end the abusive relationship.
Domestic violence can occur in families from all cultural and ethnic group and beliefs and intervention policies and practices in treating battered women should accommodate their diverse cultural backgrounds. The British Crime Survey statistics shows that one in five women has experienced domestic violence in their lifestyle and many of these women ended their relationship because of abusive relationship. . According to the survey shows that woman chose to stay in abusive relationship because of fear if the women attempts to leave they will be tracked down and beaten or killed because of this the most women think that any prison time would be temporary and the subsequent and consequences even worse.
Methodology
My research approach will reflect a subjectivism. I believe this perspective is most appropriate for my investigation because people got their own ideas and it will be in subjectivism way the result that I will get in the end it will not be based on one interview. My methodology will be based on interviews, qualitative, subjectivism and interpretivism. Every interview that I will do will have different view and different ideas in it.
I will be dealing with human views rather than materials. In order to finish my dissertation I need to understand how women are expected to behave within different cultures, believes and religions. For example as I have spent two years at the Coventry Refugee Centre as an interpreter and a case worker this has given me a good knowledge about diverse people and I understand their opinions and feelings. Therefore I believe the experience that I have gained within that work environment will be very helpful to me while I am conducting my interviews.
To update my literal review I will also use secondary data. As my secondary data resources I will use books and contemporary articles. This will enable me to widen my knowledge and understanding of the general theory aspects on culture effect on domestic violence. I will also get some help from the Coventry Refugee Centre by going on their websites and also by speak to them face to face when needed. This secondary data will help me to design the interview questions in order to get the best answers.
For my research I will also do face to face semi-structured interviews to understand the effect of culture on domestic violence. I will also use internet searches. I have applied to volunteer within the victim support scheme. I am hoping that the experience I will gain from this work placement will give me the opportunity to find out more information about victims of domestic violence which will help to finish my dissertation. I will do some interpretivisim to assess the meaning of domestic violence. This will provide me a good feedback about the domestic violence and the trust in the police and Criminal Justice System. These questioners will provide me some quantitative data. In order to get answers that are representative and non-biased these questioners will be given to randomly selected women.
The qualitative result that I have gained from the interviews will be used in two ways. First of all I will compare them to the secondary data which is the theory aspect of the research. Secondly I will compare the questionnaire results (practice). Through comparing these data I will examine the views on domestic violence. As the results that are gained through the interviews will be qualitative, which means these statistics will give me an opportunity to analyses the results in order to create some charts, graphs and pies. As I worked as an interpreter and a case worker at the Coventry Refugee Centre it is easy for me to access into the centre and get the support that I need. I have decided to choose my participant through my work experience place, because my topic is based on culture effect on domestic violence and there are many women who been victims of domestic violence in their home countries. I will hopefully do my interview at the Refugee centre and I will inform my participants that everything that they say throughout the interview will be confidential and that no one will be allowed to see the answers that they have given in the questionnaires. However there are some difficulties to do this interview for example some of the participants may not speak English. Therefore I will also try to arrange an interpreter for them where needed in order to finish my research proposal.
Ethnical issues
Researching about domestic violence is not easy. While I am doing my research there are several ethical issues which I need to pay close attention to not to cause further distress to the participants. For example some question may cause distress to participants if they are asked in a certain way. Therefore I will need to design my questions in a way which my participants will not feel uncomfortable to answer them. Conducting a research on domestic violence might be a stressful investigation. This is because the topic is a very sensitive topic as it is not psychologically easy for people to talk about their tragic experiences. Therefore this study might cause potential or further pain and harm to the individual who have or still experiencing abuse by reminding them events that they do not wish to remember. It may also expose incriminating information and expose individual to risk. Consequently I need to be fully prepared to deal with the likely effects of the research. For example the effects of my research on participants on their families and on the researchers themselves (conduction such research may be distressing) may be defeated by a debriefing session at the end of the research. In this debriefing session participants will be able to speak to professional psychiatrists about their experience within the research. During this session participants can discuss any particular concerns they have about the research.
Another example of a sensitive issue is false memory and recovered memory. This is a debate which has been going on over the past 20 years. A famous memory psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has written about the validity of recovered memories of childhood abuse. According o Loftus’s studies these memories commonly come to light only after therapeutic sessions with people who use techniques such as guided imagery to explore early life experience. This domestic violence research is socially sensitive because there are potential consequences for people who have claimed to have recovered memories and for their families. Therefore to complete my research I need to consider including some ethnical guidelines document. I will sign this document and included in my proposal to state that I have tried to deal with ethical issues as best as I could.
Also the questions that I will ask during the interview have to be approved by my tutor. I will also ask my participants to sign a consent form which will state that the interviews done are totally confidentially and that they are willing to take part in this research. Data that will be collected through the interviews will be confidential therefore I will be keeping this data with me at all times until my research is complete and I will not let anyone else to see it.
I will be dealing with woman with cultural views, being sensitive to other cultures is easier said than done. Cultural sensitivity has nothing to with the art and music of a culture and almost everything to do with respect, shared decision making and effective communication. Too often researches ignore these values, the life style and the cognitive and affective world of the subject. soz jus on the phone to ma man. bu ma cwk is on my laptop n im on my pc bu jus write bou wha research method u gna use like for mine im doin case stdies n interviews n lyk u gta say whether u gna use qualitative method or quantitative methods n why u using those methods das it reallyysoz jus on the phone to ma man. bu ma cwk is on my laptop n im on my pc bu jus write bou wha research method u gna use like for mine im doin case stdies n interviews n lyk u gta say whether u gna use qualitative method or quantitative methods n why u using those methods das it really
Reflection
I have learnt too many things about the research method and technique that are used in it. Having completed this research that is based on culture effect on domestic violence improved my argument skills in a paper. Through using and collecting data and with example of statistics my arguments have become much better than how it was used to be.
My researching skills also improved in a positive way during this research proposal. In previous researches for my study I used to get stuck on how to gather information but now I am able to use largely different resources I can now understand the topic more widely and it also helps me to make a better argument. In my opinion this research is my best research paper that I have done in my life. The grade that I will get for it might not show a good grade but what I learned from it will benefit me for my future researches. I spent about two days just for doing the actual research. It will be useful for the next year when it come to the dissertation by using these new techniques that I have learnt from this research proposal, hopefully then I will be able to put my points across more effectively and clearly. How to write a research proposal will benefit me in future lessons in my life. Due to the experience that I have gained while preparing this proposal I will be able to give good examples about the topics that I will be preparing a proposal for in my future academic life. I will also be able to give and create a better arguments and counter-arguments in my future research proposal.
To do my dissertation I have to stay focus on my chosen topic in order to complete it by using different skills that I have learned from this research proposal.
