Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research

Question: Discuss about the Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. Answer: Introduction: This report was commissioned by the Department of Families, Housing, and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs of the Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault (ACSSA) and undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. Sexual offends towards women in Australia is a pressing issue that require to be addressed by formulating relevant policies that will help in reversing the upward trend of sexual offends to women. However those charged with the responsibility over the same are facing challenges in knowledge of sexual offends due to limited documentation of the vice. This can be attributed to the fact that most of these sexual offences in Australia are not reported to the authorities because most of the perpetrators are people known to the victims and were in position of trust. ACSSA through her Department of Families commissioned the report under review to shade more light and bridge knowledge gab on tactics perpetrators use on women in Australia to offend them sexually. The knowledge gained through the research was for the purposes of sexual o ffence policy development within Australian jurisdiction. What can victim/survivors of sexual assault tell us about the behaviors, strategies and tactics that offenders use to perpetrate sexual offences? How can this knowledge be used to inform policy and practice responses to sexual offending? Summary of qualitative research method The research employed use of qualitative research method in that in-depth interviews were carried out among the victims of the sexual offending. The researcher wanted to know the experience of sexual assault in Australia and what the victims thought were the key facilitators that encouraged or led to the sexual assault. In particular the researcher wanted to know what behaviors, strategies and tactics did the perpetrators exhibited or showed that facilitated/enabled him to carry out the sexual assault. The researcher was not only interested in why the assault occurred but how it occurred. The researcher reviewed exiting literature to inform the approach of the research and definition of relevant themes. In particular the researcher zeroed in on the literature available in the following areas. causes of adult sexual offending; causes and correlates of sexually coercive behavior; and perpetrator strategies and tactics Interviews were carried out among 33 women across Australia selected using ACSSAs electronic communication channels and a number of selected services on sexual assault across Australia. All the participants must have at least received some professional counseling prior to the interview. (Quantitative analysis. By Ray U. Brumblay. Barnes Nobles) Only the victims of the sexual assault were interviewed and precisely women assaulted by men. The interviews were conducted from the month of March to July the year 2009. The interviews that were carried out were converted into written material and analyzed on case by case basis to indentify and point out repeating and key themes. (Lee and Koro-Ljungberg, 2013) Evaluation of the success of the research project The research answered the two research questions that were in place in that the participants highlighted the characteristics of perpetrators of the sexual assault. The group of people exhibited the following characteristics; Controlling, charming, skilled at exploiting people, engaging and talkative. The research found out that these men were people who had a relationship with the victims, colleagues at work or people with whom the victims became recently acquainted with. Most of the perpetrators were people professionally employed or large business owners so you wouldnt say they were people who criminals per se. They showed nice persona and thus acquired trust from the victims that latter the perpetrators abused by sexually offending the women in their company. The research also highlighted context which sexual abuses occurred and strategies perpetrators engaged which were listed as isolating the victim, controlling the situation and finally imposing their desires, intention and vie w of the altercation. (Bell, 2016) The report also highlighted how the research findings can be used for future mitigation prevention and mitigation measures aimed at curbing the vice. The researcher pointed out that there is need to carry out social marketing to educate the mass on the behaviors, strategies and tactics highlighted by the victims that perpetrators use to sexually assault women. It also pointed out that in cases where assault has already been done the victims need to be supported socially and in any other way necessary in order to pull through the ordeal and the perpetrators brought to book. (Mee, 1993) Relevance of data collected Data collected were relevant in that the interviewees come across the country Australia, from the rural to the urban areas and even included women not born in Australia. So the sample was adequately reflective of a normal society in Australia. The questions asked were relevant in that it was fundamental to identify the behaviors, tactics, and strategies that the perpetrators use to carry out sexual assault so that the same can be relayed to the would-be victims for prevention purposes. The method was also relevant as it targeted women who had already passed through some kind of counseling, come from various parts of the country and the women were left to lead the pace of the interview so that no further trauma was caused as a result of the interview. The interviewees confidentiality was kept as no names were mentioned in the report. The data collected was also properly analyzed and clearly presented in the by breaking down nature of perpetrators into numbers against the total number of incidences. For example the research reported that 10 women were assaulted by their husband or partners of the 40 incidences reported. Limitations of the research The researcher pointed out that very view cases of sexual assault are reported by the victims and this leads to narrow target of the research participants. This view is valid in that the limited large sample size leads cases whereby the sample collected from the main occurrence do not adequately reflect the actual picture on the ground. The fact that most literature in place tend to view sexual offending as an abnormal behavior that is either psychiatric or a disorder limits the incorporation of the victims towards finding out the real picture of the sexual offends, as per the researcher view. This argument hold water because not all perpetrators have disorders in fact as pointed out in the report many of these people are known to lead normal life and have no other problem with social setting. This therefore leads to inadequate knowledge from the victims point of view to aid further research on the matter. References Bell, D. (2016). Book Review: Trena M. Paulus, Jessica N. Lester and Paul G. Dempster, Digital Tools for Qualitative ResearchPaulusTrena M.LesterJessica N.DempsterPaul G., Digital Tools for Qualitative Research. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2014. 208 pp. ISBN: 9781446256060 (hbk); 9781446256077 (pbk). Qualitative Research, 16(4), pp.430-480. Donnelly, M. (2010). Book Review: NORMAN DENZIN and MICHAEL GIARDINA (eds), Qualitative Inquiry and Social Justice: Toward a Politics of Hope. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2009. 309 pp. (including index). ISBN 9781598744224 (hbk); ISBN 9781598744231 (pbk). Qualitative Research, 10(3), pp.380-389. Lee, C. and Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2013). Book review: Paul Sullivan, Qualitative Data Analysis Using a Dialogical ApproachSullivanPaul, Qualitative Data Analysis Using a Dialogical Approach. London: Sage, 2012. 189 pp. (including index). ISBN 9781849206099 (hbk) 75.00; 9781849206105 (pbk) 24.99. Qualitative Research, 13(4), pp.430-481. Mee, S. (1993). Research Notes and Comments: Womens Search for a Place in Public Life in Singapore. Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 8(2), pp.250-292. Quantitative analysis. By Ray U. Brumblay. 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