Domestic Violence & Abuse Research

Okasha (2002) states that philosophy of science is the application of philosophical thought to the character of scientific investigations and the knowledge that results from these investigations. The concerns of this branch of philosophy are said to include: the goals of science, how it operates, its relationship to society, the difference between science and other activities, whether scientific methods justify the conclusions that are based upon it, the attributes of a scientific investigation, the connection of theory to science, and the efficacy and validity of its general concepts and assumptions.

The primary concern of this study is the philosophy of science as it relates to the scientific method, particularly to scientific methods used in the criminology and criminal justice system. For example, a substantial area of the criminology research concerns domestic violence (Siegel, 2002). The question can be asked: What insights do philosophy of science provide concerning the general methods used in criminological research and in the investigation of domestic violence and abuse in particular? The purpose of this paper is to provide an answer to this question.

A good deal of the domestic violence and abuse literature has examined for relationships between abusive behavior and several key sociodemograpics. For example, Weinsheimer, Schermer, Malcoe, Balduf and Bloomfield (2005) examined for associations between alcohol and intimate partner

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ted to the relationship of sociodemographic variables and domestic violence and abuse. These conclusions, according to Vincent and Jouriles (2000) center around the idea that certain sociodemographic variables operate to increase the risk of domestic violence in a family. In other words, they make for a greater probability of domestic violence occurring. Thus, a family in which one or both partners abuse alcohol is more likely to experience domestic violence that a family where alcohol abuse is not present. Application of Philosophy of Science to the Domestic Violence/Abuse Research A key point that can be noted about the just discussed research is that these studies, like all research, are considered searches for credible explanations of observed phenomena (see: Curd & Cover, 1998). But in order for an explanation to be considered credible, the information on which it is based must be derived from methods that allow for confidence in the accuracy of the obtained information (Godfrey-Smith, 2003). In this regard, philosophy of science has pointed out that there are several problematic aspects associated with the scientific method in general and social sciences research (the nature of most criminology research) in particular.

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