Researching Girls and Violence. Facing the Dilemmas of Fieldwork

This paper explores key methodological and analytical issues encountered in an exploratory study of teenage girls' views and experiences of violence, carried out in Scotland. Researching the ways in which girls conceptualize, experience and use violence raises a number of dilemmas due in part to the sensitive nature of the research topic, and the age and gender of those taking part. Drawing on feminist debates about objectivity, the role of the researcher, power relationships in the production of knowledge, and representation, this article highlights the difficulties of adapting such principles to the day-to-day practicalities of conducting empirical research on girls and violence. It shows how the research itself has been enhanced by having to engage with and work through this complexity. 'Violence' and violent behaviour have been conceptualized and researched from a variety of philosophical, sociological, psychological and moral perspectives (Domenach 1981). Although these perspectives inform the ways in which violence is portrayed, evaluated and responded to, there is a common recognition of the gendered patterning of violence. Extreme forms of violence, in particular, are definitively masculine. It is well established that males account for most violence, most homicides, most violent assaults, as well as most forms of violent victimization (Newburn and Stanko 1994). 1 Hence,