Victim-Offender-Mediation in Domestic Violence cases—A Comparison of the Effects of Criminal Law Intervention: the Penal Process and Mediation. Doing Qualitative Research

Authors

  • Christa Pelikan Institut für Rechts- und Kriminalsoziologie

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-3.1.880

Keywords:

victim-offender-mediation, domestic violence, ideal type"-process analysis, triangulation of perspectives, research into intervention and research as intervention

Abstract

Research on the efficacy of criminal law intervention involves social processes and due to its nature, the processes require the use of qualitative methods. It is about processes of change, about development, or fixation and about the influence, various criminal law interventions exert onto these processes. In addition there is the content of the subject matter that is conducive to the application of qualitative methods: violence in intimate relationships constitutes intricate and complex fabrics of power and love, of dependency and sexuality. The instruments of collecting data consisted of observing of criminal processes and mediation procedures that provided access to the parties and the opportunity for intensive talks with men and women as the core piece of research. They were complemented by expert-interviews with judges and mediators. The analysis of the data involved using an "ideal type"-process analysis guided by a triangulation of perspectives as presented by the different actors. The qualitative, "interactive" method of doing research on processes of change calls for continued intervention in criminal policy—something that goes beyond presenting evaluation results. I will present and analyze the difficulties encountered when using this approach. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0201169

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Author Biography

Christa Pelikan, Institut für Rechts- und Kriminalsoziologie

Christa PELIKAN is a researcher at the "Institute for the Sociology of Law and Criminology" in Vienna. She has been doing research in the fields of family law and of criminal law. During the last years her main involvement was with Victim-Offender-Mediation and Restorative Justice and with research projects accompanying the pilot projects introducing these modes of criminal law reactions in Austria.

Published

2002-01-31

How to Cite

Pelikan, C. (2002). Victim-Offender-Mediation in Domestic Violence cases—A Comparison of the Effects of Criminal Law Intervention: the Penal Process and Mediation. Doing Qualitative Research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-3.1.880