Unstructured interviews

Question 1

Definition

Answer 1

Unstructured interviews are generally regarded as a verbal conversation between the researcher and the participant, normally face-to-face. The researcher does not use a structured list of questions or detailed list of areas for investigation and discussion, but the interview is open ended around the broad topic area.

Question 2

The Islington Crime Survey

Answer 2

The Islington Crime Survey (ICS) carried out by the Left Realist sociologists Lea and Young used sympathetic unstructured interviewing techniques. They asked victims living in inner London about serious crime such as sexual assault, domestic violence and racial attacks and found that a full third of all households had been touched by serious crime in the previous twelve months.
Ability to gain empathy and insight, achieving an understanding through asking questions and responding to answers.

Question 3

Dobash and Dobash

Answer 3

The first victim survey carried out into domestic violence was conducted by the husband and wife team of Dobash and Dobash in Scotland in 1980. Their two female researchers carried out 109 unstructured interviews with women who had had experience of such violence – 42 of the women were living or had been living in a women’s refuge.
•The interaction between the participant and the interviewer allows for richer, more valid data. This is because the interviewer can ask follow up questions