The Ontario Rural Woman Abuse Study (ORWAS), final report
APPENDIX B
GUIDE FOR INTERVIEWS WITH SURVIVORS OF WOMAN ABUSE
Step 1: Getting comfortable
Before the interview, be prepared by making sure you have Kleenex handy.
- You have both arrived for the interview, which you are holding in a location where the woman feels comfortable. Before you begin the interview, be sure to take time to:
- Enjoy some small talk, including how the day is going.
- Get coffee or tea for both of you.
- Tell the woman that the interview will last no longer than three hours.
- Find comfortable seating.
- Place your watch where you can monitor the time without being obvious – even better, arrange the seating so that the woman’s back is to a clock that you can see.
Important: If you sense that the woman is uneasy, or if you get the impression that this is not a good day to do the interview, be sure to ask the woman if it would be better to get together another time. If she says yes, reschedule the interview for another day.
Step 2: Reviewing the background information
Be sure to review the following information with the woman you are interviewing:
Go over the project description, including the fact that:
- The study is a project of the Community Abuse Program of Rural Ontario (CAPRO) and the Department of Justice Canada.
- The study is focussing on women in rural areas and small towns who have been out of abusive relationships for a year or more.
- The research information will be returned to all those who participated, if they want it.
Explain that the study and this interview are confidential. Explain that:
- You will keep the woman’s identity secret.
- You will identify the tape only with your name and a number that you will assign to the interview (e.g., “Researcher Jane Smith, Interview #1”).
- The people who will type up the interview from the tapes are professionals. They will remove or change anything that might identify the woman. For example, they will use her first initial instead of her entire name and will do the same with other names and places.
- You will either return the tapes to her or destroy them within three to six months of the interview.
- You will destroy all other documents, such as her consent form, within one year of the interview.
- The only exception to the confidential rule is if the woman discloses information about a child who is 16 or younger and who needs protection from child abuse.
Go over the consent form, being sure to:
- Stress the fact that the woman is participating voluntarily.
- Note that the interview can be stopped at any time.
Confirm the status of the woman’s situation, making sure that:
- The woman is not currently in an abusive relationship.
- She is not a witness in a court case involving past abuse against her.
- She does not anticipate being a witness in a court case involving past abuse against her within the next 12 months.
Answer any questions or concerns about the study that the woman may have.
Step 3: Setting up the recording equipment
Be sure to set up the tape recorder correctly:
- The recorder has a built-in microphone. Make sure the micro-recorder is on a steady surface and is no more than three feet away from you and the woman you are interviewing.
- Make sure the “voice-activated” switch is turned off.
- Select the slower recording speed of 1.2 centimetres.
- Insert a new tape. Each interview should begin with its own new tape.
- Press the record button.
- Test the equipment by speaking your name and the interview number into the microphone and asking the woman you are interviewing to say “testing”. Replay the recorded words to make sure everything is working well.
Step 4: Starting the interview
It is time to start the interview. As an example, you could use the following statement to introduce the topic of your discussion and to get things rolling:
As you know, we are talking to women in rural areas and small towns who have been out of an abusive situation for a year or more. I want to hear your story, especially how you survived abuse and what enabled you to find safety for yourself (and your children). Maybe you’d like to start by telling me about where you are at today.
Topics
In this section, we have listed the broad topics we would like you to cover during the interview, as well as suggested phrasing of questions that you might find helpful for getting at the research themes.
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Naming and recognising “abuse”. | When did you first realise that your husband (or boyfriend) was abusing you?When did you first call it “abuse”? |
| Coping (with danger at home, coping at work, with the children, on the farm, with extended family, friends). | |
| First time the abuse was talked about to anyone other than abusing spouse. | |
| Decision-making around staying or leaving the abusive situation (e.g., financial, housing, fear, community stigma, religious and moral beliefs, etc.). | What kinds of decisions did you have to make about staying or leaving? |
| Who was able to help. | What were some of the little things you were able to do that moved you closer to finding safety? |
| What was helpful, what was not helpful. |
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Concerns for children and how they may have influenced decision-making around staying or leaving. | What kinds of concerns did you have about your children? |
| Issues related to custody and access and child support. | How did those concerns affect your decisions about staying or leaving? |
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Financial reasons for staying in abusive situation. | Did you have financial reasons for staying? |
| Need for information. | Did you need information about finances? |
| Solutions to financial problems. | How did you overcome the financial problems? |
| Issues around income and employment (e.g., job security, farm assets, social assistance). |
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Experience either suggesting subtly or stating outright to a community leader (e.g., minister, priest or rabbi, reeve, councillor, doctor, elder, chief, business leader) about the abuse. | Did you ever try to tell someone prominent in the community (e.g., minister, priest or rabbi, reeve, councillor, doctor, elder, chief, business leader), either outright or by hinting that your husband (or boyfriend) was abusing you? |
| Perception of how community views domestic abuse. | How do you think people in (name of community) look at woman abuse? |
| Suggestions for improving community responses. |
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Accessibility. | |
| Services and interventions that were helpful. | What made some services particularly helpful? |
| Services and interventions that were either not helpful and/or made the situation worse (i.e., more dangerous, more difficult to leave). | Were there any services that were either not helpful or that made things worse for you, by making it more difficult or more dangerous to leave? |
| Confidence in health services with respect to being able to respond to and help women living with violence. | Were you confident that the health services were able to help you? |
| Confidence in social services with respect to being able to respond to and help women living with violence. | Were you confident that the social services were able to help you? |
| Recommend changes. | How would you change the system to better respond to the needs of abused women in your area?If there were one thing you could change, what would it be? |
| Cultural factors. | |
| Need for information: best ways and locations to access information. | How did you get information about what services might be able to help you? |
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Experience with the police. | How did the police get involved and what happened? |
| Experience with/awareness of victims’ services. | Did anyone from “victims’ services” try to contact you? What happened? Had you known that victims’ services existed? |
| Experience with the court system (including crown counsel). | Did you have to go to court? How were you treated? |
| Attempts to secure legal information and/or services of a lawyer. | Did you ever try to find legal information or hire a lawyer? |
| Need for information: best ways and locations to access legal information. | |
| Access to the services of a lawyer. | What would you do if you wanted to hire a lawyer? |
| Confidence in police services with respect to being able to respond to and help women living with violence. | Are you confident that your local police can help women who are being abused? |
| Confidence in the court system with respect to being able to respond to and help women living with violence. | Are you confident that the courts can protect women from abusive partners? |
| Recommend changes. | How would you change the system to better respond to the needs of abused women in your area?If there were one thing you could change, what would it be? |
| Cultural factors. |
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Rural identity. | What do you think is different about living in a rural area (or small town), compared to a city, when a woman is living with abuse? |
| Aspects of rural life that can help a woman living with violence. | In a rural area, what can help a woman living with violence? |
| Aspects of rural life that worsen the situation of a woman living with violence (e.g., transportation, isolation). | In a rural area, are there things that can make a situation for a woman living with violence even worse? |
| Topic Areas | Tips: phrasing of questions |
|---|---|
| Safe ways and places for women living with violence to talk about what is happening to them. | Is there any safe way for women living with violence to talk about what is happening to them? Are there safe places to talk about the violence? |
| Recommendations to women in abusive situations. | If you were going to talk to a woman who was experiencing some of the same things you went through, what would you want to say to her? |
| Anything else that should be raised? | Is there anything else we haven’t discussed that you think should be raised? |
| Age group (18-25, 26-40, 41-55, 56+). | Would you mind telling me which of these age groups applies to you (18-25, 26-40, 41-55, 56 or older)? |
That is the end of the interview.
Step 5: Wrapping up the interview
First, please thank the woman for her participation. To wrap up, be sure to ask the woman if she:
- Wants to receive the tapes of the interview.
- Would be willing to look at the typed text of the interview and make comments.
- Would like to be invited in a couple of months to participate in a discussion about the research findings with other women who were interviewed.
Right after you leave, take some time to record on the interview tape or on a separate tape your own reflections and impressions of the interview. For example, you may want to note:
- Any recurring themes you noticed throughout the interview.
- Common themes with previous interviews.
- How the interview went overall.
- Anything else that comes to mind.
- These reflections will be helpful when we look at the information as a whole and conduct our analysis.
Finally, be sure to remove the last micro-cassette from the tape recorder. Be sure to label all the tapes you used for the interview right away with the following information:
- Your name.
- The date and time.
- The interview number.
- Date modified: