Researching gender-based violence (GBV) can be a complicated task. Policymakers often prefer numbers, which are assumed to provide clear evidence of the scale of the problem. But quantitative analyses risk separating this information from its socio-cultural context and the lived experiences of such violence. To make sure that policy responds to survivors’ needs, it is crucial that their experiences are taken into account.
But qualitative research, especially when involving survivors of GBV, has its own challenges. It implies risks for the physical and emotional safety of participants, especially when survivors have to recount their experiences over and over again. It can also produce feelings of exploitation when researchers – or journalists for that matter – advance their careers with stories that attract widespread public attention, while leading to few changes to survivors’ situation. Hearing harrowing accounts of violence can also be challenging for researchers and lead to secondary traumatisation.
These risks are compounded when research takes place in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), where survivors often find themselves in dire socio-economic situations, and even more so when it is undertaken or funded by researchers or institutions from the Global North. The unequal power relations this creates and the increased risks of exploitation, paternalism or even neo-colonialism have been widely discussed, including on openDemocracy.
