Researching Sexual Violence against Older People: Reflecting on the use of Freedom of Information Requests in a Feminist Study

Abstract

Domestic and sexual violence research has traditionally been associated with feminist qualitative methodology; however, quantitative methods are increasingly used by feminists in research examining the prevalence of and issues related to rape and sexual assault, either as standalone methods or in combination with other, qualitative methods (i.e. mixed methods). Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are a data collection tool that allow citizens to obtain data held by public authorities in the UK and are particularly useful for uncovering information on marginalised groups who may be difficult to recruit in qualitative research. Whilst they are frequently used by journalists, their potential is yet to be fully realised by social researchers. This paper reflects on the use of Freedom of Information requests in a mixed-method feminist study exploring sexual violence against people aged 60 years and over.

Overseas recruitment activities of NHS Trusts 2015–2018: Findings from FOI requests to 19 Acute NHS Trusts in England

“…Since 2005, The Freedom of Information Act (2000) has allowed individuals the right to access information held by UK public authorities upon request, yet the Freedom of Information (FOI) request is still considered the preserve of the investigative journalist as opposed to the academic (Bows, ). Although research using FOIs as a method of data collection is growing, very few research articles have been published in the UK which have utilised the FOI request as a method and it remains a powerful, yet underexploited tool within academia and healthcare‐related research (Fowler, Agha, Camm, & Littlejohns, ).…”

Democratic localism and the implementation of the Community Remedy in England and Wales

“…Under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) individuals and organizations can make requests for data held by public authorities, including the police. FOIs should be made in writing and the authorities must respond within 20 working days, with either the requested information in full or a refusal to provide the information based on 23 exemptions detailed in the Act (see Bows, 2017 for further details). Submitting FOI requests enabled us to access information from police forces that was not readily available in the public domain, which democratizes the research process and allowed us to access a large amount of data within a small research project (Savage and Hyde, 2014).…”

“…The research outlined in this article is the first to examine the operationalization of the Community Remedy powers by PCCs and the police, and provides a significant initial insight into whether the Home Office's promise to 'put victims first' has been translated effectively into practice. This is important because figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales show ASB to be a widespread problem, with 1.66 million incidents recorded by police in 2017-2018(Office for National Statistics, 2018a. This is supported by data that highlight the proportion of people who perceive high levels of ASB in their area, which currently stands at 10% (Office for National Statistics, 2018b).…”

Practitioner Views on the Impacts, Challenges, and Barriers in Supporting Older Survivors of Sexual Violence

“…Coding began by reading the transcripts line by line, attaching descriptive labels to each phrase, sentence, and later to larger sections of text, to identify and interpret the experiences and perspectives of the practitioners ( Ritchie & Spencer, 2002 ). As this research formed part of a larger doctoral study ( Bows, 2017a , 2017b ; Bows & Westmarland, 2017 ), coding was done by an individual researcher. Themes were then drawn out of the transcripts based on these codes.…”