The most accurate method to measure the extent of family violence is through use of surveys involving interviews. The survey should identify and cover all three variants of family violence. The telephone is a great tool for surveys but personal interviews can capitalize on the viewing of body mechanics during the interview. In the psychiatric arena they use hypnosis to get to the root of patient's problems. The use of hypnosis in the interviews could eliminate the bias of answers being socially correct. It seems with every method to extract information on family violence there are some shortcomings. I believe that the use of multiple measures could eliminate the shortcomings and provide more accurate data.
The Conflict Tactic Scale (CTS) is a great measuring device for violence. Although, it does miss various kinds of violence, such as burning, suffocating, squeezing, and scratching (Smith, 1987) as well as sexual assault. In return the CTS may miss some minor violent acts or misrepresent some minor as severe. D. G. Saunders from Canada in 1989, conducted interviews using the CTS and two sets of identical questions about motivation. One covering the minor violence and the other covering severe. The responses to the questions would be answered on a scale from 0% to 100%. The people being interviewed would be instructed to mark anywhere on the line they felt that impacted their lives. Along with the CTS, Saunders also used a version of the Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale to alleviate the answers to be socially acceptable.
This is an example of combination of techniques, which can overcome the short falls of one specific method. The use of the other sources such as reports from private or public agencies can be helpful to draw connections or conclusions to the outcome of family violence. .
The use of open-ended questions along with the closed ended ones of the CTS; this can enhance interviewer-respondent rapport, allow respondents to qualify their responses, encourage interaction and collaboration between researcher and subject, and elicit versions of violent events that reflect the lived experiences of victims.
