Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using statistics to investigate the real rate of domestic violence.
As stated in the item domestic violence has accounted for 14% of violent incidents as measured on the main British Crime Survey, from this we can question if using statistics to investigate domestic violence is a valid method, as interpretivists reject the positivist claim that statistics are objective facts. And when creating statistics, other positivist methods are usually used such as self-report studies, questionnaires etc. Therefore victims of domestic violence may be vulnerable and feel too uncomfortable to admit to being a victim of domestic violence, this is an ethical issue that researchers must consider and take into account that there may be problematic nature of the evidence as victims report nearly all vehicle thefts but only a minority of domestic abuse cases.
An alternative method to using statistics could be a more interpretivist method such as an unstructured interview so the researcher can build a rapport with the victim and they may feel comfortable to express their experiences and vulnerability therefore can be taken into account and not invaded. Additionally the offender will not want to admit to committing a domestic violent act as it is frowned upon and shameful, also they would not want to risk getting into trouble.
However only the state has the resources to conduct large-scale surveys costing millions of pounds, such as the British Crime Survey of England and Wales of every household in the UK which reduces practical issues for the researchers as they do not have to spend a lot of money although this survey is only conducted every decade so researchers would have to wait or conduct their own surveys to give to the public. These results are published which makes researching domestic violence a lot easier for sociologists.
Also Feminists such as Oakley criticise official statistics and argue that they are a form of patriarchal ideology. Also official statistics are created by the state which feminists regard as maintaining patriarchal oppression, therefore feminists may feel that statistics of domestic violence are controlled and not valid because of patriarchal control .

However although women are much more likely than men to be the victim of multiple incidents of domestic violence more recent research conducted by Dennis Campbell, who’s research was published in the Guardian newspaper, found that more than 40% of victims of domestic violence in today’s society are male and about two in five of all victims of domestic violence are men, contradicting the widespread impression that it is mostly women who are victims of domestic violence. Men assaulted by their partners are often ignored by police and therefore are not reported which causes problematic nature of the evidence. These statistics also contradict the feminist’s view that official statistics are a form of patriarchal ideology.

To conclude there are not many practical issues using statistics to investigate the real rate of domestic violence although researchers must take into account that a lot of domestic violence cases are not reported which makes statistics unreliable when researching domestic violence.