3.5 Ethical issues
When the researcher was conducting the data collection and
during data scrutiny process, he did not neglect the moral code of
confidentiality and anonymity. Since this research is very sensitive, the
researcher assured the respondents that their names will be secretly kept safe.
This practice was mirrored in the research's way of treating objectives by
asking the men who were being interviewed to freely choose a false name by
which they would be recognised along the whole process. This meant that every
interviewee who took the floor for responding would first tell the researcher
his pseudonym and then gave his attitude. The
procedure helped the researcher to put in writing the view given
with the right person, via his false name, in a correct way in order to avoid
confusions during data analysis process.
The researcher clearly informed all the interviewees about
the aim of this research. The researcher also let them know that participation
was willing and not obligatory. Indeed, this meant that any interviewee who
would feel no more interested in responding to the different questions that are
asked in in-depth interviews might quit the talks freely. And finally, he
informed them that there was no monetary advantage from taking part in the
discussions.
The ethics regarding the informed consent were used in the
current research. The researcher interviewed grown up men who were actually
mature men who have been or are married. In order to conduct well his research
regarding the beliefs and attitudes towards male domestic violence in South
Kivu, the researcher sought a principled clearance. This document originated
from the Ethics Committee of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. And finally,
authorisation was also sought from the South Kivu local authority because it is
here that this research was conducted. The researcher asked the provincial
authority to provide him with a safe and very private room in which he would
organise and conduct the different focus group and in-depth interviews.
3.6 Limitations of the research
This project research about the beliefs and attitudes towards
male domestic violence in South Kivu acknowledged some limitations. The first
one was that it interviewed a limited number of men who originate from the
province where domestic abuse is applied. The next restriction was that the
sample of the men who were interviewed were not really the majority of the
population who abuse their family members.
Based on the above restrictions, the researcher felt the need
to consult other people who were neighbours to domestic abusers because they
were supposed to have necessary evidence regarding male's domestic abuse in the
province. For that reason, because of the reduced time that was allocated to
data collection and extremely limited resources, the number of the
participants were only seven men in each of the two interviews,
that is fourteen. In fact, the size of the sample of the men respondents was
another limitation to this research project.
During data collection, the researcher did not have
sufficient time for running focus group and detailed interviews with wide
numbers of men who have knowledge about male's attitudes and beliefs towards
domestic violence in the province. The researcher did not forget the limitation
concerning the sensitivity of domestic violence issue in this area.
Domestic assault remains a delicate issue in this province
where it is not allowed to people to openly discuss about sexual abuse which is
its integrative part. In other words, the cultures of the DRC make domestic
violence a taboo issue as they believe it is a typical concern between the wife
and the husband, which bans it from public debates. Since the researcher had to
respect the respondents' views, he would not go beyond their wishes. As a
result, it proves that social desirability together with self reporting were
highly considered as great restrictions to this research project.
| 
