Eliciting Narrative Through the In-Depth Interview

Abstract

A central feature of the fear of crime debate is the fear-risk paradox: the finding that those least at risk, namely, elderly women, are most fearful, and vice versa. This article argues that this paradox can be resolved theoretically by placing an anxious, defended subject rather than a rational, risk-avoiding one at the center of the debate, and explores some of the methodological implications of so doing, especially the importance of eliciting narratives. This methodological position, appropriately adapted for this study's rather different purposes, derives from the biographical-interpretive method first developed in Germany for the collection of life stories of Jewish survivors of the concentration camps. The authors outline the principles of this approach and the importance of eliciting concrete stories in a nondirective way in pursuit of the respondent's "gestalt," and then put this to work in attempting to operationalize their theoretical position into appropriate interview schedules. Specifically, the authors contrast the results of pilot interview schedules conducted in traditional question-and-answer format, in which "why" ques tions loom large, with those obtained by a schedule based on eliciting narratives from respondents, demonstrating both what the former misses and the latter (unconsciously) reveals. The authors also show how they use the same narrative-based principles in their follow-up interviews.