First of all, I wasn’t quite sure where to find people knowledgeable about my topic to ask questions, so I instead chose to ask a random person about their opinions. I figured I would be able to write down any answers rather than tape-record (and have since decided that, next time, I’m definitely going to tape record).
Interviewee name: Danielle Chan
Place: The Quad, by Smith
Date: 5/19/07
Gender: Female
Age: 21
Education: Currently a UW student (junior)
Ethnicity: Chinese
Place of Residence: Dorms, Haggett
Place of Birth: Seattle
Occupation: Student
Religion: unknown
Politics: Democrat
Note: Some of this is paraphrasing. Some of it is direct quoting, but most is paraphrasing as I can’t write fast enough or legibly enough to be completely accurate.
Q: What are your opinions on the legalization of prostitution?
A: I don’t think there is much point in making it illegal. Child prostitution, of course, should be illegal, but I don’t really see why people should be arrested for having sex, whether it’s paid sex or not.
Q: What do you think would be the benefits of having governmental controls on prostitution?
A: *pause* Um…Well, prostitution can be dangerous. If it’s legal, it might be safer for the prostitutes. It could reduce the control pimps have over prostitutes too. Also, sexual disease control—the spread of sexual diseases.
Q: How would you think the government would be able to control the spread of sexual diseases?
A: Well, perhaps by requiring health check-ups. At least the prostitute would know that they had a certain problem. Maybe the government could require that those with certain diseases like HIV tell their customers. Though that probably wouldn’t work so well. They probably wouldn’t be willing to stop working or to tell their customers. *Shrugs*
Q: Do you think that there would be some people who would not want to be under governmental control and would not follow the directions of the government?
A: Yeah. There are always people like that.
Q: Well, thanks for talking to me.
A: You’re welcome. Bye.
Q: Have a nice day.
Reflections: My subject did not really seem too inclined to talk, though she was nice enough to do the interview. I thought that I might be able to get a little more out of her, but she seemed to be getting a little tired of my questions, so I stopped. I suppose some of the problem was that she probably didn’t know too much about the topic. However, this interview has cemented the idea that I really need to interview people with a tape recorder and that I probably need to pick and choose the people I want to interview rather than randomly going up to someone.
1 comment:
hi haley- nice insights. interviewing can be tricky and will be even more challenging given your topic. what other methods can you use to get the data you need? on colleen's blog i suggested interviewing health care providers. who else (people/organizations) would be knowledgeable about this topic? also, is there anything in the literature that would help inform you about the problem before you get to Amsterdam?
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