In the preceding four chapters, research procedures that require an intrusion into the lives of subjects have been discussed. Researcher reactivity—the response of subjects to the presence of an intruding investigator—has been considered as it applies to interviewers and ethnographers. In each case, sug- gestions have been offered concerning how to make positive use of the reac- tivity or to neutralize it. In this chapter unobtrusive (nonintruding) research strategies will be examined.
Although such intrusive techniques as direct observation frequently find their way into most conventional research methods books, unobtrusive strate- gies less regularly do. In fact, when research methods books do mention unob- trusive procedures, they typically define terms (e.g., Frankfort-Nachmias &
Nachmias, 1996), give only a very brief elaboration on the work of Webb et al.
(1981), or confuse unobtrusive measures with general content analysis strate- gies of analysis (Babbie, 1998). Even comprehensive compendiums of qualita- tive strategies and techniques omit the topic of unobtrusive measures and non- reactive research techniques (see, for example, Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; 1998).
However, unobtrusive measures actually make up a particularly interesting and innovative strategy for collecting and assessing data. In some instances, unobtrusive indicators provide access to aspects of social settings and their inhabitants that are simply unreachable through any other means.
To some extent, all the unobtrusive strategies amount to examining and assessing human traces. What people do, how they behave and structure their daily lives, and even how humans are affected by certain ideological stances can all be observed in traces people either intentionally or inadvertently leave behind. The more unusual types of unobtrusive studies are sometimes briefly highlighted in textbook descriptions of unobtrusive measures—just before dis- missing these techniques in favor of measures regarded as more legitimate.
For instance, it is fairly common to hear how an investigator estimated the popularity of different radio stations in Chicago by having automobile mechanics record the position of the radio dial in all the cars they serviced (Z- Frank, 1962). Sawyer (1961, cited in Webb et al., 1981) examined liquor sales
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in Wellesley, Massachusetts, a so-called dry town (i.e., no liquor stores were permitted). To obtain an estimate of liquor sales, Sawyer studied the trash from Wellesley homes; specifically, the number of discarded liquor bottles. In some instances, almost absurd situations have been ascribed to findings culled from unobtrusive data. For example, Jelenko (1980) described a painted rock on the campus of Wright State University that is regularly painted by students. He determined the accretion of paint each time the rock was painted and calculated that in another 7,778 years the rock would have grown (from layers of paint) to a size that would encroach on the gymnasium located 182 meters away.
More recently, Brian Payne conducted a kind of meta-analysis of studies on health care crimes, using existing literature and research studies as his data source (Payne, 1998). Stan Weeber (1999) used several literature sources to develop an assessment of the orientations and etiologies of citizen militia in the United States, an interesting contemporary phenomenon that might not other- wise have been successfully researched. In the recent past, Brown (1995) explored the expression of freedom and growing influence of Western cultural ideas in Hungary by examining graffiti on the walls of buildings. Among com- monly found stenciled images was one of Garfield, the cartoon cat.
Each of the preceding illustrations demonstrates that information can be culled from various traces and records created or left by humans. Many types of unobtrusive data provide avenues for the study of subjects that might otherwise be very difficult or impossible to investigate. Furthermore, as Schwartz and Jacobs (1979, pp. 183ff) so articulately point out in their dis- cussion on the sociology of everyday life, a formal sociological study of the trivia and minutiae of everyday life is no easy task. By the very act of making trivia a topic of study and recognizing its prevalence and importance in everyday life, sociologists change the very thing they seek to study; that is, trivia is no longer trivial, it now becomes important. The very way that one regards the world around them will have a significant effect on how they per- form during their everyday life. Certainly, this too will affect how they con- duct research (Glassner & Hertz, 1999).
In this chapter, several broad categories of unobtrusive strategies are examined in detail. This approach is not meant to suggest that the various unobtrusive techniques are necessarily ordered in this manner. It is intended, rather, to simplify presentation by simultaneously discussing similar tech- niques under like headings. The categories will be considered under the headings, "Archival Strategies" and "Physical Erosion and Accretion."
ARCHIVAL STRATEGIES
As Denzin (1978, p. 219) remarks, archival records can be divided into public archival records and private archival records. In the case of the former, records
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are viewed as prepared for the expressed purpose of examination by others.
Although access to public archives may be restricted to certain groups (for example, certain law enforcement records, credit histories, school records, and so on) they are typically prepared for some audience. As a result, public archival records tend to be written in more or less standardized form and arranged in the archive systematically (for instance, alphabetically, chrono- logically, or numerically indexed).
In contrast to these public orientations and formal structures, private archival records typically are intended for personal (private) audiences.
Except for published versions of a diary or personal memoirs (which in effect become parts of the public archival system), private archival records reach extremely small—if any—audiences.
Public Archives
Traditionally, the term archive brings to mind some form of library. Although libraries are indeed archives, so too are graveyard tombstones, hospital admittance records, computer-accessed bulletin boards, motor vehicle reg- istries, newspaper morgues, arrest records, and even credit companies' billing records. As Webb et al. (1981) suggest, virtually any running record pro- vides a kind of archive.
In addition to providing large quantities of inexpensive data, archival material is virtually nonreactive to the presence of investigators. Many researchers find archival data attractive because public archives utilize more or less standard formats and filing systems, which makes locating pieces of data and creating research filing systems for analysis easier.
Naturally, as in any research process, serious errors are possible when using archival data. However, if this possibility is recognized and controlled, through data triangulation, for example, errors need not seriously distort results (Webb et al., 1981).
Modifying and modernizing the four broad categories suggested by Webb et al. (1966, 1981), results in a three-category scheme. This second scheme identifies varieties of public archival data as commercial media accounts, actuarial records, and official documentary records.
Commercial Media Accounts. Commercial media accounts represent any written, drawn, or recorded (video or audio) material produced for general or mass consumption. This may include such items as newspapers, books, magazines, television program transcripts, videotapes, drawn comics, maps, and so forth.
When Johannes Gutenberg developed the movable type printing press, he could not have foreseen the advances in the technology of writing and publishing that are commonplace today. With the assistance of microchips, microprocessors, and laser printers, the only limitations on writing, storage,
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and printing are now time and inclination. Similarly, with technical develop- ments in video cameras and recorders making such equipment affordable, new worlds of running records have been opened to both official agencies and private citizens.
One excellent illustration of the use of television program transcripts as a type of public archival record is Molotch and Boden's (1985) examination of the congressional Watergate hearings of 1973. In their effort to examine the way people invoke routine conversational procedures to gain power, Molotch and Boden created transcriptions from videotapes of the hearings. By exam- ining the conversational exchanges between relevant parties during the hear- ings, Molotch and Boden (1985) manage to develop a blow-by-blow account of domination in the making.
In a similar vein, following the O. J. Simpson trial, Frank Schmalleger (1996) offered a commentary on the exchanges between the defense and pros- ecution based upon court transcripts he downloaded from the Internet.
Molotch and Boden (1985) are primarily concerned with the audio por- tion of the videotapes. Schmalleger (1996) is similarly interested only in the written transcript of verbal exchanges. Other researchers, however, have con- centrated on visual renderings, such as still photographs. Jackson (1977), for example, used photographs to depict the prison experience in his Killing Time:
Life in the Arkansas Penitentiary. Another example of the use of still photographs is Goffman's (1979) examination of gender in advertisements. Goffman's research suggests that gender displays, like other social rituals, reflect vital fea- tures of social structure—both negative and counterbalancing positive ones.
As another illustration, Gottschalk (1995) recently used photographs as an intricate element in his ethnographic exploration of the "Strip" in Las Vegas. Gottschalk's use of photos evokes an emotional content about the Strip not actually possible in words alone. Their inclusion, then, significantly heightens the written account of his ethnography.
Actuarial Records. Actuarial records also tend to be produced for special or limited audiences but are typically available to the public under certain cir- cumstances. These items include birth and death records; records of mar- riages and divorces; application information held by insurance and credit companies; title, land, and deed information; and similar demographic or res- idential types of records.
Private industry has long used actuarial information as data. Insurance companies, for example, establish their price structures according to life expectancy as mediated by such factors as whether the applicant smokes, drinks liquor, sky dives (or engages in other life-threatening activities), works in a dan- gerous occupation, and so forth. Similarly, social scientists may use certain actu- arial data to assess various social phenomena and/or problems. Although each of these preceding categories of public archival data may certainly be separated conceptually, it should be obvious that considerable overlap may occur.
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Although archival information is a rich source of primary data, albeit underused, such data frequently contain several innate flaws as well. For example, missing elements in an official government document may repre- sent attempts to hide the very information of interest to the investigators, or missing portions of some official document may have merely resulted from the carelessness of the last person who looked at the document and lost a page.
It is sometimes difficult to determine possible effects from editorial bias and control over what gets published and what does not. Bradley et al. (1979) expressly mention this element as one of two weaknesses in their study of cartoons in men's magazines in relation to the changing nature of male sex- ual mores and prostitution. In addition, they indicate as a second weakness their inability to measure precisely audience reaction merely by examining cartoons that appeared in Esquire and Playboy over a 40-year period.
When dealing with aggregate statistical data, missing values or nonre- sponses to particular questions can be accounted for. In some instances, data sets can be purchased and cleaned of any such missing pieces of information.
Unfortunately, when using archival data, it may sometimes be impossible to determine, let alone account for, what or why pieces of data are missing. This again suggests the need to incorporate multiple measures and techniques in order to reduce potential errors, but it should not prevent or discourage the use of archival data.
Formal actuarial records (for instance, birth, death, and marriage records) have been used frequently as data in social science research. Aggregate data such as aptitude test scores, age, income, number of divorces, smoker or non- smoker, gender, occupation, and the like are the life blood of many govern- mental agencies (as well as certain private companies). Marvin Cooke, for example, used Census data to argue that increases in the number of poor sin- gle female heads of household in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are associated with the losses of jobs for males who would most likely be their potential marriage part- ners (Cooke, 1998).
Among the more interesting variations on unobtrusive actuarial data are those described by Warner (1959). As part of his classic five-volume series on "Yankee City" (the other volumes include Warner & Lunt, 1941, 1942;
Warner & Srole, 1945; Warner & Low, 1947), Warner offered The Living and the Dead: A Study of the Symbolic Life of Americans.
In his study, Warner (1959) used official cemetery documents to estab- lish a history of the dead and added interviewing, observation, and exami- nation of eroded traces as elements in his description of graveyards. From his data, Warner was able to suggest various apparent social structures present in graveyards that resembled those present in the social composition of Yan- kee City (Newburyport, Massachusetts). For instance, the size of headstones typically was larger for men than for women, plots were laid out so that the father of a family would be placed in the center, and so forth.
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Webb et al. (1981, p. 93) point out that tombstones themselves can be interesting sources of data. Webb et al. (1981) also mention the possible analy- sis of different cultures by, for example, considering the relative size of the headstones of men as compared to women.
In fact, tombstones often reveal several other interesting things. For example, most tombstones contain birth and death dates, and many include social role information (for example, "beloved son and father," "loving wife and sister"). In some cases, the cause of death may even be mentioned (for instance, "The plague took him, God rest his soul" or "Killed by Indians"). In consequence, tombstones cease to be merely grave markers and become viable actuarial records. Examination of information in a given cemetery can reveal waves of illness, natural catastrophes, relative social status and pres- tige, ethnic stratification, and many other potentially meaningful facts.
Official Documentary Records. Schools, social agencies, hospitals, retail establishments, and other organizations have reputations for creating an abundance of written records, files, and communications (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992). Many people regard this mountain of paper—or electronic records—as something other than official documents. In fact, official documentary records are originally produced for some special limited audiences, even if they even- tually find their way into the public domain. These records may include offi- cial court transcripts, police reports, census information, financial records, crime statistics, political speech transcripts, internally generated government agency reports, school records, bills of lading, sales records, and similar doc- uments. Official documents may also include less obvious, and sometimes less openly available, forms of communications such as interoffice memos, printed e-mail messages, minutes from meetings, organizational newsletters, and so forth. These materials often convey important and useful information that a researcher can effectively use as data.
Official documentary records may offer particularly interesting sources of data. Blee (1987), for example, bases her investigation of gender ideology and the role of women in the early Ku Klux Klan on a content analysis of offi- cial documentary records. As Blee (1987, p. 76) describes it, "The analysis of the WKKK [Women's Ku Klux Klan] uses speeches and articles by the impe- rial commander of the women's klan, leaflets and recruiting material and internal organizational documents such as descriptions of ceremonies, rituals and robes and banners, membership application forms and the WKKK con- stitution and laws."
In a study by Melichar (1987), the evolution of the Montana Clean Air Act of 1967 was investigated by examining social definitions surrounding the issue of air pollution. In his study, public documents and depth interviews provide the primary data. Among the documents utilized by Melichar (1987, p. 52) are
"legislative committee records, written testimony, house and senate journals, personal files, Montana Power Company's legislative files, and newspapers."
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Naturally, not all research questions can be answered through the use of archival data, or at least not archival data alone. Some studies, however, are so well suited to archival data that attempts to examine phenomena in another manner might not prove as fruitful. For example, Poole and Regoli (1981) were interested in assessing professional prestige associated with criminology and criminal justice journals. In order to assess this, they counted the number of citations for various journals (in the Index of Social Science Citations) and ranked each cited journal from most to least citations. The operative assumption was that the journals with the greatest frequency of citation reflected the subjective preference of professionals working in the field. In consequence, those journals that enjoyed the most frequent reference in scholarly works possessed the greatest amount of prestige.
In a similar fashion, Thomas and Bronick (1984) examined the profes- sional prestige of graduate criminology and criminal justice programs by ranking each on the basis of volume of publication citations per faculty mem- ber during a single year (1979-1980). Thomas and Bronick examined both the total number of citations of faculty in each department studied and the num- ber of citations per each experience year of faculty members in each depart- ment. By assessing both the quantity of publications and publication weight (by considering proportions of publications in prestigious journals) Thomas and Bronick managed to rank the graduate programs.
Although most archival data can be managed unobtrusively, researchers must sometimes be cautious regarding certain ethical concerns. For example, since some archives include certain identifiers such as names and addresses, their use requires that researchers take steps to ensure confidentiality. For instance, police complaint records typically are open to the public (with the exception of certain criminal complaints involving minors) and contain much identifying information. Similarly, during the recent past, a growing number of newspapers have begun publishing police blotter sections. These typically indi- cate the names, addresses, occupations, charges, and frequently the case dispo- sitions of crimes committed during the day or evening preceding the published account. Certainly these types of data could prove valuable in a variety of stud- ies. But care is necessary if you are to avoid identifying the individuals depicted in these press accounts or crime reports.
A simple removal of certain particularly sensitive identifiers (for exam- ple, names and addresses) and aggregation of the data according to some nonidentifying factor might be sufficient. For instance, in a study of crime in relation to geographic-environmental factors that was mapped by C. Ray Jef- ferys, particulars of identity were unnecessary. Using official criminal reports occurring in Atlanta during 1985 and 1986, Jefferys annotated a map of the city and identified high-risk locations for particular categories of crime.
Social scientists have traditionally used a variety of official types of reports and records. Several governmental agencies exist literally in order to generate, assess, and disseminate research information. In many cases, in