public actor Interviews

The Texas After Violence Project conducts qualitative research into the effects of capital punishment on individuals and communities in Texas.

Our first research project interviews people directly and personally affected by capital murders; the investigation, prosecution, defense, and appeal of capital punishment cases; Death Row; and executions. This first type of interviews are called Personal Narratives.

Our second research project, Public Actors in Texas Criminal Justice & Death Penalty Politics, interviews public actors so as to better understand the politics of criminal justice and the death penalty in Texas and to document the histories of social movements that seek to the make significant changes in the criminal justice system. This page describes Public Actor Interviews.

Who are Public Actors?

For the purposes of this project, Public Actors are those people who work, write, speak out, lobby, litigate, protest, perform, preach, editorialize, or otherwise act in the public sphere to create change in the criminal justice system, including in capital punishment in Texas. A Public Actor may espouse any point of view; we do not interview Public Actors based on their beliefs. Public Actors may go under a variety of names: prison reformers, abolitionists, victims' rights advocates, criminal justice advocates, juvenile justice advocates, and others.

Many people who advocate change come to their work because of personal experiences. Others may have come to their work without personal experiences with violent crime or executions, but become personally involved through their work. We interview people who for whatever reason have deep, profound, personal, or emotional experiences for their personal narratives, even if they may have started out as public actors.

We interview the people we call Public Actors -- people who are knowledgeable but not as deeply involved on personally -- for their expertise.

How do Public Actor Interviews differ from Personal Narrative Interviews?

- The primary purpose of Public Actor Interviews is to gain information and document social movements. The primary purpose of Personal Narrative Interviews is to understand the subjective experiences of individual people directly affected by violent crime and the capital punishment process in Texas. But all interviews yield mixtures of private, social, and public knowledge, "feelings" and "facts," experiences and opinions.

- Public Actor Interviews will be more directed; the interviewer will tend to ask more questions. A Personal Narrative Interview is usually more open-ended; in a Personal Narrative interview that is going well, the interviewer says very little.

- In Public Actor Interviewers, the interviewer will ask the person being interviewed to consent to the interview and to donate the interview tape and other materials to the Texas After Violence Project before the interview begins. Consent & donation take place in one-step. This one-step or expedited process is much simpler and faster than the process we use in Personal Narrative Interviews.

- In Public Actor Interviews, the interview subject agrees to allow the Texas After Violence Project to publicize the interview for any public education and non-commercial purpose, without reviewing a transcript of the interview first. The interview subject also agrees that the interview may become public thirty days (30 days) after the interview.

- In Public Actor Interviews, the person interviewed does not expect confidentiality or privacy, and the Texas After Violence Project does not make any promise of confidentiality or privacy. The Public Actor Interviews are intended to be public from the outset.

- The Texas After Violence Project does not transcribe Public Actor interviews, although the Project makes these interviews available to the public and any person may transcribe an interview for educational and non-commercial purposes.

How are Public Actor Interviews similar to Personal Narrative Interviews?

- The person being interviewed is in control of the process. She or he may decline to answer any question. She may pause or terminate the interview at any time. The interviewer still seeks to facilitate the person being interviewed telling the story in her or his own way.

- The Texas After Violence Project provides a DVD or audiotape of the interview to the person being interviewed as soon as practicable after the interview (usually within two weeks). The person being interviewed may use the recording of her interview in any way she sees fit.

Questions?

Please call 512.916.1600 or write us at info@texasafterviolence.org