1 Year Research Assistantship at the Socio-demography Research Group DONTHURTME Project - CPIS-PRS-2024-07

21 Mar 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Department

Political and Social Sciences

Research Field

Sociology » Societal behaviour
Demography

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

Spain

Application Deadline

4 Apr 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid)

Type of Contract

Other

Job Status

Part-time

Hours Per Week

20

Offer Starting Date

6 May 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Reference Number

PID2021-125035OB-100

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Project description:The PhD researcher will work in the project “Life-course trajectories of abusers and victims of intimate partner violence (DONTHURTME)” lead by Prof. Jorge Rodríguez Menés, and funded by the Spanish Research Agency (PID2021-125035OB-I00).

Project summary: The study proposes to analyze the life-long penal, employment, and health trajectories of perpetrators and victims of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in order to shed light on the overall debate about the gendered nature of IPV. The main expectation is that we will observe a worsening of the differential between men and women in such long-term trajectories due to a patriarchal structure of power in society coalescing into women’s cumulative histories of disadvantage. By taking a longitudinal approach to the study of IPV, the project will control for stable differences across perpetrators and victims and concentrate on the changing factors, events, and critical junctures that contribute to modifying their trajectories. The study of the trajectories of IPV perpetrators and victims will take place in three lines of work, each associated with a current debate in academia and civil society about the sources and consequences of IPV. The first line will compare male and female IPV perpetrators to establish the extent to which they behave as generalists who exert violence against their intimate partners much as they do to other people, or as specialists that only hurt their partners. Similarly, we will investigate the extent to which the victims are more vulnerable when they are exposed to multiple rather than to single forms of social inequalities. In the second line of work, we will investigate which employment and health trajectories best predict IPV aggressions and victimizations, and if the risks increase when women are more empowered than their partners. In the final line of work, we will investigate which public interventions in the penal, employment, and health domains decrease the most the risks of IPV aggressions and victimizations, and if their effectiveness increases when women’s needs are taken into account. In pursuing these lines of work we will rely on a longitudinal dataset, especially compiled for the project, containing the life-long penal, employment and health histories of a full cohort of IPV perpetrators convicted for at least one IPV crime during a 5-year period in Catalonia, and of their victims (if they were issued a protection order), as well as of samples of other offenders and of the general population. This will be possible thanks to an innovative protocol specially devised for merging and anonymizing the individual records stored in multiple databases of five public institutions willing to participate in the project after signing a legally binding agreement. In analyzing the trajectories of the mostly male individuals convicted for IPV crimes, and of the mostly female victims protected against them, we will apply a variety of strategies, rarely used in the research on IPV in Spain, to minimize selection effects (i.e., to correct for the fact that these trajectories differ from those that we could have observed in random samples of all aggressors and victims, visible and invisible to the criminal justice system), thus being in a better position to evaluate the credibility of the arguments defending the gender symmetry and asymmetry of IPV.

Socio-demography Research Group: The Department of Political and Social Sciences (DCPIS), and more specifically the Sociology and Demography research group (DEMOSOC), offers a stimulating environment for research. On one side, the DEMOSOC is an interdisciplinary research group specialized in demographic and sociological analysis, as well as labor market and criminology studies. The group is oriented towards quantitative and comparative research across populations. On the other side, the DCPIS comprises currently 34 permanent professors and 56 PhD students, actively researching on a wide variety of social science topics. It stands out for its strong international focus and its dynamic research atmosphere.

Financing source: “Life-course trajectories of abusers and victims of intimate partner violence (DONTHURTME)” lead by Prof. Jorge Rodríguez Menés, financed by the Spanish Research Agency

Official number reference: PID2021-125035OB-I00

Functions:

The research assistant will work under the supervision of Dr. Jorge Rodríguez Menés.

The research assistant will help the PI and the rest of the team to prepare and debug the longitudinal dataset used in the project. The dataset was generated by crisscrossing the criminal, health and employment, official records of a full cohort of individuals convicted of an Intimate Partner Violence crime during a 5-year period, of their victims, and of large samples of offenders convicted for other crimes and of the general population, during the same 5-year period. Research assistance is needed given the large amount of data, the difficulties for linking multiple anonymized datasets, and the complexity of preparing the final datasets for the longitudinal analysis. The RA will also assist in conducting analyses on offender’s and victim’s profiles and on the effectiveness of criminal justice system interventions. The candidate shall have a high command of quantitative methodologies and Stata and or R programming. The RA will work part-time (20h/week) for 1 year supervised by the project’s PI. There may be a possibility of extending the duration of the project for at least one year, but this is contingent upon securing new research funds.

Type of contract: Scientific and technical activities contract. Indefinite, in accordance with the terms of article 23 bis of Law 14/2011, of 1 June, on Science, Technology and Innovation.

Gross Salary: 25,238.50 € (per year) aprox.

The contract includes all the benefits of the Spanish public health and social security system

Requirements

Research Field

Sociology » Societal behaviour

Education Level

Bachelor Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

The research assistant will help the PI and the rest of the team to prepare and debug the longitudinal dataset used in the project. The dataset was generated by crisscrossing the criminal, health and employment, official records of a full cohort of individuals convicted of an Intimate Partner Violence crime during a 5-year period, of their victims, and of large samples of offenders convicted for other crimes and of the general population, during the same 5-year period. Research assistance is needed given the large amount of data, the difficulties for linking multiple anonymized datasets, and the complexity of preparing the final datasets for the longitudinal analysis. The RA will also assist in conducting analyses on offender’s and victim’s profiles and on the effectiveness of criminal justice system interventions. The candidate shall have a high command of quantitative methodologies and Stata and or R programming. The RA will work part-time (20h/week) for 1 year supervised by the project’s PI. There may be a possibility of extending the duration of the project for at least one year, but this is contingent upon securing new research funds.

Specific Requirements

An ideal candidate should have:

●   Excellent quantitative research skills and proven experience in managing (merging, aggregating, adding, etc.) large longitudinal datasets and in multivariate statistical analyses (linear and logistic regression; multilevel models; event history analyses; principal component analysis, etc.);

●   a BA, Master or PhD in sociology, criminology, demography, human geography, economics, or another relevant social science;

●   Good writing skills and fluency in written and spoken English, and experience in academic writing;

●   A keen interest in undertaking research on violence against women and life-course dynamics;

●   A great curiosity and enthusiasm for scientific research.

In order to be eligible for the final interview, candidates must obtain a minimum of 15 points in total.

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Good

Additional Information
Benefits

Type of contract: Indefinite as provided for in RD 32/2021 of December 28, 2021

Salary: 25,238.50 € (per year) aprox.

The contract includes all the benefits of the Spanish public health and social security system

Eligibility criteria

• Excellent quantitative research skills and in the manipulation of large, longitudinal datasets (5 points)
• High command of Stata and/or R programming (5 points)
• Good writing skills and fluency in written and spoken English, and experience in academic writing (5 points)
• Experience in doing research on violence against women and/or life-course dynamics (5 points)

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to attend an interview (in person or by Zoom).

In order to be eligible for the final interview, candidates must obtain a minimum of 15 points in total.

Selection Committee:

President: Jorge Rodríguez Menés

Secretary: Martí Rovira 

Member: Maike Van Damme

Selection process

To apply for this position, candidates send the documentation by interfolio http://apply.interfolio.com/143087

• a motivation letter, describing the qualifications for the project and the motivation for applying for the position.
• a detailed CV.
• a copy of ID card o Passport

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to attend an interview (in person or by Zoom).

Deadline to submit applications: 4th April 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Website for additional job details

https://www.upf.edu/web/politiques/ofertes-de-treball/

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Sociology and Demography research group (DEMOSOC)

Country

Spain

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.upf.edu/web/politiques/ofertes-de-treball

Contact

City

Barcelona

Website

https://www.upf.edu/web/politiques

Street

Ramon Trias Fargas

STATUS: EXPIRED