Personal testimony is an account of a particular set of circumstances, detailing personal feelings, observations and experiences. This form of qualitative evidence is most effectively used when wanting to make a change in society, be it a change in law or just to change the opinions of a population or group of people. In terms of social injustice, personal testimony gives someone vulnerable a voice; a voice to challenge social order, to be heard by people in a position to make changes in eliminating the social injustices experienced by the vulnerable within society. In this essay I shall look at the strengths and limitations of using personal testimony, taking examples from the 2013 DD208 film 'Surveillance: welfare, crime and society' and the DD208 book ‘Social Justice, Welfare, Crime and Society’ (Newman et al 2008).
The strength of personal testimony will depend on what it is about social injustice you are evaluating. If you want to compare incomes between groups it would be more useful to look at statistical data like that of the Gini Coefficient. The Gini Coefficient is the measure of the spread of income inequality within a country using a scale of 0 to 1 (DD208, 2013: 35). If, however, you want to assess the rights particular individuals or groups have within a society you would need a more in-depth account, which can be gathered from personal recollections or observations. Social workers will write in-depth reports on their subjects known as Common Assessment Framework forms (CAF) (DD208, 2013, Chapter 2); they are a detailed log of observations made by the social worker after a home visit. By completing an in-depth evaluation, help can be provided to restore social welfare for the individual. A list of statistics would be of no use to the wellbeing of the individual; it would only show a potential relationship between collective groups or maybe show an opportunity to prevent wrongdoings in the future. The qualitative nature of the CAF Form helps...