Harnessing the Power of Advocacy-Research Collaborations: Lessons From the Field

The advocacy-research partnership has been identified as a key method of conducting the feminist and activist research that is important to domestic violence. However, these partnerships are often fraught with challenges that may jeopardize their development, sustainability, and potential impact on policy. Previous commentators have identified key challenges to engaging in advocate-researcher collaborations. This article takes particular care to set forth an advocate perspective through the authors' experience of planning and executing a collaborative study on the effects of mandatory arrest. The authors use a study that was specifically designed to affect policy to offer insight into the challenges faced and to make recommendations for successfully incorporating social action in advocacy-researcher collaborations.