A mixed methods study of satisfaction with justice and desire for revenge in survivors of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City's World Trade Center.

Abstract

This study used mixed methods to investigate satisfaction with justice and desire for revenge in a sample of employees from New York City agencies affected by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. A volunteer sample of 196 employees of eight affected agencies provided a short essay about what justice means to them in relation to the 9/11 attacks, followed by 20 quantitative questions covering personal experiences and perceptions of 9/11-related justice. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were performed for bivariate comparisons of quantitative items and qualitative thematic codes. Mixed methods analysis was used to inspect the associations of the content of all text coded for themes with quantitative categories within and across domains. Only the revenge domain showed a significant association between the quantitative category and the qualitative theme. The quantitative revenge category was positively associated with the qualitative justice through safety theme. Examination of qualitative content provided insights into the relationships with quantitative constructs. Qualitative and mixed methods research on justice and revenge in mass casualty settings add new findings to the existing literature and have the potential to contribute to the interpretation and potential expansion of topic areas assessed by quantitative scales.