CRIM 220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Undue Influence, Professional Code Of Quebec, Defence Mechanisms
7 Jun 2018
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Lecture 7, Week 8: Chapter 3 Tuesday 9th March
Crim 220: Ethics and Criminal Justice Research
• Ethical considerations are not always apparent
• Research can cause harm, lessons can be learned, and usually involves the approval
of review boards
Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice Research
• Ethics is associated with morality, what is right and what is wrong
• Day-to-day ethics and morality is based on the agreement among members of a
group (different groups agree on different things)
•Ethics in criminal research is especially challenging as illegal behaviours are
examined
• Many ethical considerations have come up in trial and error
Over-Arching Issues to Consider
• Harm to the Participants
• Voluntary Participation
• Anonymity and Confidentiality
• Deception
• Respect Reciprocity (honor agreements)
•Reporting and Analysis
•Legal Liability
No Harm to Participants
• Weighing the potential benefits against the possibility of harm to the people being
studied— or to other people— is a fundamental ethical dilemma
• Physical harm, psychological harm, emotional harm
•What are the potential impacts of the research?
• Research can lead to embarrassment or psychological harm
• Invasive treatment or psychological therapy
• Potential harm to the researcher must also be considered
John Monahan et. al (1993):
identified three different groups at potential risk of physical harm in violence
research
1. Research subjects (Example: women at risk of domestic violence may
be exposed to greater risk)
2. Researchers (may trigger attack on themselves when interviewing
subjects with a violent history)
3. Third parties (possibility that the collection of information from unstable
subjects can lead to harm)
ISSUE RAISED: SHOULD RESEARCHERS HONOR A PROMISE OF
CONFIDENTIALITY TO SUBJECTS OR INTERVENE TO PREVENT HARM?
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Ethical- conforming to the norms or standard of a group
Psychological Harm: can be caused when interviews are used to collect information.
Surveys could also ask about illegal behaviors, which could lead to embarrassment.
Reduction of Harm:
Self-completed computer questionnaires
Information on the victims identified in the National Crime Victimization
Survey is not available to researchers or the public
• The increase in computer-driven crime maps can disrupt the privacy of victims of
crime
• If procedure seems to have unpleasant effects, the researcher’s grounds to carry it
out must be firm
• Possible harm to subjects must be justified if the potential benefits of the study
outweigh the harm (Do possible benefits offset potential harms?)
Voluntary Participation
• Being selected to participate in any sort of research study will disrupt with the
subjects’ regular activities
•Experimental participation must be voluntary
• Norm of voluntary participation can work against certain scientific concerns or goals
Generalizability (if experimental subjects or survey respondents are the only
ones participating, or when people are payed)
Can’t be generalized unless a substantial majority of a scientifically selected
sample actually participates (willing and somewhat unwilling respondents)
• Often researchers might not be able to reveal that a study is being carried out
• Sometimes the norm of voluntary participation is impossible to follow
Anonymity and Confidentiality
• The clearest concern in the protecting interests and well-being of subjects is the
protection of their identity
• If revealing their behaviour can lead to harm them, then this norm is crucial
Anonymity
• This is when the research cannot associate a given piece of information with the
person
• Addresses many ethical difficulties
• Anonymity can make it difficult to keep track of which sample respondents have
actually been interviewed
• Sometimes respondents cannot be anonymous as the researcher collects information
from those whose names and addresses are known
Confidentiality
• When a researcher is able to link information with a given person’s identity, but
essentially promises not to do it publicly
• Some techniques— like field or survey interview— can ensure better performance of
this technique
• The researcher has the responsibility to inform respondents when the research is
confidential but not anonymous
• Subjects should be assured that the information collected will be used for research
purposes and not discloses to third parties
Deceiving Subjects
• Handling researchers’ identities can be complicated too
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Document Summary
Tuesday 9th march: ethical considerations are not always apparent, research can cause harm, lessons can be learned, and usually involves the approval of review boards. Ethical- conforming to the norms or standard of a group. Over-arching issues to consider: harm to the participants, voluntary participation, anonymity and confidentiality, deception, respect reciprocity (honor agreements, reporting and analysis, legal liability. Issue raised: should researchers honor a promise of. Psychological harm: can be caused when interviews are used to collect information. Surveys could also ask about illegal behaviors, which could lead to embarrassment. Information on the victims identified in the national crime victimization. Voluntary participation: being selected to participate in any sort of research study will disrupt with the subjects" regular activities, experimental participation must be voluntary, norm of voluntary participation can work against certain scientific concerns or goals. Generalizability (if experimental subjects or survey respondents are the only ones participating, or when people are payed)
