Research Ethics in Criminology

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-66
Author(s):  
Gerry Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Medical Research ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Ethics Of Research

This paper provides a brief but critical review of current thinking and debate about research ethics in criminology; it falls into two parts. The first part of the paper describes the sorts of ethical issues that tend to be flagged up in ‘textbook’ accounts of ethics in criminological research; some recent efforts to devise codes of ethics for researchers in criminology; and developments in what might be termed the ‘ethical policing’ of social research. The second part briefly sketches some deeper issues to do with the ethics of research with ‘deviant subjects’. It suggests, in particular, that the ethical issues faced by criminological researchers cannot be ‘read off’ from a medical model of research. This, however, is not due simply to the greater use of qualitative methods of research in criminology. Rather, it is due to the distinctive political and ethical terrain occupied by criminology, which is significantly different to that occupied by medical research.

scholarly journals Regulating Research: The Origins and Institutionalization of Research Ethics Committees in Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Helena Tinnerholm Ljungberg
Keyword(s):  
Medical Research ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Medical Community ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Research Ethics Committees ◽  
Karolinska Institute ◽  
Swedish Society ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract The year 1966 saw the birth of Sweden’s first formal Research Ethics Committee (rec) at the medical university Karolinska Institute (ki). In the following years other ethical committees were institutionalized, coordinated by a working group steered by the Swedish Medical Research Council (smrc). Research ethical issues of a principled nature were also discussed by the Ethics Delegation of the Swedish Society of Medicine (ssm). Between 1966 and 1975, around 500 research proposals were assessed by rec s in Sweden, and the medical community started to follow certain protocols when preparing applications for ethical review. This paper traces the origins and early development of the rec system in Sweden and offers an analysis of their practices, discussions, and assessments through the reading of meeting protocols and correspondence between central actors. The aim is to sketch out how and why the system of research ethics committees emerged, became institutionalized, and developed in Sweden from the 1960s to the early 1980s. This paper connects to the recent empirical turn in historical research on medical research ethics and regulations, by focusing on how the insiders, i.e., the medical community, reacted to new demands of ethical review. The analysis illustrates how the medical researchers interacted with transnational funders, the Patients Association, a broader public, governmental authorities, and parliamentary politics when developing the Swedish rec system.

scholarly journals Research Ethics and the Governance of Research Projects: The Potential of Internet Home Pages

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martyn Denscombe
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Home Pages ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Research Protocols ◽  
On Line

This paper explores the potential of research project Home Pages in relation to the growing need for good governance of research projects. In particular, the paper considers the benefits such web pages might have in terms of research ethics and argues that research project Home Pages can provide a very straightforward, practical means of addressing a number of ethical issues related to both on-line and off-line research. Limitations to the use of research project Home Pages are also discussed and conclusions are drawn about the value of establishing appropriately designed research project Home Pages as an integral component of social research protocols.

12. Research ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 241-269
Author(s):  
Emily Finch ◽  
Stefan Fafinski
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethics Committee ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
British Society ◽  
The Core ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
Ethical Approaches ◽  
Human Participants

This chapter discusses the importance of research ethics in criminology, with emphasis on ethical issues arising from research using human participants. It first considers the value of ethical approaches to research and moves on to address the particular issues raised by criminological research. It draws on the British Society of Criminology Statement of Ethics to explore the core ethical principles of confidentiality, anonymity, consent, and the avoidance of harm. The final section offers guidance on identifying and addressing ethical issues raised by one’s own research, along with suggestions on points to consider when formulating an application for approval for a Research Ethics Committee.

scholarly journals EXPLORING SOME OLD AND NEW ETHICAL ISSUES IN CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Castro Toledo
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
Predictive Algorithms

Interest in the development of evidence-based policies for the public management of the control and treatment of crime seems to be the position that will become dominant in the coming years. In this context, it is important for policy makers to know that while social research is surrounded by many ethical dilemmas, criminological research, because of the particular sensitivity of its subject matter and the profound implications of its findings, must emphasise the responsibility of researchers and provide criteria and principles that properly guide their research. To respond to this new context, this paper introduces, as examples of its variety, some of the traditional ethical challenges of criminological research, such as the effective obtaining of consent, as well as some of the new challenges involved in the use of predictive algorithms by criminal justice system operators. We conclude by highlighting the necessity of considering the ethical dimension of criminological research as one of the necessary elements that legislators must assess to critically accept scientific evidence as legitimate.

scholarly journals Ethically important moments as data: reflections from ethnographic fieldwork in prisons

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Real World ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Research Ethics Committees ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Ethics Of Research ◽  
Procedural Ethics ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Qualitative researchers often face unpredictable ethical issues during fieldwork. These may be regarded as ethical dilemmas that need to be ‘solved’, but Guillemin and Gillam’s concept of ‘ethically important moments’ provides an alternative framing. Using examples, their concept is developed to suggest that ethical issues in the conduct of research can illuminate and supplement other fieldwork data. Far from being problematic, the dissonance between the procedural ethics of research ethics committees and real-world research can provide opportunities for a more subtle and nuanced understanding of the field.

scholarly journals Risk-Aversion or Ethical Responsibility?

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-162
Author(s):  
Stephen Jacobs ◽  
Alan Apperley
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Audit Culture

Ethics seems to be of increasing concern for researchers in Higher Education Institutes and funding bodies demand ever more transparent and robust ethics procedures. While we agree that an ethical approach to fieldwork in religion is critical, we take issue with the approach that ethics committees and reviews adopt in assessing the ethicality of proposed research projects. We identify that the approach to research ethics is informed by consequentialism – the consequences of actions, and Kantianism – the idea of duty. These two ethical paradigms are amenable to the prevailing audit culture of HE. We argue that these ethical paradigms, while might be apposite for bio-medical research, are not appropriate for fieldwork in religion. However, because ethics should be a crucial consideration for all research, it is necessary to identify a different approach to ethical issues arising in ethnographic research. We suggest that a virtue ethics approach – concerned with character – is much more consistent with the situated, relational and ongoing nature of ethnographic research.

Ethical Evaluation of Mental Health Social Research: Agreement Between Researchers and Ethics Committees

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Mondragón Barrios ◽  
Tonatiuh Guarneros García ◽  
Alberto Jiménez Tapia
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Research Ethics Committees ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Research Protocols ◽  
Significant Difference

The objective of this article is to compare various ethical issues considered by social scientists and research ethics committees in the evaluation of mental health social research protocols. We contacted 47 social scientists and 10 members of ethics committees in Mexico with two electronic national surveys that requested information from both groups related to the application of ethical principles in mental health social research. The results showed no significant difference between these groups in the value placed on the ethical issues explored. Based on this finding, we make proposals to strengthen the collaboration between the two groups.

Our words matter: acceptability, grammaticality, and ethics of research on singular 'they'-type pronouns

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Marie Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Experimental Work ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Singular Form ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Ethics Of Research ◽  
Formal Properties

Until now, there has been little experimental work investigating the processing and formal properties of the singular they suite of pronouns. As scientific and popular attention to singular they increases, it will be critical for research to acknowledge theoretical and ethical issues regarding discussion of this phenomenon. This commentary uses the recent paper by Doherty & Conklin (2017) as a starting point to discuss issues surrounding work on the various forms of singular they. It concludes that there is sufficient theoretical and empirical evidence to claim they has a grammatically singular form (at least in colloquial English). It also recommends care be taken in academic discussions of the grammaticality and acceptability of terms which are associated with marginalised communities.

Ethics in Social Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Medical Interventions ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Social Researcher ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collection Phase

It is right that social researchers consider the ethical implications of their work, but discussion of research ethics has been distorted by the primacy of the ‘informed consent’ model for policing medical interventions. It is remarkably rare for the data collection phase of social research to be in any sense harmful, and in most cases seeking consent from, say, members of a church congregation would disrupt the naturally occurring phenomena we wish to study. More relevant is the way we report our research. It is in the disparity between how people would like to see themselves described and explained and how the social researcher describes and explains them that we find the greatest potential for ill-feeling, and even here it is slight.

scholarly journals Developing a policy to reduce the salt content of food consumed outside the home in Malaysia: protocol of a qualitative study

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. e044628
Author(s):  
Mhairi Karen Brown ◽  
Suzana Shahar ◽  
Yee Xing You ◽  
Viola Michael ◽  
Hazreen Abdul Majid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Research ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Salt Intake ◽  
Salt Content ◽  
Ethics Committee ◽  
Salt Reduction ◽  
Reduction Strategy ◽  
Research Ethics Committee ◽  
School Canteen ◽  
Medical Research Ethics

IntroductionCurrent salt intake in Malaysia is high. The existing national salt reduction policy has faced slow progress and does not yet include measures to address the out of home sector. Dishes consumed in the out of home sector are a known leading contributor to daily salt intake. This study aims to develop a salt reduction strategy, tailored to the out of home sector in Malaysia.Methods and analysisThis study is a qualitative analysis of stakeholder views towards salt reduction. Participants will be recruited from five zones of Malaysia (Western, Northern, Eastern and Southern regions and East Malaysia), including policy-makers, non-governmental organisations, food industries, school canteen operators, street food vendors and consumers, to participate in focus group discussions or in-depth interviews. Interviews will be transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Barriers will be identified and used to develop a tailored salt reduction strategy.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been obtained from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Research Ethics Committee (UKM PPI/1118/JEP-2020–524), the Malaysian National Medical Research Ethics Committee (NMRR-20-1387-55481 (IIR)) and Queen Mary University of London Research Ethics Committee (QMERC2020/37) . Results will be presented orally and in report form and made available to the relevant ministries for example, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Trade to encourage adoption of strategy as policy. The findings of this study will be disseminated through conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications and webinars.

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