Ethical Issues In Criminal Justice Research And Institutional Review Boards

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Ethics

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is associated with morality, what is right and wrong, and conforming to the standards of conduct.

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Psychological Harm to Participants

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Embarrassment for people who are asked to reveal information about themselves, ex. sexual abuse.

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Physical Harm to Participants

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Biological Studies and DV studies

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Issues of Privacy

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Crime-mapping software

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Psychological Harm to Participants Examples

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1. Zimbardo's Simulated Prison Experiment:

Male undergraduate students assumed the roles of guards or prisoners in a mock prison at Stanford University

2. Humphrey's Tearoom Trade:

In 1970, the researchers studied homosexual behavior by pretending to be a "watch queen" of this behavior in public restrooms

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Physical harm to Participants Examples

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1. Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Study conducted between 1932 and 1972, in Tuskegee, Alabama, that included nearly 400 poor African American men with syphilis whose disease was allowed to progress without treatment

2. Guatemaian STD Study: Study conducted between 1946-1948, in which people in Guatemala were intentionally infected with STD's

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Physical Harm to Others Examples

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1. Latane and Darley Study: Staged crimes to find out the circumstances under which witnesses would or would not intervene.

2. Monahan and Associates (1993): 3 different groups at potential risk of physical harm in their research on violence: research subjects, researcher, other individuals

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Guidelines for Ethical Research (6)

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Most important ethical agreements that prevail in criminological and social research.

1. Voluntary Participation

2. Anonymity

3. Confidentiality

4. Deceiving Subjects

5. Debriefing

6. Legal Liability

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Voluntary Participation

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An agreed upon tenet of conducting research is that participation must be voluntary

However, while subjects may "volunteer" to participate they may be motivated by the belief they will personally benefit from their cooperation.

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Anonymity with an examples

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Researcher cannot associate information gathered from subjects with the identify of individual subjects

Examples Mail Survey - no identifying information

Web- based Survey - no login/ Id

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Confidentiality with examples

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Researcher is able to link information with the given person's identity but promises not to reveal their identity and their responses to others

Ex. Interview Survey

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Deceiving Subjects

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For the researcher to not reveal who they are and what their purposes are in having contact with subjects, there must be compelling scientific or administrative concerns .

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Legal Liability

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The possibility exists that your information will be subject to a subpoena by the courts and you will be required to reveal the information.

Fortunately, federal laws protects researchers, and the confidential data they collect, from legal action in most of these circumstances if you ensured the protection of the data.

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Special Problems in Ethical Research (4)

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1. Staff Misbehavior

2. Research Causes Crime

3. Withholding of Desirable Treatment

4. Mandatory Reporting

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Staff Misbehavior

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Irregular or illegal practice by staff in public agencies

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Research Causes Crime

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Some research has the potential to produce crime or influence its location or target

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Withholding of Desirable Treatment

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Is it ethical to deny subjects treatment or intervention that may help them?

Solution- Interrupt experiment if preliminary results indicate improvements in treatment group

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Mandatory Reporting

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Family Violence- Child abuse

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Two main ways to promote compliance with ethical priniples

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1. Codes of ethics

2. institutional review boards

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Codes of Professional Ethics

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Formal codes of conduct describe what is considered acceptable and unacceptable professional behavior

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Institutional Review Boards (IRB)

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Government or University organizations that researchers must get approval from to do research that involve human subjects

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Two general purposes of (IRB)

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1. Decide if the risks to human subjects warrant the potential benefits of the study to society

2. Decide if the study design has adequate safeguards to ensure the safety and confidentially of the subjects.