Soltis's chapter, "The Ethics of Qualitative Research, he presents many examples of situations that may face the qualitative researcher, and recommendations on how each may be handled. There was one situation, however, where he poses an issue, but does not make a recommendation of how the situation should be handled: What should a researcher do if he either witnesses or is informed of a participant involved in illegal activities? He uses the examples of mugging someone, or buying drugs (p. 252). Should the researcher "break confidence and lose research?" or keep it to him- or herself and "let the authorities handle things?"
I think this issue could be very complicated, depending on a number of issues, like how important the researcher feels the research project is, for promoting needed social or political change, for example. He or she may hesitate to derail a project that coul be important to an underserved segment of the population, despite a nagging responsibility to report the wrongdoing.
My first reaction would be that the researcher would have to report the illegal activity no matter what, but maybe the answer could change, depending on the nature of the crime. It seems like the researcher would have to report the wrongdoing if someone was, or was going to be hurt; if the wrongdoing did not involve harm to people (e.g., theft of property), maybe it is a little fuzzier, I don't know! What are your thoughts on this?
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ReplyDeleteI understand this problem. It is similar to the oath of confidentiality between doctor and patient, and clergy members. But at what point does the line become too blurred. Given the amount of time and effort a researcher puts into his or her work, it must be a terrible problem to be confronted with the issue of forfeiting research or abandoning ethics
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