NCJ Number
208726
Date Published
2004
Length
90 pages
Annotation
This report examines the impact of research ethics governance on criminological research and presents strategies for improving criminologists’ understanding of the ethics system in Australia.
Abstract
Many criminologists have expressed concern about the impact of research ethics governance by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) on their criminological studies. The Australian regulations governing ethics in research was originally developed to meet the needs of the medical community, thus the system is based on a medical model of research ethics. Criminologists have argued that extending these regulations to social science research places unreasonable burdens on their research capacity and fails to consider the conditions under which criminologists operate. For the most part, criminological research faces significant ethical issues because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter, the vulnerable position of the research subjects, the attitudes of criminal justice institutions, and the relatively powerful positions of corporate and state bodies. Indeed, some traditional avenues of criminological inquiry have been blocked by the Human Research Ethics Committee HREC's uncritical application of the principles associated with confidentiality, informed consent, harms and benefits, and relationships. Several strategies are outlined for the development of expertise in ethical matters in criminological research in Australia. Material on ethics and ethical governance should be integrated into undergraduate and postgraduate criminological courses and resources should be generated to promote reflection on ethics. Criminologists should also lobby at the national and local levels to produce change in the policies, procedures, and systems adopted by the HREC's. Nine case studies of researchers who have grappled with the HREC are presented to illustrate the main points of the report. Bibliography