Criminal Justice Research: Ethical Considerations for Practitioners - Essay Sample

Introduction

Criminal justice research offers a diverse pool of opportunity in gathering essential intelligence, which may range from behavior to the daily practices of the individuals. Therefore, it is essential to consider the ethical degree practices that one should consider in any Criminal Justice research. For instance, it is necessary to prevent any harm during the research since it comprises both physical and psychological harm that may affect the individual. Therefore, it is essential to consider the observation of ethics as a means of preventing psychological harm during the research (Maxfield, 2015). In the bottom line, the essence of considering ethics in criminal justice focuses on conducting healthy research without any harm to the subject.

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How are researchers currently encouraged to comply with ethical principles?

Researchers play a key role when it comes to studying and retrieving sensitive information from the subjects. Therefore, it is essential to follow a set of ethical practices to help limit the damage to subjects and comply with their feelings. While the exercise to collect data from the subject may be crucial, researchers are encouraged to comply with ethical principles to reduce suffering and exploiting the subjects. For instance, Cathy Spatz Widom's research is a classic example of an ethical violation (Maxfield, 2015). The research, which was proposed as a survey to study human development, ended up twisting right from the beginning, where the research was investigating the victims of child abuse. In this case, researchers are mandated to comply with ethical principles by offering valid information about the research and opening to the subjects that they are free to quit the study at any moment.

What is the significance of the Belmont Report?

The Belmond Report is a leading work regarding ethics and healthcare research regulations. The primary objective of the report is to protect the participants and subjects undergoing any research studies (Nix, 2017). The report focuses on outlining the underlying respect for the person or the subjects in the study. Thus it is the responsibility of the research to conduct the study following the defined regulations. On the contrary, Belmond Report outlines the benefits and burden of the research, which brings about the concept of fairness in distribution. Lastly, the report focuses on securing the subjects’ well-being during and after the research.

List and describe two research studies that would be considered ethics violations by today’s standards.

Violation of research ethics has been highly minimized by the increased rollout of guidelines to ensure that subjects are protected during the research. However, despite the measures outlined in different regulations, such as the Belmond report, researchers have turned a blind eye on the regulations in numerous ways. For instance, a case in mind is the Cathy Spatz Widom research, which was initially proposed to study human development but ended up stretching to study children's abuse. The motive of the study conflicted with the ethical guidelines. Secondly, the Tuskegee syphilis study has been described as one of the unethical studies to be conducted on subjects. The study was deemed unethical when penicillin became the recommended drug for syphilis treatment in the 1940s, yet the subjects were not offered the drug (Nix, 2017).

What are the limitations of codes of ethics and institutional review boards in ensuring research studies are conducted ethically?

The board does not critically address the dilemma in research, but instead left on the hands of the researchers (Maxfield, 2015). Therefore, most of the researchers will tend to collaborate with the subjects to help gather more information from the subjects. In this case, the research complies with the demands of the subject, such as not reporting or intervening with any malevolent plan the subject wishes to undertake disclosed in the interview. Thus, these shortcomings insulate the openness of research and finding, which are not addressed by the code of ethics. Codes of ethics and institutional review should be a critical factor in these limitations to help address the emerging loopholes in the research.

You are in charge of designing a research study in which you must interview domestic violence victims. What ethical considerations are involved in the creation and implementation of the study?

One of the ethical considerations in the research is the employment of confidentiality of the subjects. A researcher should be trusted with the subject’s details, and promise not to disclose them to any other party (Maxfield, 2015). Secondly, a researcher should be open and transparent to the subjects, indicating to them the objectives of the research. Thirdly, the research should consider legal activities during the research to ensure that the study does not obstruct the government. Lastly, the researcher should consider the boundaries of the research to ensure that all the proposed steps and activities are conducted without extending to activities that might compromise the research findings.

While you are researching drug culture in Philadelphia, you witness one drug user physically assault another drug user. What ethical dilemma(s) do you experience? What do you do and why?

One of the ethical dilemmas that has presented itself in this situation is the possibility of informing the local authorities about the act, while on the other side, you would like to get involved in the case to help find out what the offender has been going through (Nix, 2017). Reporting the case to the authorities will result in immediate arrest and detainment of the offender. The trust between the offender and the researcher will fade, and any efforts to extract information from him or her will be useless. On the other side, the victim will have to live with painful memories of both being a drug addict and a victim of physical assault. Therefore, it will be necessary to sacrifice the offender, through reporting, and help the victim through counseling to see if he or she can be rehabilitated.

You are in charge of a study that involves interviewing teenagers about their struggles in school. During an interview, you learn that one of the participants is physically and emotionally abused at home. What do you do? What are the ethical suggestions of your choice?

One of the considerations to undertake in the interview is the application of confidentiality of provided details (Maxfield, 2015). Confidentiality of the shared information should foster the relationship between the two sides will enhance a firm grip of relationship. In this case, the interviewer has the responsibility of refraining from involving third parties in the discussion to prevent further psychological harm to the teenager. However, despite the need for ethical practices, being one of the confining regulations, in this case, as an interviewer, I would suggest the involvement of a counselor to help intervene in the situation. Through this, the counselor will have to follow ethical practices, such as confidentiality during the therapy process to help both the family and the teenager get in good terms.

You are in charge of a study that queries prisoners on their drug use prior to—and after—incarceration? What ethical considerations are involved in the creation and implementation of the study?

The implementation and conducting of every research require a set of logical, ethical practices to help conduct legal and fruitful research. One of the ethical practices in the research will include the use of conceptualization, where the researcher will outline the meaning of the concepts to be studied to the subject (Maxfield, 2015). Secondly, the research will include the use of an ethical choice of research methods, which may include survey research, existing data, as well as content analysis. Additionally, the subjects will be informed about their rights in participation, to help give them an opportunity to refrain from the study at any time. Lastly, the confidentiality of the data provided or gathered from the subjects will be highly enhanced to limit the violation of subjects’ rights in the study.

References

Maxfield, M. G. (2015). Basics of research methods for criminal justice and criminology. Cengage Learning.

Nix, E. (2017). Tuskegee Experiment: The infamous syphilis study. History stories.