Handling “Hot Potatoes”: Ethical, Legal, Safeguarding, and Political Quandaries of Researching Drug-Using Offenders

Abstract

Conducting qualitative field research involving drug users within a politicized criminal justice setting presents a unique set of ethical, legal, and safeguarding concerns and quandaries for researchers. There is a paucity of qualitative research with community-based drug-using offenders who form part of the UK Government (England and Wales) criminal justice strategies (Senker and Green; Hucklesby and Wincup). Hodgson, Parker, and Seddon highlighted this group as an emerging study population. This article aims to provide a more recent contribution covering the difficulties of accessing and researching with a hard to reach and politicized criminal justice drug-using population, such as risks of re-traumatization, risk assessment, safeguarding, criminal disclosure, and personal safety. The first author reflects on her research from her own unique political position as a policy advisor to the UK Government on criminal justice drug policy, with a view to providing recommendations for research with a hard to reach and hidden population who represent a marginalized group. The combination of reflexivity in research and the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as a research methodology proved helpful in addressing and overcoming some of these ethical, political, and other quandaries.

Should Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) be Used With Focus Groups? Navigating the Bumpy Road of “Iterative Loops,” Idiographic Journeys, and “Phenomenological Bridges”

“…Some of these potentially challenging dynamics were anticipated and where possible measures were taken to minimize conflicts prior to recruitment. For example, during recruitment, participants' criminal histories were checked to ensure that rival criminal gang members were not part of the same group, no court-mandated restrictions were in place in relation to other group members, and no Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement status sex offenders were allowed to take part (these were also important safeguarding measures and are reported on in another paper, see Love et al, 2019).…”

“…This process helped the first author to understand her political positioning in relation to the participant group and is expanded on in Step 4a in the example of the participant called Kevin. Further information is also provided in Love et al (2019). Use the "additional iterative loop" in Step 5c, when amalgamating themes across all the focus groups.…”

The Challenges of Conducting Qualitative Research on “couples” in Abusive Intimate Partner Relationships Involving Substance Use

“…The impact on fragile recovery of disclosing sensitive and traumatic events was therefore considered a possible risk for participants. The risk of retraumatizing people and the possibility of this leading to relapse has been previously detailed (Bernstein, 2000;Love et al, 2019).…”

“…It was therefore sometimes difficult not to be drawn into their relationships and to feel affected by their struggles, and the violence and abuse they had experienced. Other researchers have discussed vicarious trauma after listening to participants' traumatic and unsettling accounts (Love et al, 2019;Sammut Scerri et al, 2012;Van der Merwe & Hunt, 2019). In this study, researchers were offered regular (group and individual) clinical supervision by a clinical psychologist to process the emotions they experienced from hearing these stories.…”

Understanding addiction, relapse and recovery amongst substance using offenders – a qualitative study informed by developmental psychological theories

“…The DIP aimed to reduce both the Class A drug use and the offending behaviour. However, the first author considered that more needed to be understood about the client group's journeys into drug dependency, relapse and recovery before being able to further develop the programme to benefit clients who often presented with complex needs such as multiple substance use dependency and mental health problems (LeBoutillier and Love, 2010;Love et al, 2019). The overall aim of the research was to help inform policy and practice by understanding more about the early psycho-social experiences of the participant group and their understanding of the impact these experiences might have had on later substance use, relapse and recovery.…”