Research ethics in practice: lessons from studies exploring interpersonal violence in different contexts

Abstract

Studies researching interpersonal violence (IPV) are associated with a range of ethical challenges. In this paper, lessons are drawn from three case studies exploring the experiences of different groups of survivors and perpetrators of IPV in diverse contexts: refugees in the Thailand-Burma border area; partner-violent adult men and female survivors in Ireland; and, school children in five European countries. The ethical -and associated methodological -challenges faced, and the ways in which they were overcome, are presented. Drawing on the case studies presented, the paper concludes that three key areas require special attention when conducting research in this field: accessing and recruiting participants, researcher skills and experience, and appropriate use of data.

Young people’s online and face-to-face experiences of interpersonal violence and abuse and their subjective impact across five European countries.

“…We were careful to ensure that the language was consistent between all five countries. Researchers supervised the administration of the paper survey in 45 schools in the five countries to ensure that students worked on the questionnaires individually and without being overseen (see Vearey, Barter, Hynes, and McGinn [2016] for a full description). Ethical scrutiny and approval was provided by the University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies, Ethics Committee.…”