Dr. Emma Williamson

Research Fellow

Violence Against Women Research Group

Ethics in multi-disciplinary research

2 Issues specific to social science research:

• Voluntary participation

• Informed consent of participants– Informed and proxy consent of children

• Access to services– Mandatory evaluation of services

• Confidentiality and anonymity

• Conflict of professional roles and governance– Health, education, social care, research.

3 Key initial questions

• Is the research necessary

• Could the money be better spent

• Do the benefits outweigh any potential harm

• How do you think about the participants

• How is that reflected in practice and research

• Is the research safe

4

Exploring the Service and Support Needs of Male,

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered, Black

and Other Ethnic Victims of Domestic and Sexual

Violence, funded by the Home Office.

Will be available early 2009.

Professor Marianne Hester, Dr Emma Williamson and

Dr Geetanjali Gangoli, plus colleagues from Manchester and

London Metropolitan Universities.

5 Ethical problems/issues

• Governance– NHS REC for SARCs/psychologists– Internal University review

• Benefits & Harm– Psychological– Emotional– Physical

• Ignored groups– Additional benefits– Identification

• Researcher (admin staff) safety– Physical– Emotional

6 • Data protection– Working across institutions

• Consent– On-going

• Multi-method– On-line– Face-to-face (validity)

• Multiple identity– Changing identity

7Domestic Violence Perpetrator Services Evaluation

(Hester & Williamson: Current)

• Safety of partners and children

• Emotional well being of perpetrators

• Reliability of accounts and potential risk if wrong

• Making respondents angry

• Researcher safety

• Governance of multi-agency team

8

Further reading:

Williamson, E. [& Smyth, M.] (2004) (Editors) Researchers and their "subjects": Ethics,

power, knowledge and consent, Policy Press; Bristol.

Williamson, E. and the Domestic Violence Research Group (2004) "Domestic Violence

and Research Ethics", in Smyth, M. & Williamson, E. (2004) (Editors) Researchers

and their "subjects": Ethics, power, knowledge and consent, Policy Press; Bristol.

Kent, J., Williamson, E., Goodenough, T. & Ashcroft, R., (2002) 'Social Science gets the

Ethics Treatment: Research governance and ethical review' Sociological Research

Online, Vol. 7, Issue 4.

9

Williamson, E., Goodenough, T., Kent, J., Ashcroft, R., (2004) "Conducting Research With

Children: The limits of confidentiality and child protection protocols", in Children and

Society.

Williamson, E. (2004) "Research, Tears and Audio Tape" in Hallowell, N., Lawton, J., Gregory,

S. (eds) Reflections on Research: The realities of doing research in the social sciences, O.U.P.

Williamson.E. (2000) 'Caught in contradictions: Conducting feminist action orientated research

within an academic evaluated research programme', in Radford.J., Friedberg.M., Harne.L.

(Eds) Women, Violence and Strategies for action: Feminist Research, Policy and Practice.

Milton Keynes: Open University Press.