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Ethical Issues in the Study of Domestic Violence Essay examples

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This essay will critically analyse the ethical issues portrayed in the study of researching domestic violence. Ethical issues are inevitable in any research, especially that of the sensitive population. This essay will look at the ethical dilemmas of researching a sensitive population in relation to gaining access to the data. This essay will also look at the safeguards that were put in place to potential ethical problems and analyse their suitability in regards to this research. This essay will discuss these issues because they are the most problematic when researching victims of such sensitive topics such as domestic violence, yet these issues are unavoidable when trying to get to investigate the hidden population.
Researching the …show more content…

The victim stating ‘I don’t care what you do with [my comments]’ (Hoyle, 2000: p404) does not suffice the consent needed to use the data. However it can be argued that by only interviewing the ‘willing’ participants we put ourselves in the predicament of only interviewing a certain type of sample which does not provide the overall picture of domestic violence. The data may only be valid if the researcher interviews the ‘unwilling’ participants in order to make the research more generalisable for other domestic violence victims. However interviewing ‘unwilling’ participants is deemed unethical as it goes against the victim’s right to privacy and choice. This is outlined in the World Health Organisation whereby ‘Invasions of privacy and breaches of confidentiality are disrespectful to participants and can lead to feelings of loss of control or embarrassment’ (World Health Organisation, 2011:p16), this can be very problematic especially when dealing with victims of domestic abuse. Hoyle also faced predicaments in using her chosen method of research however knowing this; she had safeguards put in place to protect herself and her victims from potential ethical problems.
The research carried out by Hoyle involved in her using the method of ‘cold calling’. This is a method used by many researchers whereby they approach the participants unannounced

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