NCJ Number
86269
Date Published
1982
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This essay discusses ethical issues in the teaching of criminology and the conducting of criminological research.
Abstract
In teaching criminology, it is ethical for the professor to reveal at the beginning of each course his/her biases, prejudices, and ideological preferences with respect to the subject matter to be discussed. This enables students to take into account personal and professional perspectives when digesting, assimilating, and evaluating hypotheses, findings, and interpretations offered by the professor. In criminological research, the source of research funds may be a moral dilemma under certain circumstances, particularly if the funder desires to control the research and politicize the findings. Other ethical issues in research include (1) whether subjects should give written informed consent, (2) whether results of interviews should be published, (3) whether researchers are accessories after the fact in obtaining information on criminal offenses, (4) whether researchers are obstructing justice in harboring information about crimes, and (5) whether researchers are obligated to report any information they obtain about a crime. Other ethical issues include the adoption of a policy should criminal justice agencies request research files and the development of a fail-safe protection against identification of individual subjects in a research file. Another ethical issue involves whether researchers should issue social policy statements based upon research that is vulnerable to scientific criticism in the areas of reliability and validity. Thirty-seven notes are listed.