Ethical Concerns in Research on Human Trafficking

Thisbook presents a vivid description of the solutions that researchers havediscovered for ethical dilemmas that pose themselves at studying disadvantaged,vulnerable and victimized populations. Ethical codes prescribe that the scholarshould in all circumstances avoid potential harm, that informed consent isnecessary and that the limits of confidentiality should always be respected.However, in the practice of research among women involved in prostitution,illegal immigrant workers, enslaved children, people who sell their organs andall the traffickers thereof, the ethical rules cannot always be followed. Thisbook shows that there is a surprising variety of arguable possibilities indealing with ethical dilemmas in the field. Authors reflect on concreteexperiences from their own fieldwork in a wide variety of settings such as theUSA, Singapore, Kosovo and The Netherlands. Some choose to work on the basis ofconscientious partiality, others negotiate the rules with their informants andstill others purposely break the rules in order to disclose and damage theexploiters. Researchers may find themselves in a vulnerable position. Theirexperiences, as presented in this volume, will help field workers, university administrators, representativesof vulnerable groups, philosophers of ethics and most of all students to gointo the field well-prepared.Thisis a book that every researcher planning to do fieldwork in the difficult fieldof hidden, illicit and victimized people should read in advance.Dr.Frank Bovenkerk, Professor (Emeritus), Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Lawand Criminology, Universiteit Utrecht, The NetherlandsThis bookallows a peek in the kitchen of empirical fieldwork, going into not only bestpractices, but mistakes made, in a frank, courageous and honest way.Dr. Brenda C. Oude Breuil, Willem Pompe Institute forCriminal Law and Criminology, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands