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© British Association of Social Workers

Ethical Dilemmas in Social Research: no easy solutions

BERNARD GALLAGHER, SUSAN CREIGHTON and JANE GIBBONS

Bernard Gallagher is a Research Fellow in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Manchester. He is currently Project Director on an Economic and Social Research Council and Department of Health funded study of organized and ritual child abuse. Sue Creighton is the Senior Research Officer for the NSPCC, and Jane Gibbons is a Senior Research Fellow in the Social Work Development Unit at the University of East Anglia.

Correspondence to Bernard Gallagher, Research Fellow, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Manchester, Dover St., Mancester M13 9PL.

Summary

Ethical dilemmas have been encountered in many areas of social research and have at times been the subject of much controversy. Despite this, the problem of how to tackle ethical dilemmas has received little attention in the literature. As a result, researchers faced with these dilemmas have little knowledge to draw upon, and groups associated with research, such as participating agencies and ethics committees, may not fully appreciate all the issues involved in dealing with ethical dilemmas. These issues are not only philosophical in nature but relate also to the methodological and practical implications of following one, rather than another, ethical principle. The researchers encountered a number of ethical dilemmas in their research in child protection. By discussing different approaches to solving ethical dilemmas, they intend to show that this is a complex problem and one which, along with ethics in general, requires greater attention in the literature.


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