Unfairly shunned: covert participant observation

Korte inhoud:Covert participant observation is highly controversial and rarely used in criminological research, due to ethical reasons. Moreover, today we see a shift towards a formalization and legalization of ethical rules, which delegitimizes covert research methods even more. However, informed consent and total openness about research goals can also hamper the possibilities to study socially undesirable or unaccepted behavior and might give biased results. So, it will be argued that it is not always appropriate to strive for total openness. This paper will present a research where the researcher worked incognito as a ticket inspector to study the daily routine interactions between travellers and train personnel. The aim of the study was to gain further insight into the escalation, reduction or avoidance of aggressive behavior. The difficulties and pitfalls of the covert observation method will be discussed.

Trefwoorden:Covert participant observation