Ethics in Criminology Research

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Ethics in Criminology Research
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Ethical behavior (definition)

• Behavior is ethical insofar as it follows the
  rules that have been specifically oriented to the
  welfare of the larger society and not to the
  self-interest of the professional
• To act unethically is to act unprofessionally

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Ethical Horror Stories

• Dr. Josef Mengele (Angel of Death)
• Nazi doctor
• In the name of medical research, people were
  infected with diseases
• New drugs have been tested
• Administered poisons
• Exposed to extreme
• temperatures and decompression

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Ethical Horror Stories

• Josef Mengele did a number of medical
  experiments, using twins
• These twins as young as five years of age were
  usually murdered after the experiment was over
  and their bodies dissected
• Mengele injected chemicals into the eyes of the
  children in an attempt to change their eye color
• He stitched twins together, castrated or
  sterilized twins. Many twins had limbs and organs
  removed in macabre surgical procedures, performed
  without using an anesthetic.

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Josef Mengele

• Josef Mengele and the other camp doctors -
  masterminds of the horrors of Holocaust - were
  found to be psychologically normal. They were men
  of fine standing, cultured, husbands who morning
  and night kissed their wives, fathers who tucked
  their children into bed ...

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Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• In 1932, the Public Health Service, working with
  the Tuskegee Institute, began a study that was
  called the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis
  in the Negro Male."

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Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• The study involved 600 black men--399 with
  syphilis and 201 who did not have the disease
• Researchers told the men they were being treated
  for "bad blood," a local term used to describe
  several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and
  fatigue. In truth, they did not receive the
  proper treatment needed to cure their illness
• In exchange for taking part in the study, the men
  received free medical exams, free meals, and
  burial insurance. Although originally projected
  to last 6 months, the study actually went on for
  40 years.

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Tuskegee Syphilis Study

• As reported by the New York Times on 26 July
  1972, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was revealed as
  "the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human
  beings in medical history.
• All of the subjects died eventually
• Subjects did not suspect that no one cured them

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Study was sponsored by government

• During the 1940s, 800 pregnant women, the poor
  patrons of a pre-natal clinic at Vanderbilt
  University, were given a "cocktail" including a
  tracer dose of radioactive iron
• The objective of the experiment was to determine
  the iron requirements of pregnant women
• Incidents of malignancies in the children of the
  women subjected.

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• At the Fernald School in Massachusetts during the
  1950s, in experiments conducted in part by
  researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology, mentally retarded boys in the
  school's "science club" were fed radioactive
  calcium and iron with their breakfast cereal.
  Boys who agreed to participate received club
  privileges, including extra milk and trips to
  baseball games and the beach.

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• In a long-running experiment at the University of
  Cincinnati, ended in 1971, 88 poor, uneducated
  and mostly African-American patients with
  incurable cancers were exposed to heavy doses of
  full-body irradiation -- a procedure that was
  largely abandoned as therapy by the 1960s.
  Lawsuits still in court allege that the subjects,
  some of whom died hours after treatment, were not
  provided palliatives against the side effects of
  nausea and vomiting because the researchers did
  not want the drugs to interfere with their data
  collection.

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Other examples

• In 1960s live cancer cells were injected into
  elderly patients at a Brooklyn hospital without
  their knowledge (Jones, 1982)
• U.S. military services exposed
• their own soldiers to mustard gas
• and radiation (chronic ailments
• and death)

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Other examples

• Senator John D. Rockefeller
• issued a report revealing that for at least
  50 years the Department of Defense has used
  hundreds of thousands of military personnel in
  human experiments and for intentional exposure to
  dangerous substances(mustard and nerve gas,
  ionizing radiation, psychochemicals,
  hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War)

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Cold War Experiments

• American Intelligence agencies believed that the
  Communists developed secret mind
  control/brainwashing techniques
• This explains, but does not condone, the
  following abuses

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Cold War Experiments

• 1950s, using code names like
• Bluebird, Artichoke, the CIA, FBI, and U.S.
  military experimented with behavior-control
  devices and interrogation techniques (drugs,
  hypnosis, shock therapy, surgery, radiation) on
  unsuspecting citizens
• If death or injury occurred these agencies
  provided cover-up

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House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee (1986)

• Uncovered that during 30 years federal agencies
  had conducted exposure experiments on American
  citizens
• Injecting plutonium, radium, and uranium
• Feeding uranium to elderly patients during an
  experiment at the Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology
• Feeding patients real fallout from a Nevada test
  site
• U.S. Military employed former Nazi doctors
  /scientists for conducting the experiments

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The Nuremberg Code

• Voluntary consent
• Fruitful results for the good of society
• Anticipated results will justify the performance
  of experiment
• Avoid all unnecessary physical or mental
  suffering
• No research should be conducted where there is
  reason to believe that death or disabling injury
  will occur
• The degree of risk to be taken should never
  exceed that determined by the humanitarian
  importance of the problem to be solved

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The Nuremberg Code

• Proper preparation should be made-protect the
  research subjects against injure, or death
• Research should be conducted only by
  scientifically qualified persons
• During research the subjects should be at liberty
  to bring the research to the end
• Research must be ready to terminate the research
  at any stage if there is possibility to hurt
  research subjects

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Social Science Experiments

• Social research might also put subjects at risk
• Three social scientific studies are cited most
  often
• Laud Humphreys Tearoom Trade (1970)
• Stanley Milgrams Obedience to Authority (1974)
• Philip Zimbardos simulated prison experiment
  (1972-1974)

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Zimbardos simulated prison experiment

• Subjects males, undergraduate, paid volunteers
• Role of either guard or prisoner
• Mock prison was constructed in the basement of
  Stanford university
• Experiment was to have lasted for two weeks but
  Zimbardo cancelled the study after 6 days because
  of possible harm

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What went wrong?

• Individuals became carried away with their roles
• Guards behaved aggressively and dehumanizing
  toward prisoners
• Prisoners behaved ether passively or were hostile
• Subjects did consent to participate in the study,
  but they did not expect the consequences

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Stanley Milgrams Obedience to Authority (1974)

• Psychologist at Yale University, conducted a
  study focusing on the conflict between obedience
  to authority and personal conscience
• Germans are different
• Character flaw Readiness to obey authority
  without question, no matter what outrageous acts
  authority commands
• Everything in the experiment was staged except
  one person-subject
• Milgram changed a lot in his initial script
  because people were obeying too much

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Experiment

• Learner is taken to a room
• where he is strapped in a chair to
• prevent movement and an electrode
• is placed on his arm.
• The "teacher" is instructed to read a list of two
  word pairs and ask the "learner" to read them
  back. "learner" gets the answer wrong, the
  "teacher" is supposed to shock the "learner"
  starting at 15 volts.

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Experiment

• The generator has 30 switches
• ranging from "slight shock" to
• "danger severe shock
• The final two switches are labeled "XXX
• The "teacher" automatically is supposed to
  increase the shock each time the "learner" misses
  a word in the list. Although the "teacher"
  thought that he/she was administering shocks to
  the "learner", the "learner" is actually a
  student or an actor who is never actually harmed.

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Results

• "two-thirds of this studies participants fall
  into the category of obedient' subjects, and
  that they represent ordinary people drawn from
  the working, managerial, and professional classes
• 65 of all of the "teachers" punished the
  "learners" to the maximum 450 volts
• No subject stopped before reaching 300 volts
• The theory that only the most severe monsters on
  the sadistic fringe of society would submit to
  such cruelty is disclaimed

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Ethical issues of Milgrams experiment

• Milgram made a judgment about there is no
  possible psychological damage to the subjects
• Milgram interviewed subjects afterwards
• 83 said they were glad to participate
• 1.3 said they were sorry
• However, Milgram could not know that only 1.3
  would be sorry