Ethical Considerations

This section discusses the main ethical considerations addressed prior to commencing data collection. Ethics are described as being ‘general principles of what one ought to do’ (Robson, 2002: 66). They are often discussed in relation to ‘transgressions’, i.e. whether there is harm to participants, whether there is a lack of informed consent, whether there is invasion of privacy and whether deception is involved (Bryman, 2008).

Researching DVAW is similar to researching other sensitive topics. There are issues of confidentiality, problems of disclosure, and the need to ensure adequate and informed consent to take part in the research. In 1991, the Council for International Organization of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) presented a set of International Guidelines for Ethical Review of Epidemiological Studies. These guidelines apply the basic ethical principles of biomedical research involving human subjects to the field of epidemiology: respect for persons, no maleficence (minimizing harm), beneficence (maximizing benefits) and justice (Ellsberg and Heise, 2005). Therefore, research on violence with full respect to ethical and safety considerations and appropriate care and resources were applied to this end.

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My research proposal was subjected to review by the Departmental and Faculty University Ethics Committees at Manchester Metropolitan University. Ethical approval was gained prior to embarking on fieldwork (see Appendix 2 forApproval Letter).

The code¹⁴ of ethics defined by WHO (2001) on researching domestic violence against women was followed during the research process. The WHO’s guidelines were based on the experiences of the International Research Network on Violence Against Women (IRNDVAW) and were designed to inform the WHO Multi-country Study about Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women (WHO, 2001). The recommendations were designed to ensure the safety of respondents and research teams. They stress issues such as protection of informants’ confidentiality and measures to reduce potential distress. They also state that researchers and donors have an ethical obligation to help ensure that their findings are properly interpreted and used to advance policy and intervention development. In order to ensure confidentiality for my research, no names were written on the interview schedule.

Instead, numbers were printed on questionnaires to distinguish between the interviewees. The consent form sheet was kept separate from the rest of the interview pack and saved in a locker.

14 The summary of main concerns and aims of the WHO code of ethics for research on violence against women is given below:

•The safety of respondents and the research team is paramount, and should guide all project decisions.

•Protecting confidentiality is essential to ensure both women’s safety and data quality.

•The study design must include actions aimed at reducing any possible distress caused to the participants by the research.

•The researcher should be well informed in order to be able to refer women requesting assistance to available local services and sources of support.

•Researchers and donors have an ethical obligation to help ensure that their findings are properly interpreted and used to advance policy and intervention development.

•Violence questions should only be incorporated into surveys designed for other purposes when ethical and methodological requirements can be met

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I followed these guidelines and the code of ethics to avoid any harm either to myself or to the participants. I would argue that these ethical guidelines are critical, not only for protecting the safety of respondents and researchers, but also to ensure data quality. To limit possible harm and to maximize possible benefit, only one person was interviewed per household.

Participants were told that they could end the interview at any time or omit any question they did not wish to answer.

All the participants gave explicit consent (see Appendix 3 for consent form) to taking part in an individual interview and this was undertaken by means of research agreements between the participants and the researcher. The consent forms provided information regarding the nature of the research. The participants were given opportunities to raise additional questions regarding the research or the researcher before giving consent. The issue of confidentiality was also addressed in the research agreements. Prior to the interview, the participants were alerted that as part of the consent process that the researcher could have to disclose informationin the first (e.g. to my supervisors or the relevant authorities) if a study participant reported being either a victim of violence or an abuser while in the UK.

During fieldwork however, the consent letters proved somewhat problematic. Some women did not wish to write their names and raised questions about their confidentiality. I explained to them that their consent to be interviewed was required and they had to be advised of relevant issues, such as their right to withdraw whenever they wished or their right to anonymity. They were also reassured that the form would be kept separately with no real names written in the thesis. An example of the problems encountered in the course was a woman who was interviewed, then requested a consent form a day after which she duly signed

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and returned. However, as I did not also possess a signed consent form for the semi-structured interviews it was necessary to cancel her interview.

Most interviewees rejected the use of the tape recorder. One woman reported that she had not asked her husband’s permission to record the interview. In Libyan culture, a woman’s voice should not be heard in public; therefore, some Libyans could not accept that the women’s voice should be recorded. Therefore, no tape recorder was used, as most of the respondents in the sample did not feel comfortable being audiotaped. This meant I took notes during the interview where possible. However, due to the sensitivities of time and sometimes of place, and as note-taking can interrupt the natural flow of a conversation, when notes could not be taken during the interview, they were written down as soon as possible afterwards. Another potential ethical issue concerned discussion of experiences of violence. Women were not asked directly about their personal experiences of domestic violence, but some were pleased to present their experiences. The conversational and easy atmosphere of the semi-structured interviews encouraged women to openly tell me about their personal experience without having to be asked about these directly. It should be mentioned, women in the sample who were divorced, openly discussed their experience of physical and emotional abuse. Most of them mentioned experiences of physical abuse and a small number of women talked about sexual violence. (See Chapter 7 for discussion).

I also interviewed seven men within the qualitative sample, but did not ask male interviewees about their own experiences or behaviour. Rather, I concentrated on obtaining their opinions about DVAW. I conducted the semi-structured interviews with men in a public places (e.g.

cafes) and I identified a number of options of secure places for conducting interviews which

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are conducive for both the participants and myself. I also scheduled the semi-structured interviews during the daytime or before dusk wherever possible as I was interviewing during the winter. A major problem which I found hard to overcome, was to find sufficient time to meet men. I did not face this problem when I interviewed women, as most of women did not have any objection for meeting during the daytime; however, as they were working or studying in the UK some men could not meet before finishing work during the day. For my own safety, information regarding the venue of the interviews and time were shared with a colleague or my supervisors or friends in the UK. Throughout the interviews, I carried a personal mobile phone and safety alarm in order to deal with any uncalled-for situations. At the end of the interview, informants were debriefed, assured of the confidentiality of responses and space allowed them for any further comments they had, including on the interview process itself.

Having discussed the ethical issues which applied to both types of research methods, the following section discuss the conduct of the survey, followed by discussion of the semi-structured interview sample.