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Ethical Principles, Dilemmas and Risks in Collecting Data on Violence

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Ethical Principles, Dilemmas and Risks in Collecting Data on Violence United Nations Children’s Fund Statistics and Monitoring Section, Ethical Principles, Dilemmas and Risks in Collecting Data on Violence against Children A review of available literature Ethical Principles, Dilemmas and Risks in Collecting Data on Violence Division of Policy and Strategy 3 United Nations Plaza, New York, Ethical Principles, NY 10017, USA Tel: +1 212 326 7000 Email: [email protected] Dilemmas and Risks in Collecting Data on Violence against Children A review of available literature COVER PHOTO: SOMALIA A girl stands, her mother’s arm wrapped around her, in a shelter for girls and women who have endured sexual and gender- based violence, in Mogadishu, the capital. The girl was raped while living in a camp for displaced people. In addition to safe accommodation, girls and Technical Working Group on Data Collection on Violence against Children women at the shelter run by the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre with UNICEF support also receive educational and psychosocial assistance. Child Protection Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group © UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0703/Holt Ethical Principles, Dilemmas and Risks in Collecting Data on Violence against Children A review of available literature Technical Working Group on Data Collection on Violence against Children Child Protection Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group © United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Statistics and Monitoring Section/Division of Policy and Strategy, October 2012 Permission is required to reproduce any part of this publication. Permission will be freely granted to educational or non-profit organizations. To request permission and for any other information on the report, please contact: United Nations Children’s Fund Statistics and Monitoring Section, Division of Policy and Strategy 3 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA Tel: +1 212 326 7000 Email: [email protected] This joint report reflects the activities of individual agencies around an issue of common concern. The principles and policies of each agency are governed by the relevant decisions of its governing body. Each agency implements the interventions described in this document in accordance with these principles and policies and within the scope of its mandate. The text has not been edited to official publication standards. This report was designed by Cynthia Spence. Suggested citation: CP MERG (2012), Ethical principles, dilemmas and risks in collecting data on violence against children: A review of available literature, Statistics and Monitoring Section/Division of Policy and Strategy, UNICEF, New York. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The preparation of this report was coordinated and supervised by Claudia Cappa, Statistics and Monitoring Section, UNICEF, New York. The report was written by Mary Ann Powell. The work was undertaken on behalf of the Technical Working Group on Data Collection on Violence against Children of the Child Protection Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group. The global Child Protection Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group (CP MERG) was established in 2010 in response to gaps and challenges in child protection monitoring, evaluation and research. Given the general lack of data on violence against children and the momentum created by the United Nations Study on Violence against Children (2006), the CP MERG created a Technical Working Group (TWG) to specifically address this area. The aim of the TWG is to produce outputs that will guide and support reliable, useful and ethical data collection on violence against children. Membership of the TWG currently consists of the following institutions and individuals: ChildFund (Martin Hayes); European Agency for Fundamental Rights (Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos and Astrid Podsiadlowski); ICF Macro (Sunita Kishor); International Labour Organisation (Federico Blanco); Plan International (Elsebeth Elo); Population Council (Katie Schenk); Save the Children (Denise Stuckenbruck); and UNICEF (Claudia Cappa, Chair). Theresa Kilbane, Francesca Moneti, Regina Reza and Clara Sommarin, Child Protection Section, UNICEF New York, shared comments on the report. Nicole Petrowski, Statistics and Monitoring Section, UNICEF New York, facilitated the editing and production. The following individuals provided key documents and references: Jo Aldridge, Loughborough University, UK Aida Bekic, Save the Children Norway, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Anne Berggren, Save the Children Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden Katharina Borchardt and Barbara Crnjanovic, Division of Private Fundraising and Partnerships, UNICEF, Geneva, Switzerland Maggie Brown, JMJ International, London, UK Lucie Cluver, University of Oxford, UK Maria Claudia Duque Páramo, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia Kaja Ebbing, Save the Children Norway, Oslo, Norway Becky Fauth, National Children’s Bureau (NCB), London, UK Deborah Ghate, The Colebrook Centre for Evidence and Implementation, London, UK Peter Beat Gross, Child Protection Section, UNICEF, New York, USA Sue Headley, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, Hobart, Australia Cristina Mattiuzzo, ChildONEurope, c/o Italian National Childhood and Adolescence Documentation and Analysis Center, UNICEF Office of Research, Florence, Italy Virginia Morrow, Young Lives, University of Oxford, UK Bethelhem Moulat, UNICEF Office of Research, Florence, Italy Kitty te Riele, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Mónica Ruiz-Casares, Centre for Research on Children and Families, McGill University, Montreal, Canada Elsbeth Robson, Brunel University, Blantyre, Malawi i Dominique Louise Sbardella, Save the Children, Regional Office for Middle East and North Africa, Beirut, Lebanon Sadaf Shallwani, University of Toronto, Canada Tracy Skelton, National University of Singapore, Singapore Charmaine Smith, Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa Maeve Thornton, Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, Ireland Kay Tisdall, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK Jean Whyte, Children’s Research Centre, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland Emma Williamson, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK Lisa Wolff, UNICEF Canada, Toronto, Canada The preparation of this publication was funded by the Statistics and Monitoring Section and the Evaluation Office of UNICEF New York. The report contributes to the broader work on the development of the International Ethics Charter and Guidelines for Involving Children in Research, led by UNICEF’s Office of Research at the Innocenti Research Centre (IRC), Florence in collaboration with the Childwatch International Research Network. ii CONTENTS Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................. iv 1. Executive summary ................................................................................................................................1 2. Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................5 2.1 Scope and methodology of the review .................................................................................................5 3. Ethics documentation review: Guidelines and codes ................................................................................11 3.1 Ethical principles and frameworks ...................................................................................................11 3.1.1 A duty-based framework .........................................................................................................12 3.1.2 A best outcomes framework ....................................................................................................14 3.1.3 A rights framework ................................................................................................................14 3.1.4 A virtue-based approach .........................................................................................................16 3.1.5 Additional comments on ethical frameworks .............................................................................16 3.2 Documentation used to guide the implementation of ethics in research procedures/practice ..................18 3.2.1 Child protection ethical guidelines ..........................................................................................19 3.2.2 Ethical guidelines from other sectors .......................................................................................22 3.2.3 Cross-sector ethical guidelines for participatory research processes ............................................25 3.2.4 Key ethical issues in the ethical guidelines ..............................................................................26 3.3. Ethical policy, codes and protocols .................................................................................................30 3.3.1 Country/national codes ...........................................................................................................31 3.3.2 Professional association codes ................................................................................................33 4. Ethics literature review: Publications .....................................................................................................35 4.1 Key ethical issues ..........................................................................................................................35 4.1.1 Consent ................................................................................................................................35
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