Accountability, Collaboration, and Social Change: Ethical Tensions in an Action Research Project to Address Untested Sexual Assault Kits (SAKs).
We conducted a collaborative action research project with stakeholders in Detroit, Michigan, to develop long-term policy strategies to resolve ~11,000 untested rape kits that were discovered in a police storage facility in August 2009. In our research, we uncovered overwhelming evidence of victim-blaming behaviors and fundamental disrespect of rape survivors by the police, which directly contributed to their decisions not to submit kits for forensic testing. We had an ethical responsibility to report these negative findings accurately and completely, and in doing so, we were concerned that police stakeholders might disengage from the action research project and hamper our other ethical responsibilities to promote general and public welfare. In this article, we examine the ethical challenges of balancing accountability, collaboration, and social change.
['Campbell|Rebecca|R|', 'Fehler-Cabral|Giannina|G|']
D003299:Cooperative Behavior D019548:Crime Victims D003416:Criminal Law D044707:Forensic Sciences D006302:Health Services Research D006801:Humans D008824:Michigan D011584:Psychology D012742:Sex Offenses D012922:Social Change D012941:Social Responsibility D017741:Survivors
Ethics Action research Sexual assault Sexual assault kits Rape Rape kits Police Criminal Justice system