oa Onterecht geschuwd: verborgen participerende observatie

Unfairly shunned: covert participant observation

Covert participant observation is rarely used in criminological research due to ethical questions. This article describes several problems undercover researcher are confronted with while being in the field. It shows the complexity and demanding aspect of doing covert participant observations in the field of public transport. It is argued that the ethical issues have to be evaluated taking the objectives and the research questions into account. It is stated that covert participation can be defended and might even be necessary to investigate hidden or undesirable behavior, even though there are ethical and practical issues involved.