[Air-l] Research question: interviewing online subjects?

[Ellis Godard]

The repeated message that I got in grad school was to consider any arguably
illegal or immoral behavior as observed facts to be described and explained,
not something to be reported beyond the role as researcher. One oft-repeated
example (from someone whose courses I took but with whom I never worked
closely) concerned having observed a policeman taking money from the wallet
of a vagrant while nominally checking his ID. He did not report the theft
either to the policeman's supervisors or to anyone else, though did report
it as part of his study (and in class discussions of methods and ethics).

That may be wrong, wrong-headed, unpopular, illegal, unapprovable now,
and/or something else - but is the requirement to report such behavior now
widespread? Universal?

-eg

Erika Pearson wrote:
> I've been reading the general sociology literature on conducting
> interviews as part of a research project, and some of the literature
> I have come across makes a point of noting that interviewers should
> be warning interviewees that any illegal or immoral behaviours
> uncovered during the course of the research/interview may be reported
> (for example, Adler and Adler, 2003).