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Accountability, Collaboration, and Social Change: Ethical Tensions in an Action Research Project to Address Untested Sexual Assault Kits (SAKs)
Author(s) -
Campbell Rebecca,
FehlerCabral Giannina
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1002/ajcp.12176
Subject(s) - accountability , action (physics) , public relations , health psychology , social responsibility , political science , social welfare , sexual assault , psychology , criminology , poison control , public health , human factors and ergonomics , public administration , law , environmental health , medicine , nursing , physics , quantum mechanics
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.