CIAO DATE: 09/2013
January 2012
The Sexual Violence Research Initiative
Scientific research can and should play a critical role in raising the public profile and understanding of sexual violence at global, regional and national levels and help to define appropriate responses. Sexual violence perpetration is a relatively neglected area of research. As global and national agendas shift from responding to victims and incidents to primary prevention, there is increasing recognition of the importance of research with men and boys, including those who have perpetrated sexual violence. This area of research is highly sensitive, with distinct ethical challenges, and requires careful preparation, attention to legal issues and thoughtful dissemination of the research findings. Researchers who want to better understand sexual violence perpetration need a comprehensive understanding of the ethical issues involved. A paper published by the SVRI on ethics and research with men who commit sexual violence, highlights the lack of guidance for this work (Hearn, Andersson & Cowburn 2007). It is against this background that these ethical and safety recommendations for doing research on perpetration of sexual violence have been developed.
Resource link: Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Research on the Perpetration of Sexual Violence [PDF] - 249K