Ethics in Research - the Problem of Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Ethics in research, as described by May, makes an attempt to formulate codes and principles or moral behaviour. These ethics codes play a critical role within criminological research, in particular when conducting research with vulnerable groups. Vulnerable groups can be described as human samples considered particularly susceptible to coercion or undue influence in a research setting. Those who are vulnerable could also include individuals who may not understand the study, what their participation means in the study or what constitutes as informed consent. Vulnerable individuals May be unable to care for themselves or possibly harm themselves or others and some vulnerable groups could not have the capacity in order to anticipate, cope with, resist, or recover from both natural hazards or artificial hazards created by humans. Groups that are traditionally considered vulnerable are participants who are prisoners, older people or children however, by Allens definition, those with a chronic illness or disability, those who are mentally ill and those who are poor or have a limited education are recognised as vulnerable. The importance of ethics in research has significantly changed over time, due to extensive human rights abuses, with the creation of Research Ethics Committees, codes of ethics and the Belmont Report. These highlighted considerations that should be taken by researchers when working with human participants, including Beneficence, Justice and respect for autonomy or persons.

Over time, ethics in criminological research has become increasingly important, particularly when working with participants who are vulnerable. In and before the 1900s, many studies were conducted in which caused the participants harm and disregarded ethics, an example of this is the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. This study took place between 1932 to 1972 in Macon county in Alabama, with the goal of collecting data about the effects of untreated syphilis. The study tested 4,400 African American men and women in the community and later, resulted in a study group of 408 African American men at the age of 25 and over with syphilis. Researchers promised the participants they would receive free health care, in which was needed to do blood tests, however some participants were told they had 'bad blood' with no description of what that meant, whilst others were told nothing. In 1972 any surviving participants found out they were part of the study through the media, shortly following a lawsuit in which the investigation found seven conclusions that the government harmed participants. These included the health service failing to inform participants that they had syphilis, as well as failing to treat the disease, whilst leading them to believe they were being treated. The lack of regulations in the study meant that the study was discriminatory, with only poorer and less educated African Americans used as participants, along side a failure to gain written consent. Overall, the Tuskegee syphilis study was unethical and influenced policy and ethics in research along with reports in the 1960s of abuse of human rights lead to investigation and the creation of the Belmont report.

In recent years, many regulations have been created to protect research participants. The implementation of codes of ethics, ethics review boards and reports as critical aspects of research ethics. Shortly after the end of the Tuskegee syphilis study, the commission for the protection of human subjects of biomedical and behavioural research was created through the National Research Act 1974, signed into law by congress. The commissions main goal was to create a report on ethics that should be used when conducting biomedical and behavioural research when working with human subjects, as well as developing guidelines for this research. The final report was divided into three subsections which include boundaries between practice and research, basic ethical principles and applications in which laid out essential ethics practises that should be taken into consideration.