Professional Researchers And Prisoner Subjects: Some Ethical Problems And Practical Solutions
| Published date | 01 October 1974 |
| DOI | 10.1177/003288557405400204 |
| Author | Carl B. Klockars |
| Date | 01 October 1974 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
34
Professional
Researchers
And
Prisoner
Subjects:
Some
Ethical
Problems
And
Practical
Solutions
By
Carl
B.
Klockars
*
The
author would
like
to
acknowledge
the
helpful
assistance
of
Norman
John-
ston
and
Finbarr
O’Connor
during
the
preparation
of
this
article.
Dr.
Klockars
is
Assistant
Professor
of
Sociology,
Beaver
College.
Although
I
have
not
yet
seen
the
other
articles
in
this
issue
on
&dquo;Professionals
in
Corrections,&dquo;’
I
imagine
that
in
one
way
or
another
most
of
them
argue
for
more
and
better
professionals
in
our
prisons.
Indeed,
it
is
hard
to
conccive
of
anyone
being
against
professionalism
per
se.
It
is,
of
course,
precisclv
this
understanding
which
inspires
people
in
such
a
wide
variety
of
jobs,
crafts,
and
occupations
-
from
policemen
and
beauticians
to
journalists
and
funeral
directors - to
speak
of
what
they
do
as
a
&dquo;profession&dquo;.
So
strong,
in
fact,
is
the
corona
of
status
about
&dquo;professionals’*
that
even
those
w1o
do
routine
or
clean-up
duties for
them
arc
entitled
to
share
in
it
with
the
title
of
&dquo;Para-professional&dquo;.
I
have
in
mind
particularly,
legal
aides,
medi-
cal
secretaries,
and
various
’’’Il1digulOus
Community
Workers&dquo;
who
help
out
members
of
the
social
work
profession.
In
contrast,
then,
to
what
I
assume
is
the
inclination
of
most
articles
in
this
collection
and
the
social
trend
towards
the
hrofession-
alization
or
para-professionalization
of
everyone,
this
essay
deals
with
a
group
of
normally
undeniable
professional
who
are
already
in
our
prisons
-
biomedical,
pharmacological,
and
certain
types
of
psycho-
logical
researchers
-
and
the
reasons
why
it
may
be
a
good
idea
to
gct
them
out.
All
such
reasons
spring
from
a
scries
of
practical
and
ethical
questions
which
involve
the
preservation
of
the
rights
and
dignity
of
the
prisoner
suhjects
of
such
research
by
those
who
enjoy
the
particu-
lar
status,
authority,
and
autonomy
of
the
professional
role.
It
is
best
to
begin,
I
think,
by
examining
some
of
the
relevant
dimensions
of
that
role
and
the
ethical
justification
for
the
research
that
is
done
in
it.
Tlre
Professional
Complex-Talcott
Parsons
has
suhrested
that
a
profession
is
a
complex
of
activities
with
three
principal
functions:
1 )
research,
concerned
primarily
with
the
creation
of
new
knowledge;
2)
practice,
concerned
primarily
with
the
employment
of
knowledge
in
the
service
of
practical
human
interests:
and
31
teaching.
the
trans-
mission
of
knowledge
to
those
with
an
interest
in
its
acquisition.l
The
distinctions
are
~ital
because,
in
general
the
ethics
of
those
per-
forming
the
research
function
arc
developed
and
defended
by
refer-
ence
to
their
contribution
to
the
practice
function.
For
example,
iu
many
American
prisons
normal,
healthy
prisoners
are
asked
to
serve
as
subjects
for
the
testing
of
experimental
drugs.
At
the
stage
of
test-
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