Introduction

This chapter addresses dilemmas and conflicts in research with people who hold different opinions and values to the researcher. The chapter draws on three research experiences: a female researcher directly and indirectly interacting with members of a recognised group targeted for identity-based victimisation who do not necessarily identify as ‘victims’; a male researcher indirectly interacting with people of undisclosed or ‘virtual’ identities demonstrating extremist ideologies; and a male researcher directly interacting with convicted male sexual offenders. There is a tension in each case between researcher standpoint (interpretive framework) and research participant standpoint. In each case, the viewpoint of the research participant presents problems for the researcher in acknowledging ‘whose side’ she or he is on, while also retaining a commitment to listen to and present data from participants in a way that respects their own ‘truth’.

Qualitative research with marginalised people can allow the expression of ‘difficult’ or sensitive issues; on occasions, this is problematic. According to the epistemological standpoint of the researcher, the purpose of empirical investigation may be to obtain the objective ‘truth’ about particular events or it may be to understand how researchers and research participants co-construct and interpret their stories (Franklin, 1997). Data from qualitative research may be construed as more or less accurately representing the experiences under examination, or as a current narrative of value in itself (Miller, 2000). Whatever standpoint is taken, presentation of data involves choices and is inevitably some form of interpretation. However, choices about presentation are not value-free.

‘Values’ is a problematic concept; Banks (2006, p 6) offers this working definition: ‘“values” can be regarded as particular types of belief that people hold about what is regarded worthy or valuable’. This brings together issues of both ethics and epistemology – ‘good’ conduct and ‘good’ knowledge underpin the values that orientate a researcher to her/his research task (of course, issues of what is ‘good’ in either case may be contested). ‘Values’, however, often initiate and drive qualitative research; in this chapter, feminist values influence the shape and conduct of the homophobia and sex offenders studies, and anti-racist values underpin the internet study. Moreover, all of the studies share values that consider interpersonal violence and the threat of interpersonal violence to be morally wrong.