Participant Observation vs. Undercover Investigations

Whenever I teach about participant observation (chapter 10), I nearly always get a question about how participant observation research compares with police undercover investigations.

The first thing I say is that the goal of research is to collect empirical data for scientific purposes. Whereas the goal of an undercover investigation is to collect evidence of a crime. Thus, at the outset there is a big difference in the goals of each.

In participant observation, an IRB must first review the prospectus of the research and decide whether any ethical problems exist. If ethical problems exist, the IRB must provide some guidelines on how to handle them. I like to tell the story of Jim Quinn, a member of the Department of Rehabilitation, Social Work, and Addictions at North Texas State. For his PhD research, he joined the Bandidos motorcycle gang in Miami. That research was also reported in his article:

Quinn, J. F. (1987). Sex roles and hedonism among members of`outlaw' motorcycle clubs" Deviant Behavior, 8, 47-63.

He had to cut his research short because he became convinced that if he remained in the club he would become party to a crime. Ethically, a scientist cannot use the conduct of research as an excuse to participate or be party to criminal acts.

Let's now look at undercover investigations. Recall, the goal here is to find evidence of criminal activity and to, later, prosecute it. Ethics is a concern here too. What are the permissible activities that an undercover officer may participate in? Can the officer smoke a joint? Obviously, officers must lie in order to establish a relationship with a criminal. In sex crime cases, like prostitution, how far can an officer allow sexual contact? Can an officer threaten someone into committing a crime? Can an officer continually offer criminal temptation to a potential criminal? The ethical line seems fuzzier and broader to me here than in participant observation.

All of the questions above are not really part of a typical psychology research course. However, many of the activities that participant observers and undercover investigators take part in are similar. Just remember that their goals are quite different.