Kosinski, Matz, Gosling, Popov, and Stillwell (2015) state that the quality of scientific social research can vary. One of the concerns and the reason why social scientists can be anxious about research ethics is that there have been cases of abuse of the individuals’ rights under the guise of social research. Professional codes and laws were introduced to prevent scientific abuse of human lives as far back as the end of World War II, when the Nazi experiments on humans led to the ‘Nuremberg Code’
(1947), which was the leading code for all subsequent codes made to protect human rights and set standards regarding the ethical conduct of all researchers. Therefore, ethics need to be observed whenever humans are used as study participants to ensure that their rights are protected and that their physical, emotional and mental integrity is protected (Polit & Beck, 2013). The researcher ensured that the code of ethics was adhered to at all times.
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Permission to conduct this study was granted by the Faculty of Higher Degrees Committee (FHDC), the Turfloop Research Ethics Committee (TREC) of the University of Limpopo and the confirmation letter by TCC coordinator was issued to the candidate to conduct interviews.
4.5.2 Advocacy of dignity and human rights
This study was taken to an independent ethic review, the TREC, and all ethical considerations were guided by the Code of Ethics of the UL policies regarding research. The researcher fully adhered to the promotion and observation of social and ethical values and standards at all times. This study ensured that the participants were treated with respect and dignity, the participants’ time and input was appreciated and prior consent of the participants’ voluntary participation was granted by the participants and thus, no participant was coerced to participate in the research study.
4.5.3 Voluntary participation
Guraya, London, and Guraya (2014) share that voluntary participation refers to a human research subject's exercise of free will in deciding whether to participate in a research activity. For participation to be voluntary, subjects must have foreknowledge of likely risks and benefits of participation and of their option to withdraw from participation at any time.
No individual was forced to take part in this study, participation in the interviews was from the participants’ own free will and right state of mind, with the full understanding of the aim and objectives of the study. It was also clearly stated and spoken in words and in writing that participants could withdraw from participating at any time, without any negative consequences, should they feel a need to withdraw from an interview.
4.5.4 Informed consent
Jefford and Moore (2008) state that this ethical principle emphasised that subjects should give their consent to participate only after researchers have fully disclosed the purpose of the research, its entailment, and its potential effects or consequences.
Informed consent is the process of telling potential research participants about the key elements of a research study and what their participation will involve.
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The informed consent process is one of the central components of the ethical conduct of research with human subjects. Informed consent includes information about the nature, extent, and duration of the participation requested, and the disclosure of the risks and benefits of participation in the research (Clacherty & Donald, 2007). In this study, a consent form was issued by the researcher to participants with the rules and regulations about their rights as participants to sign before participating in the study.
The rules and regulations on the consent form were translated into the local vernacular to participants by the researcher to ensure that the participants signed the form with the full understanding of what the study involved.
4.5.5 Confidentiality
A deductive disclosure, also known as internal confidentiality (Tolich, 2004) occurs when the traits of individuals or groups make them identifiable in research reports (Sieber & Tolich, 2012). However, participant’s identification in any research needs to be protected to ensure their privacy (Petrova, Dewing, & Camilleri (2016). In this study, the participants responses, including the audio-recording and the field notes, and any particulars such as their names and surnames were treated as confidential information and withheld from scrutiny and identification. The researcher further ensured that the retained information that was given by the participants was kept and stored in a confidential manner, and the information was not shared with other people except with the academic supervisors assigned to the researcher.
4.5.6 No harm
The term ‘harm’ used within the context of research may be interpreted in many ways, especially as “what counts as harmful [to one] can be subjective and perceptions of harm may vary among stakeholders” (Buchanan & Warwick, 2021). While the term harm usually refers to injuring a person physically, emotionally or mentally, it is often cited as being important to avoid any potential harm in relation to carrying out research among children, the elderly, other vulnerable groups or the disabled (Pessach, 2008).
According to Monette, Sullivan, and Jong (1994), research participants should never be exposed to situations that might cause them any serious or lasting harm. For this study, the researcher ensured that none of the participants were ever exposed to any form of harm.
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Participants were notified that in case they felt some questions sounded offensive to them, or that the question was insensitive, they could opt not to respond to such questions. The researcher was ready to refer them to a social worker or a psychologist for professional counselling or an intervention should it be found that they needed counselling or that harm in any way was inflicted on them due to the nature of questions posed. No such request took place during the course of this research.
4.5.7 Beneficence
Jahn (2011) stated that beneficence refers to providing benefits in order for people to participate in a study. In this study, it was made expressly clear to the potential participants that they were not to receive any personal gain from their participation. No participant benefited in terms of payment, but participants were assured that their participation would benefit the community of the Mankweng area and South African policymakers and other communities at large. As a result, proper strategies and recommendation would be devised to assist with issues of assisting victims of sexual offences.