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Ethics in Criminological Research

Learn how criminological psychologists apply ethical principles to eyewitness and jury research, including protection from harm, confidentiality, consent, deception and withdrawal.

Syllabus
First assessment 2026
Course
Psychology XPS01/YPS01
Level
A2

Exam points

  • Protect participants from distress when research uses accident footage or sensitive criminal scenarios.
  • Apply confidentiality, consent and withdrawal principles to jury and eyewitness research scenarios.

6.3.2 - BPS ethics and risk management question 1

[Maximum number: 6]

Researchers assigned 40 offenders randomly to either a treatment group or a control group to test the effects of therapy on reoffending.

- Group A: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
- Group B: Control group.

The offenders were contacted one year after the research was completed in order to establish the rate of reoffending. The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2

Table 2

Question (a)

(a)

The researchers made sure they followed the ethical guidelines from the British Psychological Society (BPS) Code of Ethics and Conduct (2009) when undertaking their research into offender treatment programmes.
Describe one ethical guideline that the researchers would have considered in their research into offender treatment programmes.

[ 2 ]

Question (b)

(b)

Justify two reasons why the researchers may have breached ethical guidelines when conducting their research into offender treatment programmes.

1

2

[ 4 ]
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