Ethical forensic practice (lecture 6)

Why is ethics important in FP?

• FP one of most ethically problematic fields → required to make some difficult decisions on daily basis and many ethical in nature.

• Ethical expertise required to be developed throughout careers.

• Need to be aware of own ethical values and how these may influence your practice → inner conflict, abide by principles do not necessarily agree with.

How does power link to importance of ethics (Crighton and Town, 2015)?

As general rule, the wider the power differential, the higher the risk of power abuses.

What issues may arise without ethical conduct which negatively impact treatment outcomes?

• Offender details may find their way into wrong hands → e.g. sensitive info about MH or offence

• Attempting tasks we are not adequately trained for → e.g. facilitating an intervention or psychometric test we know little about.

• Taking advantage of offenders → e.g. involving them in research, treatment or interventions not appropriate to them.

• No trust between disciplines (e.g. FP and prison staff) or different aspects of CJS (e.g. courts, prison service).

What are the four key parts of BPS code of ethics and conduct for FP?

Respect, competence, responsibility and integrity

What are the four elements of respect?

General, privacy, informed consent and self determination

What is involved in general respect (respect)?

1. Respect individual or cultural differences (e.g. age, ethnicity)

2. Respect knowledge and experience of offenders (should not assume we know more than offender in front of us) → e.g. states negative impact of decision on psych functioning, need to listen as this is knowledge we cannot know.

3. Avoid unfair/prejudiced practices → e.g. refusing offender opportunity to attend intervention without good reason.

4. Be willing to explain basis of ethical decision making → e.g. to collegues, prison governors and offenders themselves

What is involved in privacy (respect)?

1. Keep records of dealing with offenders

2. Store any sensitive information appropriately

3. Make offenders aware of limits to confidentiality (e.g. if pose risk to self or others, obliged to report).

4. Obtain offender’s consent for disclosure of their confidential information → only disclose info without explicit consent in serious cases and document breaches of confidentiality. Consult professional colleague if considering breaching confidentiality.

What is involved in informed consent (respect)?

1. Inform offender of what treatment will involve and how it will impact them before placing them in any treatment, must be consistently informed of any info that may impact willingness to continue → improves self efficacy.

2. Avoid deceiving or withholding info from offenders unless it is to preserve the efficacy of treatment.

3. Ensure offenders not pressured into taking part in treatment.

4. Keep records when have gained consent.

5. Know who might not be able to give consent.

6. Do not proceed if have not gained consent.

What is involved in self-determination (respect)?

1. Respect offenders’ wishes as much as possible

2. Ensure all offenders are made aware of right to withdraw from intervention you are providing → can also decide to withdraw someone, e.g. if being disruptive, not engaging

3. Ensure info from offenders that have withdrawn is destroyed → Data protection act

What are the four key elements of competence?

Awareness of professional ethics, ethical decision making, recognising limits of competence and recognising impairment.

What is involved in awareness of professional ethics (competence)?

• Need understanding of ethical principles that govern how to perform role

• E.g. code of ethics and conduct, code of human research ethics, standards of conduct, performance and ethics and ethics guidelines for internet-mediated research

What is involved in recommended ethical decision making process (Bush, Connell and Denny, 2006)?

……

What is involved in recognising limits of competence (competence)?

Must ensure we are sufficiently trained and skilled by:

• Engaging in continuing professional development such as training courses and refreshers.

• Keeping aware of developments within field such as via conferences and recent publications.

• Keeping in contact with supervisor or treatment manager where we should be open to feedback to let us know when in danger of breaching levels of competency.

If we are in supervision role → need to ensure that those we are supervising are competent in duties they have been given.

What is involved in recognising impairment (competence)?

1. Monitor professional and personal lifestyle so can recognise problems as they occur

2. Seek help if needed → professional help or self help

3. Stop working if competence impaired → important as dealing with vulnerable population and should take care of self if vulnerable

4. Encourage colleagues to seek help

What are the four key elements of responsibility?

General, termination and continuity of care, protection of research participants and debriefing of research participants

What is involved in general responsibility?

1. Avoid harming offenders in your care → if necessary may need to weigh up harm caused by acting against their wishes, e.g. if not benefitting from treatment but want to stay, weigh up risks

2. Avoid professional/personal misconduct

3. Be aware of risks to yourself (e.g. security and professional risks)

4. Be aware of ethics of those you work with

What is involved in termination and continuity of care (responsibility)?

1. Stop treating an offender if you feel they are not benefitting/unlikely to benefit from treatment

2. Seek advice (e.g. from supervisor, treatment manager) if confusion about whether service is to be continued

3. Make it clear to offender how/why service you are providing might be terminated

What is involved in protection of research participants (responsibility)?

1. Obtain approval from independent advisers if harm or discomfort likely to follow from research.

2. Consider all research from standpoint of ppts, e.g. consider impact of age, disability, education, etc

3. Ask ppts about individual factors that may lead to risk of harm by engaging in research and advise accordingly.

4. Refrain from using financial compensation/inducements → influences validity of results.

5. Do not allow right to withdraw to be affected by inducements/financial compensation.

What is involved in debriefing of research participants (responsibility)?

• Provide ppts with full explanation of research after study

• Provide with support after completion -→ transparency, respect

What are the four key elements of integrity?

• Honesty and accuracy

• Avoiding exploitation and conflicts of interest

• Maintaining personal boundaries

• Addressing ethical misconduct

What is involved in honesty and accuracy (integrity)?

1. Record results/behaviour that you observe with accuracy and without bias → e.g. must be honest and accurate even when noting results from risk assessments of offender you do not like

2. Be open and honest about qualifications, knowledge, skills → links to competence.

3. Be honest about contractual relationships → involves being honest concerning costs of treatment/advertising and ownership of research

What is involved in avoiding exploitation and conflicts of interest (integrity)?

What is involved in maintaining personal boundaries (integrity)?

What is involved in addressing ethical misconduct (integrity)?

Limitations?>

What four key elements make up the Code of Human Research Ethics (BPS)?

What is respect for autonomy and dignity?

Psychologists (should) value dignity and worth of all persons equally, with sensitivity to dynamics of perceived authority or influence over others and with particular regard to people’s rights including those of privacy and self-determination.

What is scientific value?

Psychologists are committed to ensuring that scientific and scholarly standards of their research are accountable and of sufficiently high quality and robustness.

What is social responsibility?

• Be self reflective → aware of responsibilities

• Work within limits of our competence

• Be able conduct research without disrupting social structures

• Be open to challenges that question the usefulness of our findings to society → if not benefitting, should it be allowed to go ahead?

• Consider consequences and outcomes of research → acknowledge often problematic nature of interpretation of findings

What is involved in maximising benefit/minimising harm?

Psychologists should consider all research from standpoint of research ppts and any other persons, groups or communities who may be potentially affected by research, with aim of avoiding