Anthropologists are most likely to encounter ethical dilemmas when studying populations who, by definition, are engaging in illegal or questionable activities in the shadow economy.  Anthropologists often study prostitutes, crack addicts, street children, and other marginalized populations in order to try to help them or to help understand them so that government and other organizations can provide appropriate help that meets their needs.

Anthropologist Clare Sterk walked the streets with prostitutes in New York and Atlanta in the 1990s and came to understand their lives from their perspective.  She started out by hanging around, and once she talked to some of the prostitutes about her research, she started building trust by giving rides, providing child care, or buying groceries.  Sometimes she would listen for hours to stories unrelated to her research in order to establish rapport and position herself as the learner.  Many women were flattered that they had something to teach.  

Sterk often found herself in ethically uncomfortable positions.  She would hear stories of pimps or customers abusing women, customers forcing unwanted acts, and boyfriends who had unrealistic expectations of women providing money to support their drug habits.  Once she was threatened by a crack-house owner and had to leave a scene before violence erupted.  She was sometimes asked to hold drugs or money stolen from a customer.  In these cases, she would usually re-explain her researcher role and often would just have to leave a particular scene.

Sterk would be subject to the same uncomfortable conditions as her subjects—freezing weather, no access to a washroom, no restaurant access, and harassment by customers and police.  She had to be careful to express empathy, not opinions.  She lost a lot of trust one day when she said she felt sorry for a woman who was in a particularly abusive situation.  She was interpreted as being judgemental and implying that the woman was a failure, when, in fact, her intention was to express her concern.  Sterk also had emotional reactions to situations that were at odds with her researcher role:  she almost adopted one woman and her family, had an intense hatred for a crack-house owner, and was angry with a woman whose partner was HIV-positive and refused to use a condom.  To deal with her own emotions, she to take breaks from the scene to regain her researcher perspective.





What are the dangers and risks in this kind of research? What are the benefits? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Explain.
What are the dangers and risks in this kind of research?  What are the benefits?  Do the benefits outweigh the risks?  Explain.