Grant: Operating Grant - Priority Announcement: Ethics

Many of the men and women who work in Canada's sex industry experience devastating health problems including violence, mental illness, sexually transmitted infections and HIV. Research aimed at addressing these pressing health issues has grown. Sex workers and researchers have identified many ethical challenges in carrying out this research: exclusion of sex worker sub-populations; problematic consent; bias in the methods and topics applied in research; voyeurism; and maintaining privacy and confidentiality. Given that research ethics are critical to the quality of research findings, these challenges raise important questions about real and potential limitations of some of this research to inform policy and health care programming aimed at addressing the grave health inequities experienced by sex workers. To date, there has been minimal research in Canada that has investigated research ethics in relation to research in the field of sex work and health. Most of what we know arises from retrospective discussions about researchers' experiences in undertaking the research. Bioethicists, sex workers, and researchers have identified a pressing need for research that interrogates ethical research conduct and generates evidence to promote greater ethical engagement. Our study proposes to undertake an empirical investigation into the ethical challenges of doing research in this field. We also propose to examine the range of contextual factors (e.g., values and beliefs; knowledge, skill, abilities and attitudes regarding research ethics; research ethics guidelines and policies) that influence the research process. We will conduct interviews with sex workers and researchers and analyze this data in relation to existing ethical policies and guidelines that govern the research process. Findings will be used to develop training resources for sex worker and researcher stakeholders to improve ethical policies and practices for engaging in sex work and health research.