O RIENTACIÓN PRIORITARIA II: S ALUD Y BIENESTAR

Once ethical clearance had been obtained and the research proposal submitted, the entire research project took about forty-three months to complete. The activities presented below often overlapped. It was impossible to anticipate all the potential obstacles that might be encountered, therefore some allowances were made for the unexpected (Mouton, 2008:199).

The study in its entirety, from conception until finalisation, took a total of four years and seven months.

66 Table 4: Timeline of the study

May 2014 to March 2017 April 2017 to December2017 January 2018 to May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 January 2019 Submitted Concept Paper , Proposal and obtained ethical clearance Began data collection after receiving clearance from UKZN HSSREC Coding and analyses of the data commenced Research findings Began writing of report Submitted report 4.8 Ethical Considerations

According to De Vos et al. (2014:114), research ethics are widely accepted as:

“…those moral principles that establish the rules and behavioural expectations about the most correct conduct in dealing with experimental subjects and participants, employers, sponsors, other researchers, assistants and students. They serve as a standard and a basis upon which each researcher ought to evaluate his or her own conduct and, as such, should be borne in mind continuously.”

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In the execution of this research project, the researcher ensured that all relevant research ethics were adhered to, particularly in terms of avoidance of harm, voluntary participation, informed consent, avoiding deception of subjects or participants, and no violation of privacy/anonymity/confidentiality. Measures were put in place to ensure that the participants were not physically or psychologically harmed during the research. The participants were thoroughly informed beforehand about the potential emotional impact of participating in the study because it was difficult to predict the emotional harm they might experience. The researcher is a trained and experienced senior police officer and ensured that the participants were protected from any physical harm. De Vos et al. (2014:115) state that researchers should “identify participants who could possibly prove to be vulnerable during investigation in order that they may be eliminated from the study beforehand”. Therefore, the inmates who participated in the study did so on a voluntary basis and were informed of the opportunity to withdraw from the research if they wanted to do so. Before commencing the interviews, informed written consent was obtained from each of the research subjects and they were given complete and accurate information about the details and purpose of the research. Informed consent was crucial in this research project because of the authoritive position of the researcher and the powerless, lower social status of the participants. Care was thus taken to focus on the position of the interviewer as a researcher who is a student and not as a senior police official with authority of the state. It was equally important to avoid any possible deception of the participants, therefore no information was withheld from them and no part of the research was misrepresented. The researcher ensured that the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of the participants were guaranteed. According to De Vos et al., some forms of behaviour such as illegal activities are areas that most people consider private and thus subjects expect researchers to protect their right to privacy.

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This study dealt with the investigation of a very sensitive issue, namely illicit drug use, and therefore the aspect of the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants was given rigorous attention. There was some concern that participants might refuse to participate in the study, but equally important was the belief that they might be keen to participate voluntarily as part of their rehabilitation process. Their informed consent was therefore sought prior to the commencement of the interviews to ensure that the inmates did not participate in the study in fear of victimisation or covert threats. No compensation for participating in the research was offered. Few participants sought treatment for their whoonga addiction and were advised to attend rehabilitation programmes and consult the social services within the prison. The request for ethical clearance for this study was submitted to the Department of Correctional Services prior to the commencement of the project. The research project was also submitted to the University of KwaZulu-Natal Ethical Clearance Committee for approval. This process was time-consuming due to the high level of gate keeping to protect the security of inmates. The university’s Ethics Clearance Committee applied very strict rules before it granted final ethical clearance, and there were even stricter rules by the Department of Correctional Services (DoCS) before final ethical clearance was obtained. The ethical clearance approval processes took much longer than two years. Moreover, a similar approval process had to be followed before approval was granted by the South African Police Services (SAPS) for the researcher to access the closed police dockets. Accessing correctional facilities as a researcher was more than difficult because the prisoners’ details were confidential and the safety of the researcher could not be guaranteed; thus it was made clear that accessing these facilities occurred at the researcher’s own risk.

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Despite the fact that the researcher was accompanied by prison officials at all the research facilities, the danger of being assaulted by an offender remained highly probable during the visits to the three prisons.