Fisk-Memo35

For me, the ethical issue which has been most prominently on my mind has to do with cultural relativism. I find myself consistently torn between critically examining the construction of crime and deviance by dominant institutions on one hand, and acknowledging the actual harms which result from the behaviors that become criminal and deviant on the other. I've discussed examples of “sexting” and posting nude pictures of oneself online with Brent and Denver at length. Arguably there is nothing inherently harmful about the engagement in these forms of behavior by teens, and these behaviors seem to make sense as situated within contemporary youth culture. Only after these activities have been reinterpreted through dominant discourse do they become harmful. While it appears to me that dominant discourses should be implicated in the harms youth experience following engagement in these types of activities, I must acknowledge that it is unlikely doing so will change those discourses in a way which would significantly prevent or diminish those harms. If that is the case, then is it ethical to criticize those who, while remaining unaware of their role in the production of the harms youth experience, nevertheless are in many ways legitimately attempting to protect youth?

There are, of course, other more obvious ethical issues with my research – will I be asking children to recount painful or embarrassing incidents? Will doing so contribute to the harms they have experienced as a result? Will merely talking about the deviant and criminal behaviors youth engage in online somehow result in the further reproduction and legitimation of those activities?