Ethics and Terrorism Research: The Rights, Safety and Vulnerability of Participant and Researcher

Recent decades has seen a proliferation of primary data-led research in contemporary terrorism studies. With this comes ethical responsibilities. This chapter focuses on the ethical challenges and issues frequently faced in terrorism research. As part of the discussion, the authors discuss the development of the Framework for Research Ethics in Terrorism Studies (FRETS). This was designed by the authors to assist researchers, ethics reviewers, and ethics committee chairs in the development and review of ethics applications related to terrorism studies research. The chapter challenges readers to think critically about how we assess ethical risks. Within this there has to be equal care and attention paid to participants’ and researcher’s rights, safety and vulnerability. The chapter concludes by emphasising that when done properly the ethical review of research proposal should enhance rather than diminish the quality of the research.