Recent years have seen growing efforts to collect data on violence against children but there are currently no internationally recommended or agreed upon ethical guidelines for such research. Ethical guidelines are particularly crucial when carrying out research on violence against children, as they help to minimize the risk of potential harm resulting from the data collection process to participants, researchers and others, and ensure that any remaining risks are outweighed by the potential benefits. In addition, research ethics and methodologies are interlinked, with ethically sound research protocols and tools adding to the value of the research itself. The recently published literature review from the CP MERG Technical Working Group (TWG) on Data Collection on Violence against Children (VAC) aims to contribute to the development of such ethical guidelines. It aims to capture current thinking on ethical issues and provide empirical support to guide recommendations for ethical research practice and decision-making in collecting data on VAC. The review examines documentation, including both published and ‘grey’ literature that is of specific relevance to research ethics in collecting data on VAC. Its findings identify existing gaps in documentation and research and point to the need for further research to gain an understanding of the ethical issues involved in this research. In addition, the review highlights areas of potential risk to children who participate in research and the existing debates on these in the literature. The findings suggest the need to develop a strong framework for ethical research on violence against children, which provides clear direction while supporting reflexivity given the multiple contexts in which the research takes place. Key ethical principles can provide guidance to support this development, in conjunction with a children’s rights-based approach to research on violence, underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The literature review points to the need for on-going investment in continuing discussion and the extension of knowledge through research. The TWG plans to develop ethical and methodological guidelines for data collection on VAC as a next step. Membership of the TWG currently consists of the following institutions: Child-Fund, European Agency for Fundamental Rights, ICF Macro, International Labour Organisation, Plan International, Population Council, Save the Children and UNICEF (Chair). The report can be accessed at:
http://www.childinfo.org/files/Childprotection_EPDRCLitReview_final_lowres.pdf