Undercover Policeman Goes Native

The case of the policeman working undercover with an environmental group, who has now ‘gone over’ to the environmentalists side by offering to give evidence on their behalf against the police prosecution, is a great example of ‘going native’. Here’s a link to a good feature article on the BBC News site. There was an interesting interview on BBC News 24 when an ex-police officer said that a ‘good police officer’ will not ‘go native’. A similar sentiment could be expressed by sociologists. But is it that simple? However much the researcher may try to monitor their own actions, the rest of us in reading and assessing the products of such research can never be certain exactly how close to the truth the researcher has got. Have they embellished a bit? Have they self-censored their comments? Did they simply miss important detail and finally, did they make the right choice of group to infiltrate? Before we get too carried away by the worry of all the things that could go wrong however, its as well to remind ourselves that the so-called ‘more scientific’ methods advanced by other sociologists, can be no less free of bias and selective use of findings.