ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the specific challenges and dilemmas that ethnographers often come across, and the potential tensions that can emerge when working with those who live their lives on the margins of society or against the backdrop of violence. When working with marginalised groups, those who are involved in violence or those assigned to police that violence, the ethical issues become complex. The chapter discusses author's recent experiences of shadowing police officers out on patrol while tackling violence in both Scotland and the USA. One of the first dilemmas that researchers encounter when doing ethnography is how best to access participants. In considering the style of participant observation that ethnographers adopt once access has been achieved, it is useful to refer to Golds continuum. The chapter refers to Goffmans views about the need for ethnographers to subject themselves to their participants life circumstances and to accept all of the desirable and undesirable things that feature in their lives.
