Covert Participant Observation of a Deviant Community: Justifying the Use of Deception

Abstract

When participant observation involves the use of deception, such as the use of a covert role and the manipulation of subjects, the study is fraught with methodological and ethical challenges that can make field research impossible and may result in harm to the participants. In this article, I maintain that covert participant observation is a useful and necessary tool in the examination of deviant communities, in particular new religious movements existing on the fringe of society. I argue that, on the basis of methodological necessity and a cost-benefit analysis, the use of deception is both operationally and ethically justifiable. In order to elucidate my argument, I draw upon the methodological and ethical challenges experienced during three years of covert participant observation of the Heritage Front, a neo-National Socialist organisation that adheres to a racial-religious worldview, and the fieldwork experiences of Stanley Barrett and Nigel Fielding.