'Once would be enough': Some reflections on the issue of safety for lone researchers

Abstract

Reporting on an exploratory e-mail survey of social researchers experienced in one-to-one interviewing or lone observation, this paper addresses the issue of researcher safety in social research. Despite the acknowledgement that the chance of a dangerous encounter is low, social researchers state that fears about their personal safety do arise during fieldwork periods, and that these fears can affect the quality of their data collection. Our research indicates that a carefully implemented code of safety practice for fieldworkers could be a positive development in the social sciences. Fears about personal safety could be reduced if mandatory procedures were established for researchers to follow throughout their fieldwork.