Adler's Covert Role

The covert role and the overt role were the two research roles that Adler used in this field research study. The covert role allowed Adler and her husband to interact with people who would otherwise have refused to speak to them; the nature of their research had to be disguised from lay outsiders and academicians. This role offered the advantage of gaining access to unapproachable people while avoiding researcher effects, but it prevented them from asking necessary, probing questions and from recording conversations. The overt role was used when Adler felt like new people trusted her; some people were informed that Adler and her husband were involved in a study of dealing and smuggling. A concern that Adler had was related to the reliability of data; all conclusions on independent sources and accounts were carefully verified because there is a hidden and conflictual nature of the drug-dealing world. During interviews, marijuana hindered the interview process, while cocaine was a "research aid" since it opened people up,

While using the covert role, both researchers began to feel guilty since they felt like they were betraying their participants each time they went home and wrote research notes. Their aggressively friendly postures also made them feel guilty since they were based on hidden ulterior motives; they did favors for people with the clear expectation that participants could only pay them back with research assistance. To the researchers, it felt like they were being taken for granted; the subjects were able to lie, borrow money without paying back, and take advantage of Adler and her husband. One ethical concern about this research is that it seems a bit inappropriate to me that Adler and her husband would engage in a study like this, but field research can provide us with a lot of information about deviant