THE SOCIAL CONTEXT
    Logistical Problems
    Some Ethical Issues
    Use of Research Results

    Evaluation research highlights some of the problems discussed earlier in the book, evident whenever research and real life intersect.  Let's suppose the program intervention is aimed specifically at men who have been incarcerated for spousal abuse, men who are currently living in jails and prisons.  This brings the advantage of making them easier to identify and locate.  However, you may find jailers and wardens unwilling to go along with parts of the program and/or of the evaluation research.  The more serious the social problem involved, the less likely it is that you will have a free hand to design and execute research as you please.

    Evaluation research frequently brings a special set of ethical issues as well.  If the program under evaluation is designed to help people and seems to be working, there is an ethical issue involved in continuing to deny the effective treatment to those in the control group.  Or if the treatment has no effect or even makes people worse, there will be ethical pressure to stop administering the treatment.  In each case, the norms of science would require the study to run its full course, but human ethical norms may conflict with science.

    This section of the chapter will conclude with a discussion of whether and how the results of evaluation are used.