Participatory Action Research with High-risk Groups: Best Practice for Researchers' Safety and Data Integrity

Partnerships with high-risk groups can be fraught with personal and methodological problems resulting in researcher ill health, poor data and corrupt analysis. Based upon the literature, a method was developed to avoid these outcomes for a longitudinal community psychology study which required researcher immersion into the subculture of outlaw motorcycle clubs (‘OMCs’) during Phase One. The methodology, termed ‘insider-outsider’, improved the accuracy of data collection, compelled researcher debriefing and allowed for enhanced use of data for participant action research (‘PAR’). The ‘insider-outsider’ methodology also appears to have initially prevented negative consequences of ethnographic and participant action research reported elsewhere. However, more long-term analysis demonstrated these methods resulted in the OMCs ‘going their own way’, but still using the foundations, tactics and principles used in the initial establishment of the study. This methodological comment presents a pilot methodology to advance the field's knowledge about entry and access of PAR.