a comment on Erich Goode's confession

An ethnographer cannot be rigid and follow a set of rules in all situations. As circumstances change, techniques must change, and temptations arise that ''abstracted empiricists'' never face. Most contemporary ethnography is carried out at the researcher's expense, and the time required is extensive. Although a small portion could perhaps be ''ethically challenged,'' there is not doubt that much of our knowledge of crime and deviance comes from the commitment of involved researchers who risk reputations and jobs acquiring it. Revelations of researchers' sex lives with respondents do not add to or detract from the truth in their work. Social scientists have enough ego strength to keep them from misrepresenting their findings in any important way. I think Goode's works speaks for itself. His socialogical imagination stayed intact even as he went to bed.