NCJ Number
232634
Date Published
2010
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This chapter identifies and examines several problems inherent in conducting research with hard-to-reach or hidden offender populations, including locating the population of interest, recruiting them for the research, eliciting accurate and credible information from them, and assessing the truthfulness of their accounts.
Abstract
Each of these problems is examined with the use of examples from the author's own research, and suggestions for addressing some of the problems are offered. He concludes that it is possible to recruit reliable, if not representative, samples of criminals and at-risk persons that are superior to many methods of using data collected from secondary sources or captive populations. Ethnographic methods constitute a reliable way to find hard-to-reach or hidden populations. Among the primary strengths of the ethnographic method is the presence of the researcher in the field conducting participant observation over extended periods of time. This allows researchers to develop relationships within a community. Ethnography is not a panacea, however, and it has been criticized on a number of grounds, including being time-consuming and yielding small samples, which undermines its cost-effectiveness. This chapter describes other methods and examples of successfully recruiting robust samples of hard-to-reach or hidden populations. An example is provided of multistage probability sampling in a high-crime neighborhood. Other research methods discussed for such populations are respondent-driven sampling, ways of convincing such populations to participate in research, and how to elicit accurate and credible information from research subjects once they are engaged in interviews. Ways of assessing the accuracy and truthfulness of self-report information are also discussed. 4 notes and 22 references