Invisible, Hidden, Vulnerable, and Closed Populations and Data Collection: Issues, Challenges, and Strategies

1. Invisible, Hidden, Vulnerable, and Closed Populations and Data Collection: Issues, Challenges, and Strategies Roddrick Colvin City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice Department of Public Management

2. Introduction Agenda Research focus Research populations

3. Introduction • Agenda • discussion of terminology • typology of concept • strategies and methods • case study • Research focus • Research populations

4. Introduction • Agenda • Research focus • populations and public service delivery • critical incidents • emergency management • Research populations

5. Introduction • Agenda • Research focus • Research populations • LGBT public employees • transgender workers • lesbian and gay police officers

6. Terminology In the context of public management, we are often interested in populations are who are difficult to connect to public goods and services. There is a lack of clarity about who is difficult to connect to public goods and services. Hidden, Vulnerable, Invisible, Closed In the literature, these terms are employed inconsistently.

7. Terminology Disadvantaged or disenfranchised groups (Lambert & Wiebel 1998) • Examples: ethnic people, gay and lesbian people, or homeless people People who do not wish to be found or contacted (Brackertz 2007) • Examples: illicit drug users or gang members

8. Terminology People who feel they cannot comfortably or safely access goods or services (Jones 2010) - Example: migrant workers Persons subject to exploitation due to inequities in culture and reinforced social norms (Israel 2008) • Examples: sex workers, MSM, injection drug users

9. Terminology Broader segments of the population (Jones & Newburn 2001) • Examples: old or young people or people with disabilities Populations who are not identified or included in data collection or service delivery plans (Cruikshank 1991) • Examples: elderly, casual drug users, mental health recipients

10. Terminology (Hard to Reach) Those populations who slip through the net, and may be service resistant (Doherty et al. 2004) • Examples: seniors who qualify for additional services, ESL populations Those who actively seek to conceal their group identity (Duncan et al. 2003) • Examples: wealthy or extremists

11. Terminology (Stigmatizing?) Populations have been called: Obstinate Recalcitrant Chronically uninformed Disadvantaged Have-not Illiterate Multifunctional Information poor (Freimuth and Mettger 1990)

12. Hard to Reach

13. Origins and Usage ‘hard to reach’ Emerges from medical and health research where ‘hard to reach’ often appears in relation to the ability of health services to reach out to certain groups who are difficult to contact (or difficult to influence using existing techniques). (Burhansstipanov & Krebs 2005)

14. Origins and Usage ‘hard to reach’ Social marketing: to affect change in behavior using marketing tools and techniques adopted from the private sector (Walsh 1993). Social marketing is a consumer focused approach that believes nobody is impossible to reach; it just depends on the approach taken.

15. From Populations to Characteristics Young Old Rural People with disabilities Racial or ethical groups Singles Drug users Former drug users Militias Prostitutes

16. From Populations to Characteristics Youth gangs Lesbians Lesbian nurses Gay men Gay police officers Lesbian police officers Wealthy Young trust funders Victims of domestic violence

17. From Populations to Characteristics Sexually active teens MSM Undocumented workers Food pantry users Uninsured people Society members ...

18. From Populations to Characteristics (Typology) The best research uses characteristics and attributes as a basic landscape (Jones and Newburn 2001) The typology and characteristics are important because it can help us think about and better understand the best approaches to gathering data and/or understanding potential challenges to hard to reach populations.

19. Characteristics/Attributes Demography Cultural Behavioral Attitudinal Administrative

20. Demographics

21. Cultural

22. Behavioral

23. Attitudinal

24. Administrative

25. Methodologies and Strategies for Data Collection Qualitative Approach Snowball Sampling A technique for finding research subjects. One subject gives the researcher the name of another subject, who in turn provides the name of a third, and so on (Vogt 1999). Highly qualitative and exploratory studies call for a purposive non-probability sampling design, which is not after the representativeness of samples.

26. Snowball Sampling The snowballing sampling method is akin to the opportunity sampling technique, the chaining sampling technique and the referral sampling technique (referred informants). All forms of convenience sampling

27. Methodologies and Strategies for Data Collection Although they violate the principles of sampling, the use of snowball strategies provides a means of accessing ‘hard to reach’ populations.

28. Methodologies and Strategies for Data Collection Snowball sampling has improved (aided by advancements in technology and process) as a technique and the literature contains evidence of a trend towardmore sophisticated methods of sampling frame and error estimation.

29. Angles on Snowball Sampling Facility-based Time-location Targeted Response Driven

30. Facility-based sampling Recruiting population members from a variety of facilities frequented by members. Also know as institution-based.

31. Time-location sampling Time-location sampling randomly selects venues as proxies for randomly selecting population members.

32. Targeted sampling Targeted sampling extends the ideas of snowball sampling to include an initial ethnographic assessment aimed at identifying the various networks or subgroups that might exist in a given setting.

33. Respondent driven sampling Network-based sampling technique to overcome the bias of traditional convenience samples by using mathematical models that weights the sample to compensate for the fact that the sample was collected in a non-random way. This approach includes an estimate of sample size.

34. Methodologies and Strategies for Data Collection Snowball samples have a number of deficiencies Problems of representativeness Finding respondents and initiating ‘chain referral’ Engaging respondents as informal research assistants

35. Lesbian and Gay Police Officers as a Case Study Shared Perceptions about the Workplace Demographics about the Officers Interested in 'out' and 'closed' Officers – Demographic, Cultural, Attitudinal Challenges

36. Lesbian and Gay Police Officers as a Case Study 2007 Study USA Survey Professional Association Annual Conference 66 respondents 2009 Study UK Online Survey Profession Association Extensive Listserve 267 respondents

37. Lesbian and Gay Police Officers as a Case Study 2010-11 Study UK Key Interviews (GLOs) [institution based] Online Survey Profession Association/GLOs Geographic Representation Goal: 43 Policing Units Represented

38. Reaching Lesbian and Gay Police Officers For this hard to reach population … Creditability matters Associations members as sampling populations Collaboration matters Methods and technology matters

39. Conclusion Consideration of 'hard to reach' common in public service delivery and emergency management Some communities are more difficult than others Few mechanisms for the truly 'invisible' Snowballing and social networks help tremendously

40. References If you would like a list of references and additional sources, contact me at: rcolvin@jjay.cuny.edu