“Hidden in Plain Sight”: Locating the Men and Women of the 1954 Boston Special Youth Program

Authors

Richard K. Moule Jr., Arizona State University
Scott H. Decker, Arizona State University

Abstract

"The growing prevalence of longitudinal research in the social sciences, coupled with technological advances, provide new opportunities for researchers to more readily find participants from earlier studies. In addition, these advances necessitate the development of new strategies and methodologies for locating and building rapport with respondents. Drawing on previous methods of subject identification and location, this paper examines techniques for locating and interviewing former gang members from the 1954-1957 Special Youth Program in Roxbury, MA. In contrast to most longitudinal studies, (1) more than 50 years have passed since the original study with no contact with respondents in the interim, (2) we build on a study not intended to include long-term follow-ups, and (3) much of the location and identification of participants occurred using digital resources. Implications for harnessing digital technologies and methods of developing relationships with study participants otherwise wary of engaging researchers are discussed."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Moule, Richard K. Jr. and Decker, Scott H. (2013) "“Hidden in Plain Sight”: Locating the Men and Women of the 1954 Boston Special Youth Program," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 1: No. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol1/iss2/4