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3 Health & Just. 1 (2015)

handle is hein.journals/hlthjs3 and id is 1 raw text is: Quinn Health and Justice 20153:1 DOI 10.1186/s40352-014-0013-z Health & Justice STD PRO4CS: S S Acces General considerations for research with vulnerable populations: Ten lessons for success Camille R Quinn Abstract Background: This paper offers practical insights for researchers who conduct studies with vulnerable populations, including those using secondary data sources from government entities. Methods/Design: The paper is based on the approval process to secure secondary government data from a Midwestern county juvenile probation department and the state courts for the author's dissertation study. Discussion: This paper proposes general considerations and ten lessons learned to successfully conduct research with vulnerable populations and/or their information. Youth involved in the juvenile justice system comprise a vulnerable population based on their age and because of their system involvement. Scholars have identified a pro- file of vulnerable youth that is made up of primarily poor, African American males (Foster et al. 2005), and risk factors associated with delinquency (Fraser et al. 1999; Werner 2000). Consequently, future research must continue to elucidate ways to address the complex and multi-faceted needs of vulnerable populations, especially those involved in the juvenile justice system. One of the key issues facing researchers studying justice involved youth, is their designation as a vulnerable population, and how that impacts the researchers' ability to include them as subjects in their studies. Consequently, re- searchers whose studies include vulnerable populations need to understand the specific issues related to con- ducting research with them. Researchers face many challenges in conducting re- search, especially when vulnerable populations are in- volved. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) federal regulations recognize certain categories of individuals as 'vulnerable, so they need to be accorded special protections to make sure that researchers do not take advantage of them (Coleman, Menikoff, Goldner, and Dubler 2005). Also, the federal government regulates human subjects research with institutional review boards Correspondence: camille_Quinn@urmc.rochester.edu NIH/NMIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine & Dentistry, 300 Crittenden Boulevard Box PSYCH, Rochester, NY 14642, USA 1Ei Springer (IRBs) at academic institutions that conduct research stud- ies. Among other things, the IRB wants to ensure that researchers maintain privacy and confidentiality of subjects (Schwenzer 2008) or the subjects' information. Achieving IRB approval for studies is a complex and time-consuming process, and studying vulnerable populations, such as youth in the juvenile justice system, makes the process even more difficult. Moreover, the use of government information about vulnerable youth requires the approval of government entities as well as IRBs. Background Human ethics and research committees act as research gatekeepers, and since many research activities involve multiple applications and approvals, the process can significantly delay the start and completion of a project (McCauley-Elson et al. 2009). Consequently, it is critical for researchers to understand the ethical principles out- lined in the Belmont Report, especially when studying vulnerable populations. The Belmont Report is a useful reference for highlighting important considerations about conducting research with vulnerable populations including justice-involved youth. The report, prepared by the Na- tional Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, is a declaration on the ethical principles overseeing human experimentation (Public Health Service 1979). The report continues to ar- ticulate enduring normative standards regarding research practices with vulnerable populations even though it was originally issued in 1979 (Dresser 1996). © 2015 Quinn; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.

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