Captive Population

In some instances, qualitative research is conducted among a captive population. This term refers to the use of participants who find themselves in a context (often an institution, e.g., a school, a prison, a hospital) where they are constrained and dependent on others for their care and for access to them as research participants.

Researchers may choose to work with these persons because of their physical and organizational proximity. In this case, the respondents form a convenience sample. The best-known example of a captive population may be university students who are asked to participate in a research project of their faculty that aims at providing information about phenomena that are also present among other populations.

In other instances, researchers study captive populations because they are the only ones who can provide relevant in-depth information about (living in) the constraining context itself. Conducting in-depth interviews among prisoners to gain insight into the incarceration experience is an example of this second approach. Compared with quantitative methods (e.g., questionnaires, analyses of official criminal data), this qualitative method has the advantage of producing more detailed information about the perspectives, experiences, and slang of the actors. It also allows researchers to discover illegal or deviant activities and to reach illiterate prisoners who are not able to participate in a written questionnaire.

Working with individuals who are in dependent or restricted relationships with the researcher and/or with the institutional personnel often gives rise to ethical questions and methodological problems. The most obvious ethical issue is that of voluntary consent because members of captive populations might not dare to refuse participation. When they do participate in a study, these respondents often feel prohibited from talking freely about their experiences. It is the researcher's role to emphasize the confidentiality of research data and to ensure the privacy of the respondents. Methodological issues associated with working with captive populations as a convenience sample and as a purposive sample are nonrepresentativeness and difficulties of gaining access to the research setting (e.g., the institution) and the actors of interest, respectively. The first problem refers to the fact that findings that are based on a study among a specific captive population (e.g., students) cannot be extrapolated to other kinds of audiences in the general population. The second problem refers to the existence of institutional gatekeepers (e.g., prison governors) whose permission is needed to get in touch with the captive population.

It is clear that working with captive populations is sometimes preferable or even inevitable for qualitative researchers, but this also requires special considerations.