Voices Matter: The Impact of Serious Legal Problems on 16- to 30-year-olds in the Black Community

Methodology Overview

Data collection happened in two stages. Participants, recruited by OJEN’s community partners, were first asked to complete an online survey that collected demographic data about their age and racial self-identification to confirm membership in the target research group. The survey also asked demographic questions aligned to the demographic section of the Canadian Legal Problems Survey, focusing on employment, family structure, housing, and use of financial products. The survey also asked participants to identify if they have had different categories of serious legal problems in the previous three years. Participants who disclosed serious legal problems and met the eligibility criteria participated in online focus groups. Thirty-four people completed the online survey, all but one of whom met the age and racial identity criteria. Twenty-six people participated in the focus groups. Some of the online survey respondents met the eligibility criteria but were unable to participate in a focus group due to scheduling issues. The online survey questions are appended.

Four focus groups were held online using a video platform (Zoom). The focus groups brought together young people with previous involvement at one of the partnering community organizations. The researchers presented questions for discussion organized by theme. This group discussion allowed for the exploration of interconnected legal problems. It also allowed young people, who may have been unsure about whether their experience constituted a legal problem, to hear the related experiences of their peers. This methodology let participants give context to their experience, recognizing that participants’ inexperience or age affected their comfort with the focus group format and with identifying and discussing legal problems.

Each session was facilitated by at least two researchers. The focus group structure was described to participants, including the fact that the sessions were being recorded. Once the recording started, all participants were asked to turn on their cameras during the reading of the letter of consent to participate. They were asked to give a visual or audible indication of their consent to each statement. Throughout the rest of the session, participants could turn their cameras on and off, as they preferred. They answered questions orally or by using the chat feature to respond.

Ethical Considerations

This research is premised on accepted principles of research ethics. Steps were taken to maximize benefits and minimize harm (risk-benefit ratio) by obtaining informed consent from participants, protecting their confidentiality, avoiding any deception, and providing a right to withdraw from the research study at any time.

Our approach was grounded in the contextual understanding of young people’s lives with special procedures to protect their interests. The ethical considerations of research into young people’s experience combine the risk-benefit issues common when researching adults, with the added attention to young people’s inexperience with systems and lack of awareness of their legal rights and remedies. The facilitators warned against detailed descriptions of legal problems and intervened to promote anonymized accounts to protect privacy. There were no instances of detailed disclosure or admission of details of current charges or situations that warranted immediate assistance, legal advice, or intervention.

The research team was prepared to make effective referrals to legal aid and legal information and assistance, taking steps to protect rights. There was no instance that required a referral for legal supports.

Demographic and focus group data was collected using pseudonyms selected by each participant.1 Participants were asked to log in to the video call using their pseudonyms. The researchers and other participants were able to refer to each other using these pseudonyms, which displayed on the video screen next to any chats written by that participant. This approach minimized the risk of individual identification in the data analysis process and provided participants with an added layer of trust in the process. It allowed for conversational-style discussion without learning or using participants’ names.

A set of guidelines for the focus group discussion was outlined at the beginning of the session and reiterated at the end, reminding participants of their commitment to respect and maintain the privacy of participants.

At the end of the focus group sessions, participants were offered two benefits. They were given a $40 Amazon card, sent electronically within 24 hours. They were also advised that they could attend an OJEN public legal education session to help them address the direct and serious consequences of legal conflict in their lives.

Potential participants were emailed an information sheet describing the purpose of the research and the methodology, sent to them by the community partner. They completed an online consent form and then reiterated their consent to each component of the consent form visually or audibly at the beginning of the focus group sessions.

Summary results and the final report have been shared with the participants directly and with the community partners. This summary results version of the results is appended.

Geography

Originally planned prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study was designed to focus on participants in the Toronto area only, restricted by proximity to the researchers. The methodology was then adapted, in light of the prohibition on social gatherings, to be conducted online. This included consideration of online consents, recording and privacy issues. It also allowed for the participation of people from a larger geographic base, and participation was expanded to include people from and Ottawa.

Participant Recruitment

Participant recruitment was done by OJEN’s community partners. Youth workers and program staff liaised with young people engaged in the agency’s programming. Staff at these organizations shared a description of the research with people who fit the age and racial identity focus of the study. A listing of examples of serious legal problems, drawn from the Canadian Legal Problems Survey, was shared with potential research participants. Participants were asked to self-identify if they have had a serious legal problem, based on this description. They provided their age and demographic details, including racial identity and type of legal problems, in the online survey. Thirty-three people completed the survey and 26 of those who fit the research parameters and were available participated in the focus groups.

Community Partners

Agency staff expressed interest in the research and encouraged people to participate as an opportunity to share their experiences. Community partners were eager to see the results of the research and were generally pleased to see a focus on the experiences of 16- to 30-year-old members of the Black community. The community organizations that assisted with participant recruitment include:

Questions and Discussion Themes

The online survey asked age-appropriate questions linked to the demographic section of the Canadian Legal Problems Survey.

The focus groups were organized into four themes. For each theme, a consistent set of questions was posed. The themes were:

Scenario Prompts

At the beginning of each themed discussion, the researchers provided a series of scenario prompts to cue the interpretation of the theme and invite participants to respond with experiences aligned with the research questions.

Money Scenarios:

A serious legal problem with money might be:

Home Scenarios:

A serious legal problem at home might be:

Security / Personal Treatment:

A serious legal problem with security or personal treatment might be:

Safety

A serious legal problem with safety might be:

The discussion questions within each theme were:

  1. Have you experienced a legal problem related to [theme]? [Participants who indicated yes described their legal problem.]
  2. How did it impact your life? For example, did it impact your health, money problems, your relationships with your family, friends, or co-workers?
  3. [Prompts were given on each area (health, money, relationships)]
  4. Has your legal problem been resolved?
  5. If you said yes, it is resolved, how happy are you with the resolution?
  6. What did you do to resolve your problem?
  7. Who did you ask for help? For example, did you talk to a friend, a community worker, or a legally trained person? Did you hire a lawyer, solve the problem yourself, or ignore it? Answer with as many actions as you took.
  8. Discussion: What do you want to tell us about how a legal problem in [theme] affected you?

The researchers facilitated the discussion, calling on participants who indicated that they had legal problems and following up on comments that indicated impacts or intersections between legal problems.

Data Analysis

The focus group conversations were re-watched, and common types of legal problems tagged by impact or experience. Online survey results were tabulated and integrated into the aggregated data. Similar impacts on participants’ lives were grouped across the four sessions. This report expands on these commonalities, providing a qualitative snapshot into the impact of serious legal problems in the lives of 16- to 30-year-olds in the Black community.

Observations about Focus Group Participation

During the focus groups, participants were often initially quiet, indicating that they did not have a legal problem related to that particular theme. Once others started to discuss their experience, some participants who had initially indicated that they did not have related experiences would share the details of very similar incidents. We attribute this to a combination of not categorizing these experiences as legal and being prompted or reminded of an event by hearing someone else’s similar story.

Participants also became more comfortable with the focus group structure over time, having less to say about the first theme and then describing problems that fit into that theme later in the discussion.

Some participants indicated that they had a type of serious legal problem, but did not want to talk about its impact. In some cases, the reticent person explained that the impact was too difficult to talk about or too personal.

Footnotes

1 Participants were each asked to select a name of a city or country as their pseudonym. There were no instances of participants in the same focus group selecting the same name.