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Assessing the Needs of Commercial Sex Workers: Developing Recruitment and Interview Methods to Ensure Subject Protection
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| Presenter(s):
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| Leslie Aldrich, Massachusetts General Hospital, laldrich@partners.org
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| Abstract:
To assess the needs of commercial sex workers (CSWs) in Chelsea, Massachusetts, an urban city just outside Boston, the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Community Health Improvement worked with the Chelsea Police Department and the hospital's internal review board to develop appropriate research methods to protect the safety and confidentiality of this vulnerable population. To access CSWs, police involvement in recruitment of subjects was critical. However, CSW interaction with law enforcement agents for research purposes poses inherent risks to subjects, despite how well-intentioned all parties may be. Ultimately, given the entrenched dangers in the lives of CSWs, recruitment strategies involving police were employed, and appropriate survey and interview tools, recruitment letters, consent forms, and databases were developed and approved to best protect the women and ensure their confidentiality. This approval process was lengthy but necessary, and helped shape the unique recruitment and interviewing methods chosen for this assessment.
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Evaluating Curriculum Change in the Context of the Los Angeles Police Academy
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| Presenter(s):
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| Katharine Meese Putman, Fuller School of Psychology, kathyputman@gmail.com
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| Luann Pannell, Los Angeles Police Department, luann.pannell@lapd.lacity.org
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| Abstract:
The training philosophy and curriculum at the Los Angeles Police Academy were revised in 2008 in response to several reports indicating a need to train officers with better problem solving, critical thinking, community policing, and communication skills. The Academy's curriculum became centered entirely around 15 scenario events that presented police training on law, tactics, policy, etc. within realistic scenarios. An evaluation was conducted of officers' performance in the field before and after the curriculum change with 12 graduating classes, each with 50 recruits before the curriculum change and an equal number of graduating classes post-change. Surveys of officers' perceptions of their own preparation for police work were compared with surveys and interviews with their supervisors evaluating their performance in the field four weeks after graduation. The politics, complexities and practical lessons learned from designing and conducting an evaluation in this context will be discussed.
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