Online Recruitment for Interview Participants Impacted by the Criminal Legal System

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Cross Section Between Technological Advancements and Research Over the Life Course

Abstract

The rise of digital tools has transformed qualitative research, offering new avenues to
access hard-to-reach populations—but not without trade-offs. This lightning talk presents lessons from a qualitative study on criminal record expungement that used technology-driven methods to recruit 86 system-impacted participants across four U.S. states. We compare three online recruitment platforms social media advertising, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Prolific—highlighting their relative efficiency, cost, and vulnerability to bots and fraud. Drawing from over 2,700 screening entries and 86 interviews, we discuss how we leveraged digital tools (e.g., IP tracking, platform filters, automated surveys) to verify participant eligibility and maintain data integrity. We also examine the ethical and methodological dilemmas posed by the “digital divide” participant misrepresentation, and the blurred boundary between researcher and gatekeeper. Our findings offer practical guidance on how criminologists can strategically integrate technology to enhance qualitative data collection while safeguarding rigor and equity. This talk contributes to the growing conversation on adapting criminological research to an
increasingly digital world.

Authors

• Carolina R. Caliman, Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice

• Sarah Lageson, Northeastern University

• Elsa Y. Chen, Santa Clara University

• Ericka Adams, San Jose State University