Implementing and Evaluating PAL in El Salvador: Social, political, and logistical challenges

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

The Police Athletic League (PAL) organization runs a well-known program designed to offer at-risk youth educational, athletic, recreational and character development components while promoting positive relationships with law enforcement officers. Established in New York in 1917, PAL programs have since spread across the United States and around the Globe. Despite the continued growth of this well-intentioned intervention, there is a dearth of research on PAL programs. One reason is due to the difficulty of studying the complex interaction of contextual, organizational, and social community factors that influence participant outcomes. The other is the difficulties inherent in evaluation research; we have found that conducting a multisite process and outcome study in El Salvador has posed significant and unique challenges. These have included political and legal considerations including the State of Exception enacted in 2022, inconsistent country-wide implementation, stakeholders reluctance to engage with researchers including the local police and community partners, potentially dangerous and lengthy travels between sites, limited monitoring of the implementation process, minimal access to and integrity of program data, and fluctuations in funding. Our study will discuss these and other challenges in the implementation and evaluation of PAL programs in a notoriously violent and gang-ridden Central American country.

Subtopic

• Topic 6: Perceptions of Crime and Justice / Political and Social Discourses about Crime and Justice (Crime, Science and Politics WG)

Chair

• Kimberly A Houser, Rowan University

Discussants

• Jason Szkola, Rowan University

• Natalie Schell-Busey, Rowan Univeristy