FASD and TRC Call to Action 34.4: A Consideration of Evaluation Methods

Ethics

Evaluation should be conducted in an ethical manner. This means no one is harmed (physically, mentally, or emotionally) in conducting evaluation. People involved in the criminal justice system as victims, offenders, and/or witnesses are likely already mentally and emotionally vulnerable, given the stress experienced with legal proceedings. This vulnerability can be compounded when that individual has a cognitive disability. As such, it is inappropriate for an evaluator to approach people in the court setting to ask how their experience was with the criminal justice system. Moreover, people involved as participants in research and evaluation have a right to a degree of privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality. These factors all pose challenges in gathering evaluative information. One strategy is to ask the program worker to follow-up with their clients after a certain period of time has passed, to conduct a short interview or survey and submit that information to the evaluation team. This maintains the client’s privacy, allows the client to only have to speak with the program worker with whom they are already accustomed to, and decreases the potential for trauma while still allowing for participation in the evaluation.