RESEARCH CONTEXT AND OTHER LIMITATIONS

When conducting participatory action research, the wider context must be understood as it can influence the quantity and quality of participation, especially when a research project seeks participation over a protracted period of time with repeat interactions. The CCAR hoped to secure participation from local residents, and local community leaders and groups over a period of up to 9 months, as this would enable the Project more effectively to evaluate whether the tests of change implemented by local policing had been well-received by the very people who had suggested them in the first place.

A number of factors, linked to wider socio-economic context, are likely to have affected Project participation. These are outlined below.

Peri-pandemic period

The first of the four localities taking part in the CCAR was Letham in Perth and Kinross. Initial visits to the neighbourhood took place in the summer of 2022, with the fieldwork (surveys and community conversations) starting in late 2022 and running until late summer of 2023. This was a period when the COVID-19 pandemic was still taking place, with requirements such as wearing face coverings or self-isolating having only been dropped in the Spring of 2022. It was not until May 2023 when the World Health Organisation declared that the global health emergency was over.

In meetings with community group representatives and local authority officials the CCAR Project Delivery Team was advised that resident participation in community group activity was slow to recover from the pandemic as people were not confident to meet and mix. Additionally, representatives suggested that survey work of their own had been limited by low response rates and difficulties in getting reach and engagement in communities.

Cost of Living Crisis

The rise in the cost of living, linked to rising inflation for everyday items (including utilities), emerged as an issue during the early days of the Project, with the Winter period 2022-23 being especially difficult for many households, especially households in deprived areas of the country and with less disposable income. In terms of participation in the CCAR Project, the Project Delivery Team observed how many of community groups taking part in the Project were increasingly focussing on how the cost of living crisis was affecting local people, and a considerable amount of time and effort was being spent to set up, and raise awareness of, community ‘warm spaces’, as well as ‘food banks’ and other sources of support. It is possible that the attention of community group leaders and representatives was understandably diverted away from being able to support the research aspects of the Project more fully, with the CCAR Project’s local reach and engagement being compromised. It is also possible that local people (potential participants) experiencing difficulties due to the cost of living crisis had less interest in the topic of local policing, crime and antisocial behaviour than they might normally have.

Sample Sizes and Generalisation of Findings

Surveys were issued to people in all four localities, at the beginning of the fieldwork period and at the end of the fieldwork period. These surveys were used to generate discussion at Community Conversation events.

Response levels to the surveys varied between the localities and are relatively small in number. This means that survey statistics informing the CCAR, and presented in this Final Report (and the individual locality reports on the CCAR website) are not of sufficient statistical quality (size and composition) to draw inferences or any other quantitative findings.

The CCAR never sought to survey all local people in a representative way using stratified sampling methods. Rather the CCAR sought participation from people with an interest in the subject and who had a willingness to be part of identifying and defining local issues and generating ideas for making small-scale improvements, in partnership with the police. None of the findings from the CCAR can therefore be generalised, either to all people living in the four localities, or to all people living in deprived areas of Scotland.