Research Services

Ethical Practice: Principles and Guidelines for Research with Vulnerable Individuals and Families is available for download. Most of our empirical research is conducted with the co-operation of children or families who are vulnerable because of age, trauma history, emotional fragility, institutional status, or involvement with the legal system. For these reasons, the standard principles of ethical research practice must be augmented in our work. This 8-page document reviews ethical study design, definition of a pool of potential subjects, contacting subjects, seeking their participation, safe handling of information collected, and dissemination of results. Also listed are the 12 principles guiding all research at the Centre.

When Teens Hurt Teens: Helping the Victims of Youth-on-Youth Criminal Violence was a collaborative effort of the London Police Service and the Centre's Child Witness Project, funded by the Ontario Victim Services Secretariat of the Ministry of the Attorney General. The focus of this study is violent crime committed by youth against other youth. Data sources included a random sample of police reports from a three-year period before and after the proclamation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), all police occurrences for 2004, 105 case files from the Child Witness Project, and interviews with 17 young people (and their parents) who experienced or witnessed peer violence. In addition to a summary report, we have fact sheets of recommendations for four professional groups: schools, police, prosecutors, and those who help young witnesses prepare for court.

The London Child Protection Mediation Project was funded by Legal Aid Ontario, the Department of Justice, and the Ministry of Children & Youth Services. This pilot project was conducted in partnership with the Children's Aid Society of London & Middlesex, with the oversight of Legal Aid Ontario, the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, and the Office of the Children's Lawyer. The project got under way in the fall of 2002 and the final report was released in July of 2005. It is accompanied by a discussion guide for communities planning to start a child protection mediation program.

The National Crime Prevention Strategy sponsored the Best Evidence on Children Exposed to Family Violence Project to propose a developmental model of how exposure to family violence affects children of different ages. Information gleaned from the "best evidence" found in an exhaustive review of the literature on child exposure to domestic violence (almost 400 sources) is integrated with extensive clinical experience to create a revolutionary new framework for understanding, studying and intervening with children who have lived with woman abuse. Case studies illustrate key points and child drawings bring to life the experience of violence through young eyes. A report is now available in electronic form called WHAT ABOUT ME! Seeking to Understand a Child's View of Violence in the Family.

In partnership with member agencies of the Ontario Council of Elizabeth Fry Societies the Children of Incarcerated Mothers Project investigated the needs of children whose mothers will be, are, or recently have been incarcerated. This project was funded by the National Crime Prevention Centre. The results of this study were released in a 73-page report called Waiting for Mommy: Giving a Voice to the Hidden Victims of Imprisonment (2003).

One Step Forward: Lessons Learned from a Randomized Study of Multisystemic Therapy in Canada: This 32-page report describes 10 ways the wrong conclusions could have been made about MST with a less rigorous design. These points are illustrated using the follow-up data available in January, 2002. This document will be helpful for researchers conducting randomized field studies. Policy makers will benefit from understanding how research can be used to improve programming. See also: Seeking Effective Interventions for Serious Young Offenders: Interim Results of a Four-Year Randomized Study of Multisystemic Therapy in Ontario, Canada (2002). The final results of the three-year follow-up are also available.