What Do We Mean By a “Hard-to-reach†Population? Legitimacy Versus Precarity as Barriers to Access

Numerous articles and textbooks advise qualitative researchers on accessing “hard-to-reach†or “hidden†populations. In this article, I compare two studies that I conducted with justice-involved women in the United States: a yearlong ethnography inside a state women’s prison and an interview study with formerly incarcerated women. Although these two populations are interconnected—and both are widely deemed hard-to-reach—the barriers to access differed. In the prison study, hard-to-reach reflected an issue of institutional legitimacy , in which researchers must demonstrate themselves and their proposed study as legible, appropriate, and worthy to organizational gatekeepers. In the reentry study, hard-to-reach reflected an issue of structural precarity , in which researchers must navigate the everyday vulnerabilities of research participants’ social position to ensure the study is inclusive and feasible. Juxtaposing these two experiences, I propose greater nuance to the term hard-to-reach such that researchers may proactively address institutional and structural barriers to access.