CHAPTER 5 VIEWS AND PERSPECTIVES OF CHILDREN DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY 2.3 Participants and Data Collection The partners were asked to recruit participants aged 13-17 years, who were deprived of liberty in their respective countries (see infographic below). The sample was opportunistic, with partners approaching detention settings where they had existing contacts, explaining the Study and asking for access to child participants. The children were selected for participation by the staff, with the facilitators checking that the children themselves understood the nature of the consultation and wished to be involved. In total, responses from 22 countries were received, and the partner organisations gathered the views of 274 children who had experienced deprivation of liberty for various reasons, in a range of mostly State-run institutions. A small number of those who took part were under the age of 13 or over the age of 18 but, in the latter case, they had experience of and reported on their experience of detention while still children. Data were gathered during group consultations and one-to-one interviews. For ethical and practical reasons, verbatim transcripts of the focus groups and interviews were not produced. Partners, where necessary, translated the children’s comments into English and reported them on a common template. This detailed the composition of the group, relevant issues of context and conduct of the process, and personal reflections from the facilitator. It also required the facilitators to summarise the main points made under each of the questions, providing verbatim quotations from the children as much as possible. The combined dataset was then analysed within and across each of the core questions using a thematic inductive approach. All data were read by all six members of the core research team, with sub- and cross-cutting themes discussed and revised to ensure consistency and coherence. 84