Privacy

The research team takes seriously issues of privacy and confidentiality in social science research, especially for people with cases being processed, reviewed, and adjudicated in the criminal legal system.  For these reasons, the research team has implemented the following privacy and confidentiality procedures that have been reviewed, approved, and monitored by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Cornell University: 

1. All study participants will be read the informed consent document, which describes the purpose of the study, what we are asking them to do, the risks, compensation, and their rights as study participants, including the right to withdraw from the study at any time and for any reason.  The informed consent document has been approved by Cornell's IRB.

2. All data will be de-identified (i.e., the removal of personally identifiable information). 

3. All personally identifiable information will be replaced with a anonymous participant identifier (not names or other identifying information) to preserve the confidentiality of respondents (e.g., p001, p352, p450, etc.). 

4. A masterfile containing the participant’s personally identifying information and their study identifier will be contained in a password protected, encrypted file that only the research team will access to link the data for arranging payment, services, and/or for reporting taxable study benefits.  However, any and all study data for analysis will be linked using the the anonymous participant identifier.

5. The research team also adheres to the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice's (NIJ) Privacy Certificate and Confidentiality Requirements, which adopts and follows guidelines laid out in the Code of Federal Regulations (28 CFR §22). The research team's Certificate of Privacy and Confidentiality has been approved.