Study Title: How do Situational Crime Prevention Strategies affect Student Perceptions of Crime?
Researcher: Ruby Culmer
ERGO Number: 53988
Date: 18/02/2020
You are being invited to take part in the above research study. To help you decide whether you would like to take part or not, it is important that you understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please read the information below carefully and contact the researcher (rjc2g17@soton.ac.uk) if anything is not clear or you would like more information before you decide to take part in this research. You may like to discuss it with others but it is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you are happy to participate you will be asked to sign a consent form.
What is the research about?
This study is a student project for my dissertation as part of my criminology degree. I am a third-year undergraduate student conducting this research in order to explore how visible crime prevention strategies (such as CCTV, card-entry systems, and security guards) affect how people perceive crime in a given environment. I have chosen to investigate this across different locations on campus such as Hartley library, the bar (Stags), and the café (The Bridge). These are important locations in which most students spend a lot of time in with expensive possessions, and perceptions of crime could impact upon use of these campus locations.
This study will aim to answer these questions:
The objective of this study is to identify how visible crime prevention strategies affect perceptions and fear of crime.
Why have I been asked to participate?
You have been asked to participate because you have been identified as a student at the University of Southampton. Due to this, you have been asked to answer questions relating to your perceptions of crime on campus.
What will happen to me if I take part?
If you choose to take part, you will be asked to fill out an online questionnaire made up of 14 questions. This questionnaire will consist of both multiple choice and long-text answers, and will take up to 10 minutes. After completing the questionnaire, you will not be required to take part in anything else and your information will be anonymous. However, the research project will be ongoing until April 2020, when the findings will be summarised and sent to your department for anyone interested in reading the results.
Are there any benefits in my taking part?
This study may help to improve our understanding of how to improve the campus environment, thus enabling it to be made into an even better place for students to study in. However, there will not be a direct benefit for taking part.
Are there any risks involved?
The study does not pose any physical risks. However, although it does not discuss particularly sensitive issues, you may experience emotional distress from discussing perceptions of crime or remembering experiences of crime. If you do experience any emotional distress, numerous services provided by the University of Southampton can be found here to offer you support https://www.southampton.ac.uk/edusupport/mental_health_and_wellbeing/index.page. Please do not continue to fill out the survey if you do experience any distress.
What data will be collected?
Your data will be collected via an online questionnaire on isurvey. This will be collected by the researcher who can be contacted at rjc2g17@soton.ac.uk. The data will be anonymised from submission. The data will be password protected on isurvey and stored on a password-protected computer, so only the researcher will be able to access the data. Your data will be answers to a mix of multiple choice and long-text answers relating to crime prevention strategies in Hartley Library, and your perceptions of crime in Hartley Library.
Will my participation be confidential?
Your participation and the information we collect about you during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. Only members of the research team and responsible members of the University of Southampton may be given access to data about you for monitoring purposes and/or to carry out an audit of the study to ensure that the research is complying with applicable regulations. Individuals from regulatory authorities (people who check that we are carrying out the study correctly) may require access to your data. All of these people have a duty to keep your information, as a research participant, strictly confidential.Your data will be kept anonymous as your submission on isurvey will be anonymous. The questionnaire will also be password protected on isurvey in order to store the data safely. Only the researcher will have access to this password.
Do I have to take part?
No, it is entirely up to you to decide whether or not to take part.
What happens if I change my mind?
You have the right to change your mind and withdraw without giving a reason and without your participant rights being affected. However, once you submit your data it cannot be removed from the study as it will be completely anonymised. If you withdraw from the study after this point, we will keep the information about you that we have already obtained for the purposes of achieving the objectives of the study only.
What will happen to the results of the research?
Your personal details will remain strictly confidential. The data will be anonymised throughout the whole process as it is submitted anonymously on isurvey. After submission, the anonymised data will be password protected to ensure confidentiality and will only be stored on a password-protected computer. Research findings made available in any reports or publications will not include information that can directly identify you without your specific consent.
The results will be written up into my dissertation. If you wish to read a summary of the findings please contact rjc2g17@soton.ac.uk. The results may also be utilised to make recommendations regarding the visible crime preventions strategies used in the studied locations. The data will be destroyed after conferment of my degree.
Where can I get more information?
Please email rjc2g17@soton.ac.uk if you have any questions or need more information.
What happens if there is a problem?
If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, you should speak to the researcher in the first instance who will do their best to answer your questions, or you can contact the supervisor Dr Elizabeth Reed on e.h.reed@soton.ac.uk. If you remain unhappy or have a complaint about any aspect of this study, please contact the University of Southampton Research Integrity and Governance Manager (023 8059 5058, rgoinfo@soton.ac.uk).
To contact the researcher please email rjc2g17@soton.ac.uk.
Data Protection Privacy Notice
The University of Southampton conducts research to the highest standards of research integrity. As a publicly-funded organisation, the University has to ensure that it is in the public interest when we use personally-identifiable information about people who have agreed to take part in research. This means that when you agree to take part in a research study, we will use information about you in the ways needed, and for the purposes specified, to conduct and complete the research project. Under data protection law, ‘Personal data’ means any information that relates to and is capable of identifying a living individual. The University’s data protection policy governing the use of personal data by the University can be found on its website (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/legalservices/what-we-do/data-protection-and-foi.page).This Participant Information Sheet tells you what data will be collected for this project and whether this includes any personal data. Please ask the research team if you have any questions or are unclear what data is being collected about you.Our privacy notice for research participants provides more information on how the University of Southampton collects and uses your personal data when you take part in one of our research projects and can be found at http://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/sharepoint/intranet/ls/Public/Research%20and%20Integrity%20Privacy%20Notice/Privacy%20Notice%20for%20Research%20Participants.pdf. Any personal data we collect in this study will be used only for the purposes of carrying out our research and will be handled according to the University’s policies in line with data protection law. If any personal data is used from which you can be identified directly, it will not be disclosed to anyone else without your consent unless the University of Southampton is required by law to disclose it. Data protection law requires us to have a valid legal reason (‘lawful basis’) to process and use your Personal data. The lawful basis for processing personal information in this research study is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. Personal data collected for research will not be used for any other purpose. For the purposes of data protection law, the University of Southampton is the ‘Data Controller’ for this study, which means that we are responsible for looking after your information and using it properly. The University of Southampton will keep identifiable information until the researcher’s degree has been completed after which time any link between you and your information will be removed. To safeguard your rights, we will use the minimum personal data necessary to achieve our research study objectives. Your data protection rights – such as to access, change, or transfer such information - may be limited, however, in order for the research output to be reliable and accurate. The University will not do anything with your personal data that you would not reasonably expect.
If you have any questions about how your personal data is used, or wish to exercise any of your rights, please consult the University’s data protection webpage (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/legalservices/what-we-do/data-protection-and-foi.page) where you can make a request using our online form. If you need further assistance, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer (data.protection@soton.ac.uk).
Thank you for taking the time to read this information, and for considering to take part in the research
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