Dear Veterans,
First, we want to thank you for serving our country.
We are seeking military veterans who are on the sex offender registry to participate in a research project. The title of the study is Military Veterans with Sex Offense Convictions: A Preliminary Investigation? The research is being conducted by Dr. Emily Horowitz, Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at St. Francis College, and Marine Corps Veteran and Doctoral Candidate Shawn Rolfe from the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Louisville. Both researchers have extensive experience in researching sexual offending policies. The study aims to understand what, if any, contributing factors lead to sexual offending among our military veterans.
To achieve this goal, we ask that you complete our survey. You will be asked questions about past childhood and adult trauma, military culture, mental health, substance use, criminal history and sexual offense-related questions, and some demographics. The survey consists of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank type of questions and will take 25-30 minutes of your time.
The risk of involvement with this study is minimal. However, we acknowledge and understand that you may find some of these questions sensitive, difficult to answer, or think your answers could incriminate you. Your participation in this study is anonymous and strictly voluntary, and all responses will be kept confidential for seven years. After seven years, all data will be destroyed. You are permitted to skip over any question(s) you do not want to answer or to stop participating at any time, with no adverse effect. By participating in this study, there are no direct benefits to you. Your responses, however, are very important because it will contribute to knowledge for developing treatment and policies for justice-involved veterans.
Should you have any further questions or comments, feel free to contact me at ehorowitz@sfc.edu or 718-489-5446, or Shawn Rolfe at shawn.rolfe@louisville.edu. You may also direct any questions about the confidentiality of this study to Dr. Laura Egan, Chair, St. Francis College Institutional Review Board, at legan@sfc.edu.
We thank you in advance for your participation in our study. Again, thank you for your service. Without people such as yourselves, our country would not be where it is today.
All the best,
Emily Horowitz, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice
St. Francis College
Shawn Rolfe, M.A., ABD
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Criminal Justice
University of Louisville
