Qualitative Research

 

Doctrinal Legal Research

 It can be defined as research into legal doctrines through analysis of statutory provisions and cases by the application of reasoning. The emphasis is upon analysis of legal rules, principles, and judicial precedents, Institutions like courts, police machinery, jails, tribunals or doctrines. As compared to non-doctrinal legal research which aims at research on relationship of law with society, groups and people. It involves an empirical inquiry into the operation of law, how the doctrine or principle which has been adopted in real world settings. Thus, the doctrinal legal research emphasize upon research in law focusing on the black letter of the law, the non doctrinal research focuses on research about law, here the researcher is interested in knowing about the law in action. The former can be understood as armchair research or basic or fundamental research, the latter is empirical research.

Doctrinal Method

 It begins by taking up a proposition as a starting point or focus. He then locates the law in statutes, judicial pronouncements, and discussions in commentaries, textbooks, journals, and debates. Reads them in a holistic manner analyze them and write his findings. For example, a research on proposition of prevention against double jeopardy, under criminal law, would begin with locating the law in constitution, and criminal law materials etc.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is the process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting non-numerical data. Qualitative research can be used to understand how an individual perceives, beliefs, experiences, attitude, behavior, interaction   and gives meaning to their social reality. This research focuses at the real world (not in specialized research settings like a laboratory) in order to understand, describe and explain social phenomenon’s from the inside in multiple ways. It is done by analyzing experiences of individuals or groups, by analyzing interactions and communications or by analyzing documents. However, the common element is that it seeks to identify how people view the world, what they are doing or what is happening to them in terms which are meaningful and offer rich insights.

Common elements which can be broadly identified as below:

1. Experiences, interactions and documents are analyzed in their natural context.

 2. Concepts and hypotheses are developed and refined in the process of research.

3. It starters from the idea that theory and method should be appropriate to what is studied. They can be adapted if they do not fit in.

 4. Researchers themselves are also an important part of the research process, either due to their own personal experiences, or research experiences.

 5. A major part is dependent on texts and documents, thus, issues of transcribing complex social situations into texts is one of the major concern of qualitative research.

Aims and Objectives of Qualitative Research A qualitative research focuses on the social facet of the law. Its primary aim is to determine through empirical data how law and legal institutions affect or mould human attitudes and what is their impact on the society they create. The researcher primarily looks into:

1. How far the law and legal institutions are serving the need of the society?

2. Are they suited in the social context in which they operate?

 3. Determine the forces that shapes, reshapes and mould the law.

 4. To analyze how far the law has been enforced and administered.

 5. Causes for the factors responsible for the poor performance of the law.

 6. To look into the factors which moulds the enforcement machinery attitudes and behavior while interpreting and enforcing the law?

7. Are beneficiaries under the law using it or the law is merely symbolic.

8. Whether the targeted beneficiaries are benefitting out of the law?

 9. If the law is failing to help people where does the problem lie?

10. Impact of law on behavior and attitudes of society, people and groups.

Basic Tools of Qualitative Research

There are several ways of collecting data for qualitative research. The primary sources are interview, questionnaire, schedule, interview guide and observation. It can be collected from either posing selected respondents to a set of pre-determined questions or sketchy questions. It involves a face-to-face conversation and this tool of data collection is known as ‘interviewing’. The pre-determined questions can also be mailed, sent by post, fax or other ways in order to gather responses from selected respondents. This tool of data collection is known as data collection by way of ‘questionnaires’. The researcher can also collect data by the method of ‘observation’ a systematic observation of a phenomenon, behavior of participants (respondents or institutions). The secondary sources are the published or unpublished reports for example crime records, reports of international organizations etc.

Interviews: It is a verbal technique of data collection. It may be structured or unstructured,. It is structured when the researcher uses a set of pre-determined questions and highly standardized technique of recording responses. It is unstructured when there is flexibility in the approach to the questioning and much lesser standardized way of recording the responses. The strength of this tool is that it remains to be the most effective method of gaining information about respondent’s perception and opinions. It also enables the researcher to authenticate the information coming from the respondents by observing the body language of the respondent. However, administering an interview is an art. One needs to have the required skill set in order to conduct a meaningful interview.

Questionnaire: Herein a number of typed or printed predetermined questions are used for collecting data. It is send to the respondents with a request to send it back to the researcher after filling the responses. It may also be structured or unstructured. The questions may be open-ended, close-ended, mixed or pictorial. This method can be very effective in circumstances where the respondents are scattered in a vast area. It is quicker and cheaper as compared to interviews.

Schedule: schedule is more or less same as the questionnaires. But the major differences are that schedule is referred to a form filled in by the interviewer during his personal interview with the respondents. And questionnaire being impersonal is rigid; the schedule is flexible because it gives the opportunity to the researcher to clarify the questions, if they are not clear to the respondents.

Interview Guide: It contains only the topics or broad headings upon which the respondents are asked to answer. Usually the questions are formulated on the spot and the responses are thereby recorded.

Observation: It is a visual method of data collection. It is another scientific way of data collection, when planned in a systematic manner and recorded systematically, and is subject to check and control on validity and reliability.

The qualitative research has following merits:

1.      It highlights the gaps between goals and social reality. It depicts a true picture of law in action. It highlights the gaps in relation to practice of law enforcement agencies and as well as in the use and under use of the law by the beneficiaries of the law. It highlights the reasons behind failure of a law in real world.

2.      It also can highlight the gaps that have been left in the law and social reality so that law can be reassessed in the light of new information

3.      It serves as a significant resource in the form of a social feedback to policy framers, legislators and judiciary so that they can better enforce, legislate and interpret the law.