5.3 Interview

The interview = the direct conversation for data — the depth instrument beside the survey's breadth. The types (the ladder): the structured (the fixed questionnaire verbatim — the survey's oral twin); the semi-structured (the guide's questions with the conversation's freedom — the socio-legal standard); the unstructured (the open exploration — the oral-history mode); the focused interview (the shared-experience respondent — the witness, the litigant). The skills: the rapport's building; the questioning's craft (open before closed; no leading; the funnel); the probing (the "tell me more" discipline); the recording (the audio's informed consent); the field notes. In legal research: the judges, the lawyers, the police, the court staff, the prisoners, the victims — the actors' own accounts of the law's working. The ethics (the interview's licence): the informed consent (the knowing agreement, the vulnerable's special care), the confidentiality (the anonymisation's craft), the no-harm principle (the re-traumatisation's avoidance in the victim interview), the exit-right (the withdrawal's freedom at any stage).