6.2 Forms of Data

6.2.1 Quantitative and qualitative data: Quantitative data = the numbers' world — the counts, rates, durations and scales (the case-disposal statistics, the delay's days, the Likert scores). Analysis's faces: the descriptive (frequencies, percentages, the means-and-medians), the cross-tabulations (the groups' comparisons), and the inferential (the correlation-and-significance tests — used with the legal researcher's humility); Qualitative data = the meaning's world — the words, narratives and observed behaviour (the judges' accounts, the victims' stories, the courtroom's texture). Analysis's faces: the coding-and-themes (the transcriptions' disciplined reading — the recurring patterns named), the discourse-and-content analysis (the judgments' language — the doctrinal-empirical bridge), the narrative synthesis; The mixed-methods wisdom (the exam's conclusion): the numbers show the what and how much; the words show the why and how — the socio-legal study typically needs both (the survey's breadth + the interview's depth; the triangulation of U5). 6.2.2 Primary and secondary data: Primary data = the first-hand — collected by the researcher for this question (the interview's transcript, the questionnaire's returns, the observation's field notes, the court file's own extraction); Secondary data = the already-collected — another's data re-used (the published statistics, the earlier studies' datasets, the reports); The doctrinal lawyer's own version (the authorities' ladder, worth stating): the primary authorities (the law's own binding sources: the Constitution, the statutes, the precedents) vs. the secondary authorities (the…