3.6 Survey

The technique: the systematic cross-sectional collection from a sample by the standardised instrument (questionnaire/schedule) — the socio-legal workhorse. The survey's steps (theexam's sequence): the objectives → the population and frame → the sample design and size → the instrument's design and pretest → the field organisation (the enumerators' training) → the collection (with the call-backs and the replacements' rules) → the data entry and cleaning → the analysis (Unit 5). In legal research: the victimisation survey (the dark figure's measurement — Criminology, this semester), the legal-needs-and-access survey (the justice's demand side), the awareness studies (the law's knowledge among the public), the profession's surveys. Thestrengths: the breadth, the standardisation (the comparison across groups), the quantification. The limits: the superficiality's risk (the shallow breadth), the non-response's bias, the self-report's validity questions.