5.2 Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Quantitative data = the numbers' world — the counts, the rates, the scales (the case-disposal statistics; the delay's days; the Likert scores). Analysis's faces: the descriptive (the frequencies, the percentages, the means-and-medians), the cross-tabulations (the groups' comparison), and the inferential (the correlation-and-significance tests — used with the legal researcher's humility). Qualitative data = the meaning's world — the words, the narratives, the observed behaviour (the judges' accounts, the victims' stories, the courtroom's texture). Analysis's faces: the coding- and-themes (the transcriptions' disciplined reading), 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 QUAL-QUAN's triangulation).