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Statistics & Empirical Legal Studies Research Guide

INTRODUCTION

Empirical Legal Studies uses data analysis to study the legal system. Empirical Legal Studies is comprised of the body of scholarly research in this field, the methods employed to conduct this research, and the application of this research. This guide will serve as a reference for all three iterations of Empirical Legal Studies: form, process, and function.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Here are a few suggestions for books, journals, articles, and a blog on empirical legal studies.

BOOKS AND JOURNALS

These books and journals may be found by conducting a title search in Gulliver, our catalog. Electronic versions of the journals may also be accessed through Gulliver.

John Henry Schlegel, American Legal Realism and Empirical Social Science (1995).

William M. Evan, Social Structure and Law: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives (1990).

John Baldwin & Gwynn Davis, Empirical Research in Law, in The Oxford Handbook of Legal Studies 880 (Peter Cane & Mark Tushnet eds., 2003).

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies - this peer-edited journal publishes empirical articles in a variety of fields, including criminal justice, public policy, corporate law, and economics.

Law and Social Inquiry is the journal of the American Bar Foundation. It publishes papers that bridge legal stuides and social sciences.

The Journal of Legal Studies publishes interdisciplinary papers emphasizing social science approaches to legal studies.

LAW JOURNAL ARTICLES

These articles may be found via HeinOnline.

Exchange, Empirical Research and the Goals of Legal Scholarship, 69 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1 (2002).

Gregory Mitchell, Empirical Legal Scholarship as Scientific Dialogue, 83 N. C. L. Rev. 167 (2004).

Symposium, Empirical and Experimental Methods in Law, 2002 U. Ill. L. Rev. 789 (2002).

Lee Epstein and Gary King, Building an Infrastructure for Empirical Research in the Law, 53 J. Legal Educ. 311 (2003).

Jennifer K. Robbennolt, Evaluating Empirical Research Methods: Using Empirical Research in Law and Policy, 81 Neb. L. Rev. 777 (2003).

James Lindgren, Predicting the Future of Empirical Legal Studies, 86 B.U. L. Rev. 1447-1460 (2006).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

UCLA Law's Empirical Research Group (ERG) has a searchable bibliography of ELS publications.

BLOG

The Empirical Legal Studies Blog is a resource for keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in Empirical Legal Studies.

SEARCHING IN SPECIFIC DISCIPLINES

This part of the guide offers suggestions for locating empirical legal studies in a specific discipline. For example, if you are interested in empirical legal studies in capital punishment, you can use:

1) Gulliver, our catalog, and run a keyword search for "capital punishment" and "empirical." You can also run this search in Worldcat to find books and articles in other libraries.

2) our collection of indexes to run a search for "capital punishment" and "empirical."

3) SSRN to run a search for "capital punishment" and "empirical."

DATA SETS & STATISTICS

Empirical Legal Studies uses data sets and statistics. This section of the guide provides links to data sets, statistics software packages, and online statistics guides and textbooks.

Data Sets & Summary Statistics

ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research & IDRC: International Data Resource Center

This organization provides access to data for research and a tutorial for data use.

Judicial Business of the United States Courts: Annual Reports

These reports contain summary statistics, including filing and terminations data sent to the Administrative Office of the Courts by the U.S. District Court clerks.

The S. Sidney Ulmer Project: Research Databases and Data Archives

This project contains databases on the United States Supreme Court, United States Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts.

The Election Results Archive contains electronic data files on election results from around the world.

American National Election Studies contains data sets for U.S. elections and public opinion from 1948 to the present.

Statistics Software Packages

There are several statistics software packages; here are links to three of the most popuar ones:

Stata, SPSS, and SAS.

Statistical Computing Resources is a guide by UCLA's Academic Technology Services. It includes starter guides for each of the three software packages.

See this post for a discussion of the software packages.

Online Statistics Sites and Textbooks

The U.S. Census Bureau collects and publishes a large amount of statistical data. This includes the Statistical Abstract, which contains statistics on social and economic conditions (print version: HA 202 .A225). If you need more detailed statistics than what is available in the Statistical Abstract, visit the web sites of the federal agencies that are responsible for collecting the data. Recommended sites include:

If you need to access older statistical information, consult Historical Statistics of the United States, Earliest Times to the Present . (Also available in print at HA 202 .B87). The tables are well indexed and easy to use.

The American Statistical Index abstracts and indexes statistical charts within publications.

LexisNexis Statistical is a comprehensive source that indexes and abstracts statistical information from over 100,000 U.S. government publications starting in 1973, state and private sources starting in 1980, and approximately 2000 documents from international organizations starting in 1983. Full text or web links are provided for some citations. For those abstracts where full text or web links are not provided, Lauinger Library and the Library of Congress have the microfiche sets that accompany the index. These sets are called ASI (American Statistics Index Microfiche Library) and IIS Microfiche Library (Index to International Statistics Microfiche Library).

FedStats is a collection of statistics from over 100 federal agencies.

The National Tax Association (NTA) has a collection of links to federal government agencies (and other sites) that provide statistical data on the web. These links are to all types of statistical data, not just tax statistics.

The University of Michigan has an excellent guide to statistical resources on the web.

For international coverage, UNdata is a new comprehensive database offering access to worldwide health, education, industry and demographic statistics. Key global indicators are highlighted also.

The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics can be accessed online by Georgetown users through eBrary.

Advanced Statistics Demystified is a textbook that can be accessed online by Georgetown users through eBrary.

 

CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

UCLA's Empirical Research Group has complied a list of workshops and seminars.

GUIDES AND TUTORIALS

Empirical and Non-Legal Research Tutorial - Chicago-Kent School of Law

Statistical Sources Guide - Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University

Web Center for Social Research Methods - Interactive guide to selecting the best statistical test for your data.

Revised 04/08 (AT)

Page last saved 06-Aug-2008