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LAW IN APPLIED SOCIAL RESEARCH
Abstract
This dissertation provides social scientists with an introduction to conducting research on legal issues of interest in the public policy arena. It is divided into four parts, the order of which reflects the ordering of the research process itself. Part One describes not only the written forms of United States law, but also United States legal processes and legal systems. The chapters describe the forms of written law and discuss their creation, interpretation, and modification; explore the manner by which individuals perceive and experience the law; and explain the creation of legal systems which provide institutional structures designed to implement, monitor, and/or enforce particular laws. Part Two discusses legal research techniques, the mastery of which will allow researchers to become self-sufficient in locating legal resources. The development of legal research skills will expand the areas of law accessible to social scientists, assure greater legal sophistication in their studies, and enable them to address their efforts to legal topics with policy relevance. The chapters describe research sources and methods pertaining to federal and state court decisions, statutes and legislative history, and administrative rules, regulations, decisions, and orders. Part Three illustrates the application of the information presented thus far towards the creation of research projects on legal issues. The chapters explore the conditions under which human behavior is responsive to legal changes; present a general model for structuring research projects; and describe various research methodologies. Finally, Part Four illustrates the manner in which completed research is used in the creation of public policies. The chapters describe the roles open to researchers in policy formulation settings; the role of ethics in conducting policy-oriented research and presenting the results to decision makers; and analyze the extent to which policies are shaped according to relevant research.
Subject Area
Social psychology
Recommended Citation
MORRIS, ROBERTA ANNE, "LAW IN APPLIED SOCIAL RESEARCH" (1987). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8715853.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8715853