Scaling up research on family justice using large-scale administrative data: an invitation to the socio-legal community

This article outlines the value of administrative data for family justice research. Although socio-legal scholars have extended their research beyond purely theoretical or doctrinal analyses, studies using large-scale digital datasets remain few in number. As new opportunities arise to link large-sc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of social welfare & family law 2021-07, Vol.43 (3), p.237-255
Main Authors: Broadhurst, Karen, Cusworth, Linda, Harwin, Judith, Alrouh, Bachar, Bedston, Stuart, Trinder, Liz, Jones, Kerina, Ford, David, Griffiths, Lucy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administrative data
Community
Courts
Data
digital records
Families & family life
Family law
Health education
Interdisciplinary aspects
Interest groups
Justice
Social groups
socio-legal
Sociological research
Teams
theory
Welfare
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article outlines the value of administrative data for family justice research. Although socio-legal scholars have extended their research beyond purely theoretical or doctrinal analyses, studies using large-scale digital datasets remain few in number. As new opportunities arise to link large-scale administrative datasets across health, education, welfare and justice, it is vital that the community of family justice researchers and analysts are supported to deliver research based on entire service or family court populations. In this context, this article provides a definition of administrative data, before outlining the potential of single, linked or blended administrative data sets for family justice research. The remaining sections of the article speak to questions that are pertinent to this particular academic community, including the distinctive contribution of the socio-legal scholar to interdisciplinary teams and the place of data providers in collaborative research. Drawing on the sociological concept of 'publics', the final section considers the multiple interest groups whose social licence must be secured, when personal records are used to understand the relationship between law and family life.
ISSN:0964-9069
1469-9621
DOI:10.1080/09649069.2021.1953856