Messy and mixed: working with quant and qual data

Making Sense of Messy Legal Data: Analysing Climate Litigation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Cristian Heredia Ligorria, PhD researcher in Socio-legal Studies at UWE Bristol

My doctoral research investigates rights-based climate litigation (RBCL) in Latin America and the Caribbean applying a socio-legal methodology and from a decolonial perspective. Chapter 3 of my thesis is grounded in the construction and analysis of a working dataset of 51 RBCL cases (as of November 2024). This process combined qualitative and quantitative methods to identify high-level trends, map actors (who litigates, against whom, and in what contexts), and develop a typology of cases.

The analysis presented several methodological challenges: the diversity of legal systems across the region, inconsistencies in reporting, language barriers, and the evolving nature of climate litigation. Data were cleaned and verified manually, drawing on databases such as the Sabin Center and supplemented by direct regional expertise. Supervisory feedback, peer-reviewed collaborations, and external expert input were essential in refining the methodology and ensuring rigour.

This experience highlights both successes and the practical challenges of working with heterogeneous legal data, and offers lessons for socio-legal researchers conducting comparative data analysis in underexplored regions.

Using a structured case review tool to understand police investigation of rape cases

Aneela Khan, Postdoctoral Research Assistant at Bournemouth University

Operation Soteria Bluestone aimed to improve understanding of how police investigate rape cases in the UK. As part of this work, we developed a structured case review tool to collect detailed information on individual investigations. In its initial format, the tool required a junior officer to document case details and evaluate investigative strengths and weaknesses, followed by a senior officer who repeated the review and provided oversight on the junior officer’s assessment. Due to several challenges, the tool was adapted for the second year to allow researchers to directly access the cases and then populate the template. The dataset comprised qualitative and structured quantitative information, including case characteristics, investigative actions, and assessments of investigative quality. Data analysis combined descriptive statistics to summarise trends and thematic coding to identify recurring strengths, weaknesses, and procedural patterns across cases. This methodology provided a systematic approach to evaluating investigative practices in rape cases and supports evidence-based recommendations for improving police investigations.

This session is part of the SWDTP Data Analysis Webinar Series. Visit the following link for further information and registration: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/swdtp/1956811