The Importance of Qualitative Research in Understanding Opportunities for Criminal Justice Data
Written by: Izaiah Jefferson, Senior Research Associate I and Shelby Davis, Director of Research and Data Stewardship
When we say “data” at Measures for Justice, we’re often referring to quantitative data, or data expressed in numbers. The number of calls for service received by police, how many cases received by the prosecutor’s office, and the median time from offense to case closure are all examples of quantitative data you can explore with MFJ’s Commons.
However, in addition to quantitative data, MFJ’s research team explores ways qualitative data can inform our work. While qualitative data may also include numbers, it is primarily descriptive or categorical information, commonly gathered through observation or interview.
Qualitative Research: Telling The Full Story
Each number in Commons or the National Data Portal represents a person navigating the criminal justice system, from community members facing arrest or sentencing, a police officer responding to a call for service, or a prosecutor making charging recommendations.
Robust, qualitative insights help us understand the full experience of people interacting with these systems. For example, numbers on police responses to calls are a great start, but to understand underlying factors like job-related trauma and wellbeing indicators from officers’ perspectives, qualitative research is key.
To ensure accuracy and reduce bias, researchers conducting qualitative studies follow well-established protocols designed to address common concerns about subjectivity. A best practice is that the research should be rooted in an approach or method supported by prior research and theory.
Qualitative research can bring us closer to answers concerning human behavior and interactions. It can add the needed colors, shapes, and perspectives that we’re not able to glean from quantitative data alone.
MFJ’s internal research teams have leveraged a variety of research methods, including qualitative, as these methods have been integral to understanding how criminal justice data systems work. One example is through our Data Landscape Reports.
Leveraging Qualitative Insights for Data Landscape Reports
MFJ’s data landscape research begins with content analysis of state statutes and regulations that govern data. We then conduct in-depth interviews with individuals who have a professional stake in criminal justice data transparency, accessibility, and accountability, such as system practitioners, researchers, and advocates for change. These conversations help us understand how people in each state experience working with data, the common barriers they face, the strategies that lead to success, and more.
The key to understanding the insights collected during interviews is the coding process. During coding, specific words and phrases are coded into a set of initial/provisional codes, then reconciled into our final codebook and applied to each transcript. From those codes, a researcher could compare how two different people experienced the same event or phenomenon.
After coming to consensus around the codes appearing in our most recent Louisiana data landscape report, we finalized the following themes: data silos, access barriers, policy driven by limited evidence, and the power of creative collaboration.
Capturing the perspective of people on the ground experiencing the realities of the criminal justice system is essential to understanding the challenges and opportunities surrounding criminal justice data in different communities.
For example, some questions we can ask:
- What challenges are agencies facing in collecting and maintaining data?
- Are the current mechanisms for data access and transparency sufficient for researchers and policymakers?
- Where are the state’s major data gaps, and what questions are we unable to answer as a result?
When done rigorously and with practices in place to mitigate bias, qualitative research helps us shed light on these questions. With these rich insights, we can unveil salient themes characterizing data landscapes throughout the country, and ultimately point to key areas of focus for criminal justice practitioners seeking to advocate for their own data infrastructure and policymakers interested in data standardization.
Our upcoming report dives into the criminal justice data landscape in Louisiana. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when the full report is available.
