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Empirical Research for Public Policy: With Examples from Family Law

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  • Richard Lempert

Abstract

Drawing on three family law studies as examples, this article discusses strengths and weaknesses of policy‐relevant empirical research. Its main message is that policy‐relevant empirical legal research should be encouraged, but the policy relevance of research, especially single studies, should not be oversold. It concludes with five points that consumers of policy‐relevant empirical research should keep in mind: (1) do not rest policy change or analysis on a single study, no matter how good it is; (2) when reading the report of an empirical study, look beyond the researcher's bottom line to other relationships revealed in the data; (3) no matter how unversed one is in statistics, commonsense and a close reading of tables, graphs, and methodological narratives can take one a long way; (4) always ask about mechanism: understanding why a situation exists is as important to policy analysis as knowing whether it exists; and (5) if results seem too good to be true, this is often because they are not true.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Lempert, 2008. "Empirical Research for Public Policy: With Examples from Family Law," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(4), pages 907-926, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:5:y:2008:i:4:p:907-926
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00145.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Christoph Engel, 2018. "Empirical Methods for the Law," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 174(1), pages 5-23, March.
    2. Paul Fenn & Neil Rickman, 2011. "Fixing Lawyers' Fees Ex Ante: A Case Study in Policy and Empirical Legal Studies," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(3), pages 533-555, September.
    3. Berger, Elizabeth & Scheidegger, Kent, 2021. "Sentence Length and Recidivism: A Review of the Research," SocArXiv eqtzp, Center for Open Science.

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