ABSTRACT
Empirical studies provide the background for many of the generalizations and conclu-sions reached about law and society in the preceding chapters. The intention of this chapter is to show how sociologists carry out such studies by describing some of the ways they research law and the methods they use to arrive at their findings. This chapter also demonstrates the significance and applicability of sociological research to the formulation, instrumentation, and evaluation of social policy. The general comments on methodological tools for research on law are not proposed to replace the more detailed technical discussions found in books on the various methods of social research (see, for example, Alford, 1998; Babbie, 2010; Bernard, 2000; Chambliss and Schutt, 2010; Feldman, 2009; Gray, 2010; Halliday and Schmidt, 2009; McIntyre 2005; Morse and Field, 1995; Nock and Kingston, 1990; Schutt, 2009; Westmarland, 2010; Yates, 2004). They are intended merely to provide an exposure to the strategies used in the study of the interplay between law and society and to highlight the methodological concerns and complexities inherent in such endeavors.
