Measuring Law for Evaluation Research

• Published in: Evaluation review Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 242 - 266
• Main Authors: Tremper, Charles, Thomas, Sue, Wagenaar, Alexander C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.06.2010; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Best practice; Change Strategies; Evaluation; Evaluation Research; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Health technology assessment; Humans; Interdisciplinary Approach; Interdisciplinary aspects; Interdisciplinary Communication; Interdisciplinary research; Law; Law Related Education; Legal information; Legal Responsibility; Legislation; Measurement; Measurement Objectives; Measurement Techniques; Methodology; Models, Theoretical; Policy Analysis; Policy making; Policy research; Public health; Public Health - legislation & jurisprudence; Research Design; Research Methodology; Research Problems; Social Sciences; Social Sciences - legislation & jurisprudence; United States; United States; statutes; legal; law; measurement; interdisciplinary; policy evaluation
• ISSN: 0193-841X; 1552-3926
• DOI: 10.1177/0193841X10370018

Evaluations that combine social science and law have tremendous potential to illuminate the effects of governmental policies and yield insights into how effectively policy makers’ efforts achieve their aims. This potential is infrequently achieved, however, because such interdisciplinary research contains often overlooked substantive and methodological challenges. This article offers detailed guidance for conducting successful multidisciplinary evaluations that use legal data. It addresses major issues that commonly arise and offers practical solutions based both on the authors’ extensive experience and recommended best practices developed in concert with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Law Research Program.