Surveying Difficult Populations: Lessons Learned from a National Survey of State Trial Court Judges

Abstract

Surveying trial court judges presents a variety of serious challenges, but recent SupremeCourt decisions and the use of increasingly complex scientific evidence in trials make itnecessary to assess trial judges’ knowledge and views of scientific evidence. In this article,we describe a successful nationwide survey of state trial court judges. Responserates were high, and the information obtained was valuable.