You will be using a wide variety of sources for your research project as you will need to incorporate both social and legal aspects of the traumatic event you have chosen to research.
You will need to engage with a range of primary and secondary sources.
Primary Sources are immediate, first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it.
Secondary Sources are a step removed from primary sources. They are second-hand accounts, providing an interpretation or analysis of a topic, often quoting or using the first-hand accounts as part of the analysis.
Your Social Element
For the social element of your project this means using first hand experience accounts from the survivors, bereaved and communities or even the victims (depending on the nature of the traumatic event).
Examples of useful sources include:
It is essential to hear these first hand experiences from those involved rather than second hand reports from those analysing the impact of events on those involved in journal articles or books or blogs etc.
Your Legal Element
Primary sources are also important for the legal element of your project.
Examples of primary legal sources include legal documents that were generated as part of legal proceedings. This could be:
However, not all documents that are used in legal proceedings are made publicly available. For example not all court cases are formally reported in law reports series and when cases are reported a judgement is provided but not all the accompanying court documents and evidence.
Where there is no access or very limited access to primary legal sources you can use secondary legal commentary sources to engage with the legal context of your topic. This could include materials like newspaper reporting of trials, blog analysis by legal commentators, audiovisual coverage on news programmes or documentaries fof legal proceedings or other reports and written analysis of legal issues and proceedings.
University of Exeter LibGuide is licensed under CC BY 4.0
