The upside to AREU's methodology is that the data tells a rich story that highlights the variety of manners of resolving disputes, including multiple perspectives on how individual villages resolve disputes and how women in particular access different venues. he downside to such an approach, though, is that such a labor-intensive study means that the number of case studies from different sites is limited and that these types of study do not produce the type of quantitative data that large-scale donors often demand to justify continued funding of the sector.
In contrast with this, IDLO, in conjunction with a local Afghan research group, has done the most serious quantitative study of popular opinions on both the formal and informal sectors across several provinces. he large amount of data that IDLO has gathered is impressive and analyzes a series of issues with a far greater sample size than any other previous survey. he type of data that it has gathered includes public preferences for justice mechanism based on the type of case to be adjudicated (see table 4).96
The data in table 4 confirm some trends from other research. For example, it suggests that the majority of the respondents felt that murder was best dealt with by the courts. On the other hand, domestic violence, an issue deeply tied to the honor of the family, was the type of issue that respondents clearly favored addressing at the lowest level by using the village jirga.
Of course, there are some issues that necessarily arise when conducting a survey of this size, such as the basic limitations of survey categories. For instance, surveys tend to supply only a few bounded options such as "village jirga" or "district jirga," which do not take into account the movement of cases between venues and the numerous cases that pass through a series of venues during their resolution process. Additionally, the number of case studies and
Table 4. Breakdown of Where Specific Types of Disputes Are More Likely to Be Handled
(by Percentage of Cases)
the background data gathered was limited so that it was often difficult to determine the effect of local variables on the data. For example, the degree to which the surveys were conducted in unstable areas with high levels of banditry would likely shape how respondents feel about the importance of theft and robbery.97
While AREU and IDLO's research fill many of the holes in international observers' understanding of informal justice in Afghanistan, it has not been possible to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches so as to provide a more complete picture of dispute resolution across the country. hese projects have also benefited from the fact that their sources of funding were secured before the projects began, and they were not as shaped by political or economic pressures