Comparison
Description
Definition: Comparison analysis examines relationships between two or more variables to uncover insights about client conditions or data linkages.
Purpose: Highlights disparities, disproportionalities, differences, relationships, or conditions requiring further investigation.
Examples:
- Comparing service rates by gender or ethnicity.
- Analyzing links between poverty levels and case types.
Key Insight: When unexpected differences arise by demographics or legal problem, investigate to understand the data relationships and determine whether advocacy or services targeting multiple conditions are needed.
Example Data Question
How does levels of service differ by legal problem among different racial categories? (Note that because many legal aids count Hispanic as a race rather than ethnicity, it is considered a racial category in this example analysis).
Recreate This Analysis
Data Sources
Intake and Closed Case data from your case management system, including
- Fields that determine whether a client was served or not, such as case status and/or close code
- Demographics about which you are curious, including race
- Open date and close date
- Problem Code
- Other case information that you might be able to use in other analyses, including other demographics, etc.
- Exclude cases that were identified as errors or duplicates
Example Analyses Steps
- Find the total cases closed with both brief service and extended service from your case management system for the last three years.
- Using whichever analysis software you prefer (Excel pivot table shown in this example), sort data by legal problems and limit your review to the top 10 most prevalent legal problems.
- Further sort by Race.
- Show percentage split between brief and extended service.
- Highlight results that deserve special attention. In this example, the data relevant to the questions in the “Multiple analyses are possible section” above are highlighted in the table below.
Related Questions You May Ask
- How do the number and demographics of those receiving limited services or extended services compare to the demographics of the eligible population?
- How do the legal problems of those receiving limited services or extended services vary, especially for specific groups?
- How do the number and demographics of those achieving positive outcomes versus those not achieving positive outcomes compare to the demographics of the eligible population?
- How do the legal problems of those achieving positive outcomes versus those not achieving positive outcomes vary, especially for specific groups?
- How do the number, demographics, and legal problems of those served by staff versus those served by pro bono volunteers vary, especially for specific groups?