Over the past decade, scholars researching the causes, forms and impacts of transitional justice mechanisms have increasingly turned to cross-national databases to document cases, facilitate comparisons and develop causal analyses. Such research has been heralded as having the potential to address significant knowledge gaps in the field. However, to date, database research has produced patchy and contradictory findings. To interrogate why these differences have arisen, this article draws on a new database relating to key elements of research design in 20 databases of transitional justice mechanisms or transitional contexts. The systematic comparative analysis of these databases finds that they are constructed for a range of distinct purposes, which in turn shape different approaches to research design and lead to divergent findings. The article argues that greater reflection on the diverse purposes of databases can help scholars appreciate how different forms of databases can be used in an incremental and complementary manner to build knowledge that is persuasive for scholars and practitioners.

中文翻译：

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过渡司法机制和背景数据库：比较研究目的和设计

在过去十年中，研究过渡时期司法机制的原因、形式和影响的学者越来越多地转向跨国数据库来记录案例、促进比较和进行因果分析。此类研究被认为有可能解决该领域的重大知识差距。然而，迄今为止，数据库研究产生了不完整且相互矛盾的发现。为了探究为什么会出现这些差异，本文利用了一个与 20 个过渡司法机制或过渡背景数据库中的研究设计关键要素相关的新数据库。对这些数据库的系统比较分析发现，它们是为一系列不同的目的而构建的，这反过来又塑造了不同的研究设计方法并导致了不同的发现。