Research Assistant I / Senior Research Assistant in the Faculty of Law
The University of Hong Kong
Ref.: 537320
Work type: Full-time, Hourly-paid
Department: Faculty of Law (18100)
Categories: Research Staff
Hong Kong
to commence as soon as possible, on a three-month temporary basis
The appointee will work on a project involving quantitative and socio‑legal analysis of approximately 2,300+ drug trafficking sentencing judgments from the Hong Kong High Court and District Court, and the preparation of an in‑depth report on drug trafficking trends and sentencing patterns for an NGO partner serving youth offenders.
Applicants should possess a Master’s degree or above in socio‑legal studies, Social Work, Criminology, Statistics / Data Science, Public Policy / Social Policy, or a closely related field with substantial quantitative methods training. They should have:
- Training in descriptive statistics, inferential analysis, and data visualisation
- Ability to work with structured datasets (e.g. CSV/Excel)
- Competence in at least one data analysis environment (e.g. R, Python, Stata,



SPSS, or similar)
- Demonstrated ability to write clear, structured, analytical reports in English
- Ability to interpret and synthesise complex information (including legal judgments and social data)
- Good organisational skills and ability to work independently to meet deadlines

A law degree or legal training is an advantage, especially if combined with quantitative skills, but is not a substitute for the quantitative methods requirement.
The appointee’s primary task will be to lead the analysis and writing of an in‑depth report, including:
- Analysing an existing dataset of coded drug trafficking sentencing judgments (approx. 2,300+ cases)
- Conducting descriptive and inferential quantitative analysis (e.g. regression, group comparisons, trends over time)
- Identifying trends and patterns in:
- Case background (time, place, court level; high‑risk periods/locations)
- Defendant characterist

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