The extraction of case histories is not, however, the only use to which court records may be put. Historians who study preindustrial Europe have used the records to establish a series of categories of crime and to quantify indictments that were issued over a given number of years. This use of the records does yield some information about the nonelite, but this information gives us little insight into the mental lives of the nonelite. We also know that the number of indictments in preindustrial Europe bears little relation to the number of actual criminal acts, and we strongly suspect that the relationship has varied widely over time. In addition, aggregate population estimates are very shaky, which makes it difficult for historians to compare rates of crime per thousand in one decade of the preindustrial period with rates in another decade. Given these inadequacies, it is clear why the case history use of court records is to be preferred.
结尾的最后一句之前，全部是The extraction of case historie的不足之处，到了最后一句话怎么还能突然来一个is to be preferred? 作者: 苏梳眠 时间: 2011-8-6 00:07:03
我做这篇的时候这里也迷糊了。
后来仔细想了一下，这篇文章一开始说的是用court records（CR）用来分析另外的一个问题，好像是除了贵族的平民吧。这里指的就是用CR这种资料，采用case history的方法，来研究这些欧洲历史。
然后这一段说这个CR还有其他用途：not the only use to which court records may be put，然后马上就指出这个用途的种种缺点。
所以，最后的这句应该是这个意思：CR就上面的case history用途有用，这个用途很烂，因此，历史学家更喜欢用CR做case history。
