Methods - Official Statistics

Question 1

What are the quantitative secondary sources?

Answer 1

• Official statistics
• Existing quantitative research

Question 2

What are the qualitative secondary sources?

Answer 2

• Existing qualitative research
• public documents
• Personal/historical documents

Question 3

What are the practical advantages of official statistics

Answer 3

+ Completely free and easily accessible through government records
+ Allow for comparison between groups
+ Can show trends and patterns over time to study cause-and-effect

Question 4

What are the practical disadvantages of official statistics

Answer 4

• No control over what statistics the government collects
• State definitions change (unemployment (30 times over the 80’s/90’s) so may not be able to compare over time
• State definition may be different to sociologist’s

Question 5

What are the ethical advantages of official statistics

Answer 5

+ Government research is usually ethical
+ No possible further infractions
+ Usually refers to whole groups so no worry about confidentiality

Question 6

What are the ethical disadvantages of official statistics

Answer 6

• Foucauldian arguments about surveillance and control
• Feminists: patriarchal, empathy-less control

Question 7

What are the theoretical advantages of official statistics

Answer 7

+ Large-scale so incredibly representative (especially census)
+ Standardised and regularly repeated so very reliable
+ Often quantitative

Question 8

What are the theoretical disadvantages of official statistics

Answer 8

• Soft statistics often fail to capture darker truths, like racism in schools (‘dark figure of crime’)
• Irvine (1987): state is a tool of capitalism
• Douglas (1967): OS only tell us about interactions of those involved rather than social realities (religious coroners less likely to rule suicide)
• Non-standardised definitions