official statistics Flashcards
official statistics
quantitative data gathered by government, social institutions, businesses
normally collected at regular intervals or is a legal requirement
often used by government to inform social policy decisions
hard statistics
collection from everyone by law eg birth records
hard as they are collected the same way every time and have no space for interpretation
soft statistics
where method of collection and categorisation may change and doubts remain about accuracy eg crime statistics
practical advantages of official statistics
cost - cheap or free to obtain
time - freely available and often already analysed to quick to study
range - statistics cover a great range of society so can provide information on most topics
ethical advantages of official statistics
there is no real ethical issues
theoretical advantages of official statistics
reliability - collected by law every year, same way from same saws, quantitative, easy for government to repeat data
representativeness - whole population by law
validity - hard statistics measure what they claim
social facts - positivists argue they allow the creation of social facts
practical disadvantages to official stats
full access - some only in analysed form - no raw
personal skills - may need statistical skills
theoretical disadvantages of official stats
accuracy - doesn’t always measure what they claim to measure eg crime stats
representativeness - not always represent target population - homelessness excluded from census
social constructs - interpretivists argue stats are social constructs
positivist views of official stats
reliable objective and representative
accurate reflections of social world
social facts to test hypotheses
cause and effect
interpretivist views of official stats
do not use as social constructs and cannot provide a valid understanding of society
marxist views of official stats
representations of bourgeoisie ideology - statistics generated in their interests
feminist views of official stats
representations of patriarchy - collected by men with men in interest eg lots of statistics on employment but few on child-caring
