Official Statistics

Question 1

Hard Stats

Answer 1

• likely to be accurate + deal with “black/white issues” e.g. birth rate

Question 2

Soft Stats

Answer 2

• less valid, rely on decisions people made by an individual e.g. suicide/DV “grey areas”

Question 3

Durkheim (1897)

Answer 3

• researched suicide
• compared suicide rates + spotted patterns/trends in European countries
• factors affecting suicide: martial status, children/childlessness, divorce etc
• religion big factor
• Italy had lower suicide rates due to country being strongly Catholic where suicide is a grave sin
• UK has higher suicide rates due to country not as religious
• took stats at face value

Question 4

Public Statistics

Answer 4

• stats on birth help gov plan number of school places for the future
• OFSTED use stats, such as exam results, to monitor the effectiveness of schools
• 2011British Crime Survey found only 38% of crimes reported to the police

Question 5

PET analyse (Durkheim)

Answer 5

Practical - comparable between groups, definitions can change overtime
Ethical - confidentiality, sensitive topics
Theoretical - reliable, low validity

Question 6

PET analyse (public statistics)

Answer 6

Practical - collected regularly, can manipulate stats
Ethical - no harm, leading questions
Theoretical - objective data, no verstehen