Official Statistics (20)

Question 1

Two types of Statistics

Answer 1

Official and Non-Official Statistics

Question 2

Official Statistics Definition

Answer 2

Numerical Data produced by national or local government bodies

Question 3

Official Statistics

Answer 3

A wide range of Data collected by government departments and agencies
Extensive and Up to Date
Large volume as only gov could fund such widespread research
Cover whole of the population as with the census or stats about births, marriage, divorce, death, unemployment and crime rates
Large Sample sizes (50,000 households in the Annual Crime Survey of Crime for England and Wales)

Question 4

Non-Offical Statistics Definition

Answer 4

Numerical Data collected by organisations other than government departments and agencies

Question 5

Non-Offical Statistics

Answer 5

Data collected by for example, Private Organisations like charities (Joesph Rowntree Foundation, Pressure Groups (Green Peace), Intrest Groups (Trade Unions and Corporate Foundations like media groups (SkyTV)

Question 6

Reliability of Statistics

Answer 6

Large Scale data collections by the governments are planned and organised and often done at set intervals like annually
The Census, for example, are highly replicable, conducted by the government every 10 years since 1851 on the whole population (must be completed or people are fined)
Comparisons can easily be made over time (if same questions) as standardised procedures

Question 7

Reliability of Statistics Issues

Answer 7

Not guaranteed the results are accurate even if usually highly reliable
Dependant on the source and the participants
Not a controlled research method

Question 8

Unreliability of Statistics Example (BCS)

Answer 8

Results from the British Crime Survey indicate Offical Crime Statistics are unreliable are they show some crimes are occurring more or less - Demonstrates unreliability
Recent BCS data indicates since 1981 levels of crimes have increased while the Home Office claims suggest the police statistics exaggerate the extent of crime
Two Government bodies cannot produce the same results so unreliable

Question 9

Representativeness of Statistics

Answer 9

Statistics are usually gathered by surveys or questionnaires that include large representative samples, therefore, can be generalised to similar populations
Can be diverse and geographically widespread

Question 10

Validity of Statistics

Answer 10

Official Statistics frequently underestimate the extent of real problems like truancy and exclusions in Education and crime statistics
HINDESS: Argues official crime statistics do not reveal social laws governing crimes and deviance. Needs to be more careful interpretation
The validity of official statistics is often very high, only stats will be up to date, relevant and gathered to eliminate errors so measuring what they are intending to measure. When out of date it can be quickly collected again to keep up to date.

Question 11

Validity Issues

Answer 11

Not measuring what it intends to measure. True number not recorded, ‘dark figure’, Iceberg Approach-most has been hidden from view
Objective and Not Subjective at face value
Still open to abuse. Governments, for example, change the ways in which unemployment statistics are collected or displayed to make their own economic policies look better

Question 12

Practical Issues

Answer 12

Save times as collected by others and by organisations that have the funds to conduct like the government
Despite being a Questionnaires things like the Census do not suffer from the same low response rate. As it is against the law not to complete it. At least 120 people have been convicted for failing to complete their 2011 census forms, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
But can be expensive. The ONS operating cost was £207,013,000 in March 2017

Question 13

Positivistic Interpretation of Statistics

Answer 13

Positivists see Statistics as reliable hard facts collected in a standardised, systematic and scientific fashion
Durkheim used positivistic methods in his suicide research which found correlations and casual relationships between four different 4 types of suicide. Most reliable method.

Question 14

Interpretivism Interpretation of Statistics

Answer 14

Interprestvists Douglas and Atkinson that such methods aren’t valid. They warn official stats:
They may not represent a complete picture
of whatever sociological problem the sociologist is interested in because the definitions used by the data-collecting organisation may be different from those used by sociologists. For example, sociologists prefer to use ‘relative’ measurements of poverty whereas the British government uses an ‘absolute’ measurement.
Statistics are socially constructed; this means they do not just appear or happen. These decisions are sometimes selective and biased. For example, the government may be happy to produce statistics showing the number of successful prosecutions for benefit fraud but reluctant to publish statistics on how many wealthy individuals or global corporations are avoiding tax.
Statistics tell us very little about the human stories that underpin them. For example, poverty statistics tell us very little about the everyday strains, stresses and humiliations of living in poverty.

Question 15

Ethical Considerations

Answer 15

Numbers not names.

In the public domain so no consent needed.

Question 16

Conclusion

Answer 16

Are very useful.
But have fundamental issues with reliability and validity.
Shows us what is happening but not why.

Question 17

Kellett and Dar (2007)

Answer 17

undertook research on whether poor childhood literacy was linked to subsequent adult poverty. Their starting point was official statistics which indicated a limited improvement in literacy rates following the government targeting literacy over the ten-year period prior to their research. They found that, despite their high profile, the impact of these policies has in fact been quite limited.

Question 18

Modern Application

Answer 18

The official statistics on crime published as police recorded crime have come in for repeated criticism over the years as the police have been accused of not recording all crimes reported to them (a process known as ‘cuffing’).
In January 2014 the UK Statistics Authority stripped police recorded crime of its gold standard status as official statistics.
There is an alternative official statistic on crime, the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW), which is a victim survey and therefore not interested if crimes have been recorded or not.