Quantitative methods- Official statistics Flashcards
What are statistics?
Secondary quantitative method
Used mainly by positivists
What are official statistics?
A wide range of data collected by government department and agencies
Why are non official statistics?
Data collected by agencies other then give department e.g. charities, pressures groups and trade unions
In official statistics, what are hard statistics?
Factual
Simply and collection of legally required data e.g. births and deaths
In official statistics what are soft statistics?
Open to interpretation and manipulation e.g. crime and unemployment
What are the 5 examples of official statistics?
Sucide
Health
Crime
The census
Education
What are suicide statistics?
Durkheim used official statistics to study suicide in an attempt to identify the social causes
Criticism is suciside statistics?
Turning something so sensitive into a statistic is unethical
What health statistics?
Health statistics are regularly collected by the govt
Issues covered include- life expectancy, mental health, drug and alcohol misuse and causes of death
What are crime statistics?
Collected by the Crime survey for england and wales
e.g. drug offences, domestic violence, arrest rates and prison statistics
Criticisms of crime statistics?
Not all crimes recorded such as petty crimes
Their aren’t more criminals they are just finding more if then
Feminists would say it’s difficult to record rape and domestic violence
What is the census?
Every 10 years since 1801 the nation has set aside one day for the census
This is a count of all people and households
it’s the most complete source of information about the population we have
Last held in march 2011
Criticisms of the census?
Held every 10 yrs so out to date
What are education statistics?
Exam results are published annually and lead to the publication of school leuge tables
Schools also publish attendance statistics
Criticisms of education/ employment?
Not all school tables reflect school
Political weapon if unemployment means don’t tell the truth as they can make govt look bad (hide unemployment figure by not counting people in education)
What is being socially constructed?
Created by those measuring the data
why do critical race theorists claim crime statistics are socially constructed?
Police only target one type of ground e.g. race
It doesn’t mean theirs more of them they are just finding other groups
Socially constructed- Hall and Gilroy?
Suggest ethnic minority’s, particularly black groups are over represented in crime statistics
Race theorist and crime- Black and Asian?
Black and asian men are more likely to be stopped and searched by the police compared to white men
What are the advantages of using official statistics?
-Extensive and up to date
-Large scale
-Can spot developing trends and patterns
-Objextive and reflect social facts of society
-Criticisms are exaggerated
-Ethical- no one’s offended as it’s just a number
-Reliable- done every 10 yes and everyone has to do it
Do advantages apply to all official statistics e.g. The census
Not really they can be out of date
Disadvantage of statistics?
-Manipulation
-Theoretical
-Marxist feminism and critical race theory
Disadvantages of statistic- manipulated?
-Conservative govt changed the way they counted unemployment 30 times between 1982 and 1992
Causing them to drop- An example of how quickly things can be manipulated to fit politician embarrassing unemployment rates (lack validty)
-Changing in method of police recording of official rate if violet crimes, so certain data can distort actual figure (e.g. the way labour counted crime made it peak)
Disadvantages of statistics- Theoretical criticisms?
Statistics aren’t facts, just interpititatib
All data requires classification and interpretation
e.g. In crime stars the crown prosecutor of service and all courts have different interpretations of weather crimes have taken place
Theoretical criticisms- Maxwell Atkinson?
Sees suicide statistics as producers of coroners assumptions about the rate if people who commit sucicidr rates if death is an accident murdered if suicide
Marxist, Femenust and Critical race theory criticisms?
Says official statistics are supported and supplied by a radical society
Agreed govt statistics are systematically distorted
Believe gov deliberately define poverty to minimise amount reported so hiding negative effects of capitalism
Crimes of the powerful don’t appear in statistics but these if the of the poor are
Also exaggerates criminality if ethnics minortys
PERVERT- factors?
Practical issues
Ethical issues
Reliability
Validity
Examples
Representativeness
Theoretical issues
Advantages of official statistics?
Practicality
Ethical issues
Reliability
Representativeness
Disadvantages of official statistics?
Ethical issues
Validity
Theoretical issues
Official statistics advantages- practical?
Easily available for sociologist
Ethical issues advantages?
No direct involvement with p’s
Reliability advantages?
Easily to identify patterns and trends
Representativeness advantages?
Very large and representative sample, usually beyond most researchers ability
Ethical disadvantages?
Is it ethical to rely on them
Validity disadvantages?
Not as valid as methods
Validity advantages?
however as they are produced by the govt people might be least likely to lie
Theoretical disadvantages?
Marxist and feminists
Interpretivist
Theoretical advantages?
Positivists
Statistic example?
Durkheim 1897, sucide statistics
Why does Durkheim refer to suicide statistics as social facts?
Exploring the social situation that may have contributed to suicide therefore considered external factors which may have influenced decisions
What analysis did Durkheim use?
Multivariate
What is multivariate analysis?
Comparing social factors with a known incident of a particular event e.g. suicide
What are the 4 ways Durkheim classified suicide?
Egotistic
Altruistic
Anomic
Fatalistic
Classified suicide- Egotistic?
Selfishness, high rates of suicide in societies with low level of integration, but that, within those society, people integrated in families or religious groups that provide greater levels of social integration are less likely to take their lives e.g. married people less likely to commit suicide compared to single people
Classified suicide- Altruistic?
Insufficient motivation
Looks at the wider society e.g. suicide bombing due to political or religious reason in contempary society
Classified suicide- Anomic?
A rapid social change
According to Durkheim societies develop cultural and social mechanisms that provide a clear framework of what’s socially acceptable and if this is weekend we may become naturally selfish whilst others are bewildered
Suicide can occur in times of dramatic social change e.g. economic crisis
Classified suicide- Fatalistic?
Loosing the will to live
One way to criticise Durkheim’s study?
We need to consider the individual reason ‘verstehen’ brain functions
What sociologist criticises Durkheim?
Atkinson
Whys atkinson critical of suicide?
They fail to understand that category’s such as suicide are socially constructed
What did atkinson study that can be more efficient of suicide than statistics?
-Coroners and their decision to see why deaths a suicide or not
Atkinson- what are the clues given by conorers?
-Suicide notes- 30% of suicides have notes, some may be burned due to accusations
-Mode of death- the location and circumstance (suicides done in places where they won’t be discovered and or will have a successful attempt
-Life history and the mental condition of the deceased
