Secondary sources-Official statistics

Question 1

What are official statistics

Answer 1

Official statistics are quantitative data gathered by the government

E.g statistics on birth,death,marriages & divorce ,exam results

The ten yearly cencus of whole population is major source of officail statistics

The governement collects official statistics to use in policy making

e.g statitsics on birth help government plan number of schools for future

Ofsted use statistics on exam results to monitor effectiveness of school

Question 2

Two ways of collecting official statistics

Answer 2

• Registration-e.g law requires parents to register births
• Official surveys- census

Organisations & groups -trade unions ,charities ,businesses also produce statistcisx
e.g The national grammar schools association produces statistics on comparative performance of grammar & non grammar schools

Question 3

Quantitative secondary sources

Answer 3

• Official statistics
• Non-official statistcis

Question 4

Qualitative secondary sources

Answer 4

• Public documents
• Personal documents
• Historical documents

Question 5

Advantages of Official statistics(quanitative secondary soruce)

Answer 5

• Free source of large amount of data-(only state can gather large scale surveys like cencus) thus can make use of data & saves time & money
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• Statistics allow comparisons between groups e.g can compare statistics on educational achievement ,crime rates,or life expectancy between classes,gender,ethnicity
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• official statistics are collected at regular intervals-show trends & patterns over time-sociologists can use them for before & after studies establishing cause & effect relationships

Question 6

Disadvantages of official statistics

Answer 6

• Practical disadvantages-goverment collects statistics for own purpose & not for benefit of sociologists- may be no offcial statistics for ontopics interested in(durkheims study of suicide found that no statistics specifically on religion of suicide victims-because state had no use for them
• Definitions the state uses in collecting data may be different from from sociologists who would use it e.g mayb define poverty or truancy differenly

Question 7

Explain how official statistics are representative

Answer 7

Offcial statistcis usaully cover large numbers due to standardised samplig procedures-provide a representative sample than surveys
Provide a better basis for generalisations & testing hypothesis
Disadvantages:
statistics produced by official surveys e.g british crime survey may be less representative because based on sample of relevant population

Question 8

Explain Official statitsics as reliable secondary source of secondary data collection

Answer 8

Official statistics seen as reliable source of data -conducted in standardised way & trained -following set procedures
e.g government statistics on death rates for different social classes follow standardised procedure

Question 9

Explain how official statistics are not valid

Do they meaure what they claim to measure?

Answer 9

Hard statistics-offcial statistics e.g statistics on birth rates,marriages,divorces give accurate picture
Soft statistics-give less valid picture.e.g police statistics do not record all crimes
educational statistcis do not record all racist incidents at school

Question 10

Methodological perspectives on Official statistics

Positivisits

Answer 10

Positivists favour official statistics as seen as abjective social facts that achieve main goal of repsresntativemnes,genralisabilty& reliabilitty
* They provide reliable data -standardised categories easily replicated
* Collected at regular intervals-show trends in behaviour over time
* Provide quantitative data -allowing us to identify & measure behqaviour patterns & establish cause & effect relationships
* Usually large scale-representative

Question 11

Interpetivists view on offical statistics

Answer 11

Reject offcial statistics particularly soft statistics such as crime staticts tey see them as social constructs & not social facts
fail to achive their main goal of validity

Question 12

Durkheim-(positivist) offcial statistics

Answer 12

See statistics as valuable source of data collection
postivts see offcia statitsics as social facts they are true & objective measure of real crime,suicide rates
see sociology as a science -they develop hypothesis to discover cause of behaviour & establish cause & effect relationships

Question 13

Atkinson(Interpretivist) official statistics

Answer 13

Regard official statistics as lacking validity
Argue statistics do not represent real thins or social factsthat exist in real wolrd
argue statistcs are socially constructed -they merely represnt the labels some peoplle give to behaviour of thers

Question 14

Marxists view on Offical statistics

Answer 14

See official statistics as serving the interest of capitalism
see statistics that state produces are part of rulling class ideology
e.g unemployement statistics