Official Statistics

Official Statistics

1. Practical Issues

   • Advantages
     • Comparison between groups
       • Compare statistics on educational achievement, crime rates or life expectancy between classes, genders, ethnic groups
         • Key study: Modood (2004) studied the relationship between ethnicity, class and attainement
       • Show trends and patterns over time. Used by sociologists for 'before and after' studies to show cause-and-effect relationships
         • Example: Compare divorce statistics before and after change in divorce law to measure the effect the legiislation had
     • Accessbility
       • Plenty of information on education however info required by sociologists may not always be available
       • Already in exists, cheap and readily available e.g. census
     • Coverage
       • Covers most important aspects of social life e.g. education, divorce, crime etc.
     • Background data
       • Often provides useful background material e.g. about ethnic, class and gender make-up of a research group
     • Prompts to research
       • Can provide starting point for research e.g. revealing a new pattern for further investigation
         • Example: Boys' educational underachievement was first identified from offical statistics
   • Disadvantages
     • Definition and Measurement
       • Concepts used, how they have been operationalised and how data is presented by the Government may differ from sociologists
         • Example: Statistics measure class in terms of occupation whilst sociologists see class based on ownership or non-ownership of property
     • Male bias
       • Feminists argue statistics are biased against women e.g. definitions of 'work' used in Census exclude unpaid housework.

2. Ethical Issues

   • No issues as they're publicly available and using them won't cause necessary harm

3. Theoretical Issues

   • Advantages
     • Representative
       • Based on a large sample so often highly representative e.g. birth, death, divorce, and marriage registration or the number of pupils in a school
     • Comprehensive
       • Generally reliable since Government imposes definitions and categories on schools. Specified data is produced using standardized procedures
     • Reliability
       • Standardised categories and collection techniques can replicated each time
   • Disadvantages
     • Validity
       • Open to question (manipulation)
         • Schools may deliberately manipulate data to secure funding, create a good impression on Ofsted inspectors or success in league tables
           • Example: Schools may not record absences or lateness accurately
           • Example: Exclude or fail to enter poorly performing pupils for exams to improve performance on league table
             • School League tables: Labour gov. introduced Contextual Value Adde tables to take into account pupils bacground when judging school performance
       • Some 'hard' statistics give a less valid picture
         • Example: Police statistics don't record all crimes
         • Example: Educational statistics don't record racist incidents occurring in schools

4. Positivists

   • Quantitative (secondary sources)
     • Existing quantitative sociological research
     • Non-official statistics
     • Official statistics
   • Argue they're 'social facts' that are true and objective measures of the real rate crimes, suicide etc.
     • Emile Durkheim (1897) created a hypothesis that suicide is caused be a lack of social integration.

5. Interpretivists

   • Reject as they fail to achieve their goal of validity
   • Argue they aren't social facts but socially constructed - represent labels people give to behaviour of others
     • Maxwell Atkinson (1971) uses qualitative methods e.g. observing coroners' proceedings of how they determine deaths as suicides, accidents etc.

6. Marxism

   • Marxists like John Irvine (1987) see statistics as serving interests of capitalism
     • Statistics Government produces are part of ruling class ideology - ideas and values that help maintain capitalist class in power
       • Example: Unemployment changes over time - reduces number officially defined as unemployed, thus disgusing the true level of unemplyoment

7. Definitions

   • 'Hard' statistics: Simple counts that register events e.g. births and deaths. Not easily manipulated
   • 'Soft' statistics: More easily manipulated e.g. crime statistics