One research method that tends to generate quantitative data is official statistics. Official statistics provide both primary and secondary information, however for sociologists it provides on a secondary basis as they are already available to the public and have been retrieved by civil servants or public bodies -such as the government (Home Office), educational institutions (SQA) and health boards (NHS) and large charities. Official statistics can come in the form of either unemployment rates, death and birth dates, crime rates or marriage and divorce rates. Official statistics are often divided into two separate groups, one being hard statistics and the other, soft statistics. ‘Hard statistics’ refers to data that is compiled in a straightforward …show more content…
Not only that but they are readily available and easily accessible through different sources, such as the internet and libraries. These advantages mean sociologists can save lots of time and resources from producing data that is already available and also means that the credibility of these figures is often reliable as they are produced by government bodies and large companies who must retain quality standards within their findings. However, they must be approached with an open mind as they can often be easily manipulated by civil servants depending on the subject area. This could be political parties exploiting figures to appear favourably for them therefore not representing a true depiction of such area. Also, they can be very difficult to compare against and trends over time are hard to depict accurately as society goes through a constant influx of changes over time, this can be reflected in crime rates, certain activities and actions that were legal some time ago may well have become illegal now, can explain a possible drive in crime rates at the current …show more content…
This is because the information and the data they produce are very detailed, often very specific to a certain individual or group in the analysis. The data produced is of primary sourcing and tends to be extensive and costly, but means that the information allows for different feelings and mutations to be understood. There are many methods used within case studies, one example is keeping diary records. This could be done by the participant themselves and/or guardian or carer and helps the researcher grasp an idea of everyday life and how the participant reacts to their environment. They may also use interviews where close relatives and friends, perhaps even colleagues and professionals involved with the participant are given the opportunity to explore their perceptions and opinions of the participant and any concerns that have arisen. With these methods, over time the researcher can then gather up their information and results and produce what is then a ‘case
The Extent to Which Sociologists Agree that Official Criminal Statistics Do Not Give an Accurate Picture of the Extent in Terms of Crime
Case study uses information obtained from one person or a few people to illuminate the behaviors of others and suggest further research. Sigmund Freud popularized case study along with his psychonalytic theory of personality. A major advantage of the case study is that focussed on one person allows researchers to gather a great deal of detailed information. The goal of a case study is to use the information gathered from one person to understand the behaviors of others. “The case study is often used by used by psychologist in order to research into aspects of the human psyche.” (Keirs, 2009) Psychologist use experiments, interviews, questionnaires, observations, diaries, and psychometric tests are used within a case study. There are two basic types of case study; retrospective and longitudinal. In retrospective, your information comes from the history of the person you are studying. If it were a person who was being studied, you would have been to interview the person about their childhood and their family, as a result developed a report of their life and early life. In contrast longitudinal, investigates the future. They research consequences of a certain situation that has happened. The key feature in the case study method is subject matter. The subject matter is usually a person or an animal. Much like experimental case study, it often uses variables. As with any other method, it has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of case study is the ecological validity of it. The information that is used in these studies is from real life environment. The information is good information because the research is so in depth. The research if often very useful. There are also disadvantages and potential disadvantages. One main disadvantage is case studies usually relate to one individual, and what applies to you may not apply to me. Replication would not be easy with case study because of the unique situations.
The final chapter of this book encourages people to be critical when taking in statistics. Someone taking a critical approach to statistics tries assessing statistics by asking questions and researching the origins of a statistic when that information is not provided. The book ends by encouraging readers to know the limitations of statistics and understand how statistics are
While Ruane and Cerulo claim a similar declining trend, there’s a chance that some individuals who aren’t given the chance to complete a victimization survey may have suffered from violence. For those that are capable, they may lie and deny any violence for numerous reasons. The data can also be greatly affected depending on the locations in which the survey was given. If it is supplied in a prosperous and wealthy city, there may be a conclusion drawn from the data that is vastly different from if it had been distributed in a poverty-stricken city. This stance can be associated with the police data mentioned before. Police reports will be lower in some cites than others because crime may not be as
An example of this is,”The question was even looser in 1998 and 2002, when the General Social Survey found that roughly seventy percent of americans had read a novel,a short story ,a poem, or a play in the preceding twelve months. And, this August, seventy-three percent of respondents to another poll said they had read a book of some kind, not excluding those read for work or school, in the past year. If you didn’t read the fine print, you might think that reading was on the rise.”(Crain 7) This explains why Crain might have chosen to use statistics as a reference. Many times statistics help to explain reasoning for something that commentary cannot. An example of how Crain thinks that technology is the main reason for the decrease would be,”Children may be browbeaten, but adults resist interference with their pleasures. It may simply be the case that many Americans prefer to learn about the world and to entertain themselves with television and other streaming media, rather than with the printed word…”(Crain 8) This quote represents the problem as to why we turn to technology. It also gives the reader an example of why the reading decrease might be occurring. Technology could also be the root of many other problems in
Quantitative methods in the social sciences are an effective tool for understanding patterns and variation in social data. They are the systematic, numeric collection and objective analysis of data that can be generalized to a larger population and seek to find cause in variance (Matthews and Ross 2010, p.141; Henn et al. 2009, p.134). These methods are often debated, but quantitative measurement is important to the social sciences because of the numeric evidence that can be used to drive more in depth qualitative research and to focus regional policy, to name a few (Johnston et al. 2014). Basic quantitative methods, such as descriptive and inferential statistics, are used regularly to identify and explain large social trends that can then
In general, official statistics of crime recorded by the police and surveys of the public such as victim surveys and self-report studies are the three main measures of the extent of crime in Britain. The oldest method is to rely on official data collected by criminal justice agencies, such as data on arrests or convictions. The other two rely on social surveys. In one case, individuals are asked if they have been victims of crime; in the other, they are asked to self-report their own criminal activity. (Terence P. Thornberry and Marvin D. Krohn) Although these are a main secondary source of quantitative data, each of them may contain some drawbacks. Thus, this essay will introduce these three methods and demonstrates their disadvantages, such as the police crime statistics exclude the unreported and unrecorded crime;
* For a great cautionary tale of statistics and their manipulation go to this page on the Web: http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2004/0324.html
b) Briefly evaluate the usefulness of social surveys as a source of information on crime and deviance for sociologists. (12 marks) Social surveys are a way of finding out information from a large number of people. An example of a social survey is a questionnaire, which is the easiest and quickest way of getting a large amount of information from a population. Official statistics were primarily used to help sociologists work out who and how much crime exists. These were then criticised saying that they do not show unreported crime, which could be a far greater number than that provided in the official statistics.
This chapter taught me the importance of understanding statistical data and how to evaluate it with common sense. Almost everyday we are subjected to statistical data in newspapers and on TV. My usual reaction was to accept those statistics as being valid. Which I think is a fair assessment for most people. However, reading this chapter opens my eyes to the fact that statistical data can be very misleading. It shows how data can be skewed to support a certain group’s agenda. Although most statistical data presented may not seem to affect us personally in our daily lives, it can however have an impact. For example, statistics can influence the way people vote on certain issues.
In 19th Century UK, France and Belgium, census data and judicial statistics were used to plot distributions and match crime rates with social indices, in order to derive correlations and thus draw conclusions on the causes of crime (Muncie, 2001). Should we accept the reliability of the statistics, this is a logical first step, as similar strong correlations observed over extended periods of time imply a causal relationship.
Quantitative studies are primarily numbers based. They deal with large cohort groups as well as analyze large amounts of data. “A quantitative researcher typically tries to measure variables in some way, perhaps by using commonly accepted measures of the physical world (e.g., rulers, thermometers, oscilloscopes) or carefully designed measures of psychological characteristics or behaviors (e.g., tests, questionnaires, rating scales)” (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010, p. 94).
Whether or not people notice the importance of statistics, people is using them in their everyday life. Statistics have been more and more important for different cohorts of people from a farmer to an academician and a politician. For example, Cambodian famers produce an average of three tons or rice per hectare, about eighty per cent of Cambodian population is a farmer, at least two million people support party A, and so on. According to the University of Melbourne, statistics are about to make conclusive estimates about the present or to predict the future (The University of Melbourne, 2009). Because of their significance, statistics are used for different purposes. Statistics are not always trustable, yet they depend on their reliable factors such as sample, data collection methods and sources of data. This essay will discuss how people can use statistics to present facts or to delude others. Then, it will discuss some of the criteria for a reliable statistic interpretation.
Quantitative research involves the collection and converting of data into numerical form to enable statistical calculations be made and conclusions drawn. It provides a measure of how people think, feel or behave and uses the statistical analysis to determine the results. However, this measurement results in numbers, or data, being collected, which is then analyzed by using quantitative research methods (Byrne, 2007).
Demography is the study of human populations (Thomson, 2007). Demographers study characteristics such as birth, death rate, sex, ratio, and age structure in a population. Studying such changes is useful in the understanding of social, and economic problems which help to identify possible solutions (Thomson, 2007). The study of Demography allows us to be able to comprehend and analyze economic and social trends which is crucial in preparing for future developments. (Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, N/A).