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Official Statistics  

Official statistics are a secondary source of data.
"Statistical information produced, collated, and disseminated by national governments, their agencies, and the international bodies which link them." Marshall, G. et al, 1998, The Oxford dictionary of Sociology, OUP, Oxford.
In Singapore the government and NUS will carry out large scale commissioned statistics.
Questions of reliability and validity in the collection and collation process because they are official.
So before we look at the down side of official statistics lets look at the reasons for using them.
Official Statistics  

They are frequently the only source of data in particular area, such as hospital waiting lists.
They are readily available so researchers do not have to spend their own time and money collecting the information on which they are based.
They allow for an examination of trends over time - or time series data - on a range of areas, such as income differentials, divorce, educational achievement.
They allow before and after studies to be made - e.g. examining the effect that changes in legislation have on divorce rates.
(Bilton et al, 1997, Introductory Sociology, Palgrave, Great Britain.)
Official Distortion During Collection  

Under-reporting and Under-recording are a major problem with official statistics.
For any given act to be recorded t must meet a set of standardized, routinised and bureaucratized criteria.
Just like when trying to define a concept by using particular indicators.
Under reporting can be explained since the dawn of Closed Circuit Television in Britain's cities.
A large number of criminal acts can be seen being perpetrated and yet the observed rate of crime is not shown in the official crime rates.

The Production of Statistics.  

Collection of statistics  

Regarding statistics as facts is highly dubious.
If we think about the process of how statistics are collected. The process outlined above shows a long process of who or what ends up as a statistic.
Criminal statistics depend on the law and its implementation, local policing policy.
How well are you able to defend yourself in court.
These statistics cannot be said to be OBJECTIVE.
These social constructs require demystifying and deconstructing.
Collection of statistics  

The reason that these statistics have been collected is reflected in how, when and by whom they were collected.
The definition of the concept that they report is always a contentious issue among sociologists.
Have the criteria that define a crime been changed over the years and if so how is this change reflected in the data gathered. (Bilton et al, 1997)
the researcher cannot check the soundness of the data collection methods.
Intentional distortion on behave of governments, or corporations, in order to put up a good ?front?. Or defend a particular ideology.
There are three types of lies:  

Lies
Damned Lies
And Statistics.
Documentary Sources  

High reliability but validity is poor. With reference to the METHOD. not the source.
Historical qualitative data analysis.
Secondary data.
Published or unpublished, public or private.
Personal documents - letters, diaries, autobiographies. Are they authentic, complete, idealized and genuine.
Public documents - school records, parish records, social work records, police, court, government records, clubs, societies etc?
Published documents - official government or person or organizational records.
Unpublished documents - Official papers and private papers
 

 

Documentary sources  

Advantages
It is actually what was said by the people concerned.  

Permanent record, clarity of recall.  

The are more likely to contain a truer especially unpublished government documents  

Disadvantages
Language changes over time and so conceptualization of topics needs to be assessed.  

Official distortion. A particular version of events.  

Statements removed from context loss an aspect of meaning.  

Forgery  

Combined Methods  

Researchers are aiming for as high a level of reliability and validity as possible.
Semi-structured interviewing for instance.
Triangulation is used to maximize the amount of information available about something and to cross reference different methods in order to try and compensate for the specific weaknesses of the individual methods. Resulting usually in both qualitative and quantitative data.
As for the Comparative Method - give a definition of the word COMPARE+ 2 countries, religions, classes etc...

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