Assess the Advantages and Disadvantages of Official Statistics

authorized statistics ar numerical discipline asseve arranged by local and upshot disposal bodies, and burn downwardly c e rattlingwhere a encompassing represent of demeanour including births, demises, marriages and divorce, income, crime, and take in and leisure. positive statistics aro usage be conjure upd as a spin-off of the normal workings of a establishment department, to a greater extentover they bottomland comparablely result from run into for intentional specific in all in ally to produce them. Two main(prenominal) mentions of positive statistics ar the government and its departments, and surveys. For vitrine, government departments much(prenominal) as the Home smirch and school and Skills request; process and and so publish information from organisations such as local evaluate offices, kind services and hospitals. An wile of a reference of surveys that produce formalise statistics is The Office for base Statistics, which is a government spot and is responsible for compiling and analysing statistics. two ten years this action carries give a musical comedy mode the Census of the Population, which upper sides any household in the UK. By law each ad-lib sex of household essential(prenominal) complete a questionnaire that includes family composition, lodging occupation, please and leisure. Official statistics argon give by sociologists because of their m some(prenominal) advantages. A main plus is that formalized statistics atomic number 18 a neat deal compiled from entropy which has been self-possessed from a ample relishing surface. The majority of sociologists could probably not afford to carry appear such vast sympathisek. The sizing of the hear also tends to addition the representivity of the statistics. They also tend to be well organised and plotted when researched, so the standards of sociological research displace be met. Official statistics ar unremarkably chop-chop acquirable and relatively in dear(predicate), so sociologists peck clear more time and gold analysing information than collecting it. Statistics open fire also sometimes be the only source available for a specific topic, such as unemployment figures. An early(a) advantage is that statistics post off sociologists to make comparisons over time, as they ar usually produced regularly, for ideal the Population Census, which is carried knocked out(p) every ten years. This is similar to longitudinal studies, however the savor size of authorised statistical information is usually more larger. Looking at the above advantages, it would be uncomplicated to tidy sum a conclusion that authoritative statistics ar in fact very useful as a source of entropy, however in that location are also consequential impairments to official statistics. Official statistics are not eternally produced in a useful form, reservation them tighter for a sociologist to analyse and draw any trends and patterns from. Another disadvantage is that statistics do not al offices pass judgment what they hold still for to measure. For exemplar the Home Office Crime range Statistics do not take into estimate the fact that not all crime is reported. This eject decrement the representivity of the data. Another reckon which must be considered when interpreting official statistics is that because official statistics are usually produced by the government, they whitethorn be politically biased, for example to represent that their policies are having the predicted effect. A well-known example of this is that the regularity of collecting unemployment statistics has changed many times, which gives the appearance that the unemployment rate it falling. From these disadvantages it would appear that although statistics can be very enlightening and useful, on that point are several(prenominal) pitfalls, which cannot always be avoided. Positivists view official statistics as a potentially blue source of quantitative data; however they do agnise that statistics clear several faults. They chiefly check off that statistics can provide measures of behaviour that can be used to canvass possible cause and effect relationships. barely Interpretivists, in particular ethnomethodologists and phenomethodologists, lower the use of official statistics for measuring or determining distinct behaviour of which they refer to. Cicourel and Atkinson swear that statistics are the products of meanings, which are assumptions of those who gain them. However, although they sound off that official statistics are not cordial facts, but social constructs, this does not mean they are not of sociological interest. Phenomenologists commit that they can be examine in put up to discover how they are produced. Cicourel verbalize that this is the only use of official statistics, partly because all statistics connote classifying things, when such decisions are sincerely subjective. When assessing this view, it seems it cannot be applied to all types of official statistics, especially those concerning data on age and gender. Although thither may well be considerable room for definition when considering whether, for example, a sudden termination is suicide, in that location is less room for interpretation when deciding whether soul is male or female. Conflict theories such as marxist and womens rightist theory, argue that official statistics are neither hard facts or subjective meanings.

Instead they believe they consist of information which is systematically distorted by the properly institutions in society. Although the statistics are not complete distortions, they are manipulated by the definitions and procedures used to collect the data, so that they tend to favour the interests of the rich and powerful. One example of this is the visit call by Anne and robin redbreast Oakley that official statistics are sexist. They countenance pointed out that in eighty-percent of cases a man is defined as the run of the household, and that women engaged in housework or gratis(predicate) domestic labour are defined as economically inactive, scorn the contribution which housework makes to the economy. These theories suggest that official statistics arent curiously useful in presenting a valid picture of an realm of society. Compared to other methods of collecting data, official statistics can seem both surpassing and inferior. As a secondary source of data official statistics come take coded and presented, which can be hard to do with some data, especially qualitative. However this categorised data may not be categorised in the pick out way a sociologist big businessman prefer it, so this is a definite disadvantage. Like questionnaires and social surveys, official statistics produce quantitative data, can generally cover a fairly large sample size, and are pre-coded. Again, homogeneous questionnaires and social surveys, the data can be manipulated to support or reject a surmisal; for example by the way the data is collected and categorised. Official statistics are generally not an in-depth profile of the sample creation researched, unlike methods such as participant observation and longitudinal studies. However because these studies are more in-depth, they also tend to have a smaller sample size than statistical data. To conclude, it seems that although there are many benefits to development official statistics as a source of data, they must be treated with caution, bearing in headway the social processes touch on in their collection. Although some see statistics as social constructions quite an than social facts, official statistics do often provide a unique opportunity for sociologists to bewilder data the whole population. This would other be far as well as expensive and time-consuming for a sociologist to collect themselves. If you want to beat up a full essay, bon ton it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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