Secondary Data
Collected by others; either quantitative or qualitative.
Usefulness based on practical concerns about completeness and theoretical concern about validity, ie. is it telling us something about the subjects, or the people who took the data.
TYPES OF SECONDARY DATA
Organisational records, schools, churches etc. R. Revans compared morale to absenteeism, patient recovery rates etc. in five hospitals.
Mass media output, particular interest of gender and ethnicity representation in news. Analysis can be quantitative or qualitative.
Diaries, autobiographies and other personal documents.
Published sociological research, to compare present with past or study lots of people over a large area. G.P. Murdock argued that the nuclear family was universal on the basis of other peoples studies of about 250 societies.
SOCIAL STATISTICS
Different sources, official statistics are from the government, births, marriages, divorces, etc.
Other sources cover things like church attendance, racial disadvantage etc.
Evaluation -= advantages of using social statistics.
Positivist sociologists favour scientific methods. They assume statistics can describe aspects of social life such as the extent of crime, suicide rate etc.
Durkheim's study of suicide is the model for research using official statistics.
Statistics can be used in comparative surveys to test a hypothesis, eg Durkheim, or generate a new hypothesis, such as those found i the black report * once social class differences in health had been established.
Can remain detached and not influence behaviour.
Reliable data.
May be the only available data, as in historical studies of families.
Cheap data in large amounts, can now be analysed by computers.
Evaluation - disadvantages of social statistics
Positivists don't accept official statistics uncritically. They are concerned with the technical problems of gathering and interpreting data whch may affect the accuracy of research.
Interactionists question validity rather than reliability of statistics. They say they are not neutral descriptions of social life but the results of negotiations which lead tho the definition of certain acts as crimes or suicides. Eg. Durkheim, showed how deaths recorded.
The Problems of Crime Statistics
May tell more about police and courts.
Many crimes unreported:
Victim ashamed/scared.
Little chance of detection, so not bother.
Victim unaware or unconcerned.
Victimless, eg. drug abuse. This important as changes statistics eg. many sex arrests once undercover toilet patrols.
Extra Information
Domestic labour is both paid and unpaid domestic work.
The usefulness of statistics is important in many areas.