Advantages And Disadvantages Of Official Statistics In Sociological Research

Crime measurement and statistics for police departments are very important when it comes to money allotment, staffing needs or termination and it is also used to determine the effectiveness of new laws and programs. There are three tools used to measure major crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports, National Crime Victimization Survey and the National Incident Based Reporting System- which is currently being tested to replace the Uniform Crime Reports. Although there different tools used to measure crime, crime rates can be deceiving. Each different tool reports a different type of rate, crime rates, arrest

Statistics are used to monitor and recognise the patterns of ill health throughout the UK. Once statistics are collected they are published on the National Statistics website. It is important to monitor patterns of ill health and recognise where there is a dramatic increase or increase as then the health and social funding can be spent in areas which need more help. For example, if there is a rising problem with obesity, then funds can be spent to help those who are unable to control their weight, more services will be able to be provided to those who are obese. Illnesses such as obesity are on the rise but also illnesses associated with smoking, drinking and drugs are also, funding is targeted at providing help for those who suffer from these illnesses.

Law enforcement agencies use three different sources to collect crime statistics. They use official statistics, victimizations surveys, and self-report surveys as their main sources of collecting data. The University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Texas at Austin both have pretty similar crime statistics.

Statistics provides us with very useful tools and techniques that aide us in dealing with real world scenarios. I have been able to learn several useful concepts by studying statistics that can aide me in making rational and informed decisions that are supported by the analysis results. Statistics as a discipline is the application and development of various processes put in place to gather, interpret, and analyse the information. The quantification of biological, social, and scientific phenomenons, design and analysis of experiments and surveys, and application of

Longitudinal – several observations over a period of time. We use these types of observation if there appears to be a concern over behaviour or development.

• Provide at least two examples or problem situations in which statistics was used or could be used.

* Government: These provide a wide range of current statistics; The Office of National Statistics provides this. They have a hard and electrical copy of such things as GP appointments from surgeries, infant mortality rates, hospital admissions, suicide rates and many other statistics. They analyse this data by age, social class, gender and location of where the data is from and often make a comparison and study if there is a trend.

2 data sources: Censuses, surveys (population, demographic information, occupational distributions)&Tax records (production information, shipping information, exports and imports, wealth).

Statistical tools are also being used to monitor crimes that occur within the city such as rape, robbery, murder, etc. This allows an individual to compare the number of crimes committed within a certain amount of time to the population within the city. The population count is also monitored throughout the city including male, female, children, and adults. Financial reports and annual budgets are also provided to individuals to monitor how much revenue is generated and spent within the city.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the most primary form of data in terms of earnings in the U.S. They have an intense, unbiased process in order to obtain information from the economy in the U.S. It starts with a field economist from the BLS obtains information from an establishment and based on many factors

There are a number of methods of collecting data, some of them are – questionnaire, surveys, checklists, interviews, observations, focus group etc (Cordray, 1986; Einhorn and Hogarth, 1986).

Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, from the physical and social sciences to the humanities. Statistics are also used for making informed decisions – and misused for other reasons – in all areas of business and government. Statistical methods can be used to summarize or describe a collection of data; this is called descriptive statistics. In addition, patterns in the data may be modeled in a way that accounts for randomness and uncertainty in the observations, and then used to draw inferences about the process or population being studied; this is called inferential statistics. Both

How much do we really know about our country, our district, or even our hometown? Are statistics really what people think? According to Alan Smith, an inaugural recipient of the Royal Statistical Society's Award for Excellence in Official Statistics, what people think is always extremely different than what the real statistic truly is. In his Ted Talk, entitled “Why We Should Love Statistics”, he discusses his study of statistics which opened up a whole new vision of the subject for me. Before watching this Ted Talk, statistics was simply a more relatable math class. After watching, I see now that statistics is also a method to connect people within communities. In fact, while statistics is a field that involves entirely numbers, it should

Longitudinal, in which scientists study the same individuals or society repeatedly over a specified period of time

Quantitative data collection involves the use of numbers to assess information. This information can then be evaluated using statistical analysis which offers researchers the opportunity to dig deeper into the data and look for greater meaning. The Quantitative data collection methods rely on random sampling and structured data collection instruments that fit varied experiences