Examine the usefulness of Social Surveys as a research method.
Examine the usefulness of Social Surveys as a research method. In this essay I will be looking at the usefulness of social surveys, in particular, Questionnaires and structured Interviews. Social surveys consist of quantitative methods that are preferred by positivists as they are conducted on a large scale and are therefore representative of the population. A large sample size denotes reliability which is also preferred by positivist sociologists. Social surveys are a useful type of research method as they are a good way of studying large numbers of people, therefore making it easy to generalise the population and they can be used to collect data and test hypotheses. An example of a very large scale survey in the UK is the Census. The Census is carried out every ten years and is given to the population to fill out and return. Social surveys consist of two forms: written questionnaires, which respondents are asked to complete; and interviews, that are either face to face or over the telephone. Questionnaires are the most commonly used form of social surveys. They are usually used for reaching large numbers of people and consist of two questions: open and closed questions. Closed questions have a fixed response that the respondent must choose allowing for a limited range of answers and therefore quantitative, reliable data. Open questions have no fixed response like the
The Comparison of Ethnographies, Surveys, Experiments and Other Key Factors When Choosing a Research Design
The Comparison of Ethnographies, Surveys, Experiments and Other Key Factors When Choosing a Research Design Introduction Research design means that a framework is provided for the collection and analysis data. It is also about making choices about what will and will not be observed (Easterby Smith et al, 2008:82). Research design will be the general plan of how one will begin to deal with answering research questions. This includes clear intentions, came from research questions (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). There is no one way to the truth. In fact, one needs to take several ways to find the result. There are several research designs, such as experiment, survey, case study, action research, ethnography and archival research. In this essay, it mainly focuses on three of them which are experiments, surveys and ethnographies in terms of validity and reliability. Validity and reliability are regarded as tow ways of assessing research designs. To be more detailed, validity is divided into internal validity and external validity. Internal validity is the extent to which the conclusions regarding cause and effect are warranted (Gill and Johnson, 2010). On the other hand, the external validity is concerned about generalizations, including population validity and ecological validity. In the remaining part of this essay, it illustrates three research designs (experiments,
Critically examine the use of social surveys as research method
Critically examine the use of the social survey as a resach method for sociologists Social surveys can be defined as research projects which collect standardized data about large numbers of people. Alan Aldridge and Ken Levine argue that the key charcteristic of a survey is "that we collect the same information about all cases in the sample". The data are usually in a statistical form, and the most practical way of collecting such data is through the use of questionaires which may or may not be administered by an interviewer. A Social survey in the form of a Questionnaire consists simply of a list of pre-set questions. In questionnaire research, the same questions are usually given to respondents in the same order so that the same information can be collected. Questionnaires can be administrated in a variety of different ways. One way in which a questionnaire can obtain its results is to be given in the form of a structured interview. This is when an interviewer asks the questions as they read on the questionnaire to the interviewee and records the answers given. This method was used by Gordon Marshall et al in their study of class. Structured interviews do have an advantage, as there is a trained interviewer there to assist with any issues such as the wrong interpretation of a question. However as the interviewer is present the problem of interviewer bias may
Critically analyse the impact and importance of victimisation surveys?
Critically analyse the impact and importance of victimisation surveys? There are two major sources of information that are used in England and Wales to inform people about the extent of criminal victimisation: police recorded crime statistics and Victimisation Surveys. Many comparisons have been made between the official crime statistics that are taken from police reports and the responses from victimisation surveys. It has previously been concluded that, although both have their advantages in recording rates of victimisation, both methods are filled with disadvantages. The general public, professionals and academics rely on official statistics and victimisation surveys to report the extent and the nature of crime in society. This is done through a variety of different mediums whereby recent trends and findings are identified and reported in newspapers and on the television. The media looks at whether crime is increasing or decreasing through official statistics and victimisation studies (Mosher et al, 2002). Home Office statistics and victimisation surveys are often interpreted in journal articles and in books for academics to use and discuss. Official statistics are collected by the Home Office and are compiled from the reports of all reported crime from the police forces around England and Wales (Home Office, 2008). These figures are then published annually and printed
How useful are victim surveys for uncovering the 'dark figure of crime'?
How useful are victim surveys for uncovering the 'dark figure of crime'? To determine the extent of crime and the most common forms of criminal offence, the official crime statistic are looked at. Since such statistics are published regularly, there would seem to be no difficulty in assessing crime rates- but this assumption can be seen as quite erroneous. Statistics about crime and delinquency are probably the least reliable of all officially published figures on social issues. Many criminologists have emphasised that we cannot take official statistics at face value, they state that they do not record all reported crime. The British crime survey, which is a victim survey, showed that slightly over half of all crimes reported to the police in England and Wales were recorded. This essay shall focus on how useful victimization studies are in uncovering the dark figure of crime, dark figure referring to offences not captured in official statistics. Until the 1982 and 1984 British Crime surveys (BCS) there was no official estimate of unrecorded crime in the United Kingdom. Since that time, the BCS results have been important in demonstrating the discrepancy between official crime statistics and peoples actual experiences of crime. By asking respondents if they had been the victims of any crime during previous year, the survey revealed that a much higher percentage of the
Field research is the gathering of new data direct from the consumer by carrying out surveys based on questionnaires, or by interviewing samples of people.
AO2 Types of research Field research is the gathering of new data direct from the consumer by carrying out surveys based on questionnaires, or by interviewing samples of people. This is also called primary research. Prices Snacks use field research as the method of research. Field research can be carried out in a variety of ways these are: * Questionnaires: These are used a lot by prices Snacks. Market researchers are employed to ask the public questions that are to do with the new product helping Prices Snacks, create a product that is wanted by the public. There are different ways of asking questionnaires these are either by face-to-face interviews in places such as shopping malls, or by door-to-door interviews. Alternatively, the questions can be asked over the phone or posted to people's homes. Prices Snacks prefer to ask people face-to-face or by door-to-door because over the telephone you may not get a reply or by post people may not return the questionnaires. * Consumer tasting panels: Can be used. Groups of people are asked to try a new product and comment upon their opinions. This process is used by Prices snacks to see if the consumers like the new product, if they do then it is put into the market, if not then required changes will be made before putting it into the market. This method of research is mainly only used to test products like toiletries and food
Identify and briefly explain 3 limitations of using victim surveys to study youth offenders
Identify and briefly explain 3 limitations of using victim surveys to study youth offenders (9marks) Firstly, there is the issue of age in studying youth offenders. This can cause several problems for a researcher. In terms of access, victims of youth offending are usually youths themselves, and there is no readily available list of victims for researchers to use; this makes it difficult to obtain a representative and insightful sample. Also, due to age, there may be issues of gaining consent from parents and this causes further issues as some may be unwilling for their children to participate. For example, in the British Crime Survey they exclude under 16s to avoid these problems, but as young people are often at the centre of crime in terms of victims and offenders this removes a very important group. Secondly, the very nature of victim surveys is to probe into areas that may be sensitive to a person who has been a victim of crime. Researchers have to be especially aware of this when surveying young people. Due to the possible distress that may be caused, it may be inappropriate to ask young people about certain issues, such as being victims of violent or sexual crime. Surveys on these issues try to overcome this ethical problem by asking older respondents about their experiences when they were younger. However, retrospective data relies on the respondent's memory and
Discuss The Problems of Measuring Attitudes in Social Science Surveys
Discuss The Problems of Measuring Attitudes in Social Science Surveys In this essay, I will firstly examine certain definitional problems with the term attitude, suggesting that discrepancies arise from the fact that describing an attitude will always involve interpretation. It follows that an attitude is an essentially subjective phenomenon, and that any attempt to define an attitude as theoretical constructs, at whatever level of abstraction, constructs a conceptual world will always be different from the actual thoughts, feelings and experiences of the respondents. The central problem is how to be certain that interpretations of respondents attitudes are more or less reliable and valid measurements of their actual thoughts and feelings, as opposed to measurements of hypothetical constructs that do not mirror in any way at all the conceptual world of the respondents I will then look at two specific examples of contemporary attitude research, and look at possible flaws of validity and reliability in the construction of a few questionnaire items within these pieces of research. I will examine techniques for avoiding pitfalls associated with reliability and validity, and point out why these can never overcome the classical problems of interpretation of subjective worlds. I will sum all of this up as the problems created when the researcher is too keen to employ deductive
Describe and Evaluate the Use of Victim Surveys as a Measurement of Criminal Activity
Describe and Evaluate the Use of Victim Surveys as a Measurement of Criminal Activity Background Information The first victim surveys were carried out in the USA during the late 1960's (Biederman et al 1967, Ennis 1967 and Reiss 1967). There is a wide range of methodologies available for victim research but the most important means of data collection can be offered by household surveys. Description The British Crime Survey (M.Hough and Mayhew 1983) selected 16,000 households and interviewed at least one member who was 16 years or older from each household. The aim of the interviews was to see what sort of attitudes people had about crime, if they had been a victim of crime and to give details of the crime if they had encountered any. This survey agreed with Sparks (1981) who noted that 'criminal victimization is an extremely rare event... crimes of violence are extremely uncommon'. Common crimes nowadays are more like stealing from a motor vehicle; however, crimes like assault and burglaries have a low rate of occurrence. Hough and Mayhew estimated that the 'statistically average' person over the age of 16 years could assume to be burgled once every 40 years, and be robbed once every 500 years. Crime surveys have revealed that crime does not occur at random. Around 90% of the people who responded to the surveys said that they had no
Outline and assess the importance of victim surveys for the sociological understanding of crime and deviance
Outline and assess the importance of victim surveys for the sociological understanding of crime and deviance Understanding of crime and deviance is strongly influenced by the ideological perspective used to quantify it. From a Marxist perspective crime is the natural outgrowth of capitalist society. The capitalist system emphasises the maximisation of profits and the accumulation of wealth, however the biases of the same system mean that some individuals are not able to achieve these ends without turning to a life of crime. Arguably victim surveys assess and document crime without subjecting the biases of official statistics which favour the bourgeoisie and marginalise the working classes. Similarly, from a feminist perspective official statistics present nothing more than a patriarchal social construction and women are consistently under estimated both as victims and perpetrators of crime. In 1983 the Home Office research and planning department published the first British crime surveys in an attempt to overcome the limitations of annual crime statistics. This survey, based on the non- official assertions of victims confirmed that official statistics are highly unreliable and invalid. Only 44% of crimes are reported to the police, the initial criteria which must be fulfilled for a crime to be recorded officially. For example, only 26% of people reported crimes of
