Interpreting Official Statistics

BOOK COVER......Page 1
HALF-TITLE......Page 2
TITLE......Page 3
COPYRIGHT......Page 4
CONTENTS......Page 5
ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 7
CONTRIBUTORS......Page 8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 10
SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STATISTICS......Page 11
REFERENCES......Page 16
THE GROWTH OF OFFICIAL STATISTICS......Page 17
THE RAYNER REVIEW......Page 19
SOCIAL TRENDS......Page 23
COOKING THE BOOKS?......Page 25
THE PICKFORD REPORT......Page 30
COUNTING WITH CONFIDENCE......Page 31
A NEW DEAL?......Page 32
NOTE......Page 33
REFERENCES......Page 34
2 THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENT STATISTICS ON POVERTY......Page 36
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE STATISTICS OF POVERTY......Page 37
LOW INCOME......Page 39
CURRENT EXCHANGES ABOUT LOW INCOME STATISTICS......Page 43
THE STATISTICAL ROLE OF A GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT......Page 44
REVIEWING A KEY OFFICIAL STATISTICAL PUBLICATION......Page 45
CONCLUSION......Page 48
22 February 1994......Page 49
24 February 1994......Page 50
REFERENCES......Page 51
3 FIDDLING WHILE BRITAIN BURNS?......Page 54
THE CLAIMANT COUNT......Page 55
THE UNEMPLOYMENT UNIT INDEX......Page 60
THE LABOUR FORCE SURVEY......Page 61
‘ECONOMIC INACTIVITY’......Page 64
THE LFS AND THE CENSUS COMPARED......Page 66
THE DISAPPEARING LABOUR FORCE......Page 67
IMPLIED UNEMPLOYMENT......Page 68
AN ALTERNATIVE MEASURE?......Page 70
NOTE......Page 71
REFERENCES......Page 72
4 SOCIAL CLASS: OFFICIAL, SOCIOLOGICAL AND MARXIST......Page 74
THE STATUS OF SOCIAL CLASS IN THE CENSUS......Page 75
THE DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL CLASS IN SOCIOLOGY......Page 79
THE PLACE AND CONDITION OF SOCIAL CLASS IN MODERN MARXISM......Page 81
CLASS, THEORY AND POLITICS......Page 84
POSTSCRIPT......Page 86
NOTES......Page 91
REFERENCES......Page 93
MEASURING HEALTH......Page 97
THE REDISCOVERY OF HEALTH INEQUALITY......Page 99
THE BLACK REPORT AND THE HEALTH DIVIDE......Page 100
PROBLEMS IN RELATING GENDER AND ETHNICITY TO HEALTH......Page 103
The artefactual explanation......Page 105
Social selection......Page 107
Cultural and behavioural explanations......Page 108
Materialist or structuralist explanations......Page 111
THE SOCIAL CREATION OF HEALTH DIFFERENTIALS......Page 113
THE FUTURE OF BRITAIN’S HEALTH......Page 116
REFERENCES......Page 117
FATALITY RATE......Page 121
MAJOR INJURY RATE......Page 122
NOTES......Page 124
REFERENCES......Page 125
7 FIGURING OUT WORKING WOMEN......Page 126
DATA SOURCES: THEIR SCOPE AND USES......Page 127
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY......Page 130
‘Working mothers’......Page 133
PART-TIME WORK......Page 135
SEGREGATION......Page 137
Measures of segregation......Page 138
Alternative indices......Page 140
CONCLUSION......Page 143
REFERENCES......Page 144
ETHNIC GROUP AND RELATED CONCEPTS......Page 147
THE BRITISH CENSUS......Page 151
THE 1991 CENSUS: INTERPRETING THE RESULTS......Page 155
THE CENSUS CATEGORIES......Page 159
THE UNDIFFERENTIATED WHITES: SOCIAL INEQUALITIES, ETHNIC GROUPS AND THE IRISH......Page 162
CONCLUSION......Page 164
REFERENCES......Page 165
9 DISABLED BY NUMBERS......Page 168
THE PREVALENCE REPORT......Page 169
CONCEPTS OF DISABILITY......Page 174
THE FINANCE REPORT......Page 177
RESPONSES......Page 179
CONCLUSION......Page 183
REFERENCES......Page 184
10 THE CASE OF THE MISSING CRIMES......Page 187
WHAT ARE THE CRIME STATISTICS?......Page 188
CRIME STATISTICS: OMISSIONS AND BIAS......Page 190
COUNTING CRIME: TECHNICAL PROBLEMS......Page 191
CLEAR-UP RATES......Page 194
THE POLITICS OF OFFICIAL CRIME STATISTICS......Page 196
CRIME SURVEYS: CASTING LIGHT ON THE ‘DARK’ FIGURE......Page 199
CONCLUSION: CAN CRIME STATISTICS BE TRUSTED?......Page 202
REFERENCES......Page 204
INDEX......Page 206