Analysis of Existing Documents and Official Statistics
The fourth important sociological research method involves the analysis of existing
documents and official statistics that are created by people other than the researcher
for purposes other than sociological research.
The three types of existing documents that sociologists have mined most deeply are
diaries, newspapers, and published historical works. Census data, police crime reports,
and records of key life events are perhaps the most frequently used sources of official
statistics. For instance, the modern census tallies the number of American residents and
classifies them by place of residence, race, ethnic origin, occupation, age, and hundreds
of other variables. The FBI publishes an annual Uniform Crime Report, giving the number
of crimes in the United States and classifying them by location and type of crime,
the age and sex of offenders and victims, and other variables. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention regularly publishes “vital statistics” reports on births, deaths,
marriages, and divorces by sex, race, age, and so on.
Census and crime data put the limited effect of media violence on violent behavior
into perspective. For example, researchers have discovered big differences in violent
behavior when they compare the United States and Canada. The homicide rate (the
number of murders per 100,000 people) has historically been about four times higher
in the United States. Yet, TV programming, movies, and video games are nearly identical
in the two countries, so exposure to media violence can’t account for the difference.
Researchers instead attribute the difference in homicide rates to the higher level of
economic and social inequality and the wider availability of handguns in the United
States (Government of Canada, 2002; Lenton, 1989; National Rifle Association, 2005;
Oppenheimer, 2007).
Existing documents and official statistics have several advantages over other types
of data. They can save researchers time and money because they are usually available
at no cost in libraries or on the World Wide Web. Official statistics usually cover entire
populations and are collected using rigorous and uniform methods, yielding highly reliable
data. Existing documents and official statistics are especially useful for historical
analysis. Finally, because the analysis of existing documents and official statistics does
not require live subjects, reactivity is not a problem. The researchers’ presence does not
influence the subjects’ behavior.
Existing documents and official statistics also share one big disadvantage. They are
not created with researchers’ needs in mind. In a sense, researchers start at stage 4 of the
research cycle (data collection; see Figure 1.3) and then work within the limitations imposed
by available data, including biases that reflect the interests of the individuals and
organizations that created them.
The preceding discussion should give you a pretty good idea of the basic methodological
issues that confront any sociological research project. You should also know the
strengths and weaknesses of some of the most widely used data-collection techniques
(see Concept Summary 1.2). In the remainder of this chapter, we outline what you can
expect to learn from the rest of this book.
Challenges Facing Us Today
Most of the founders of sociology developed their ideas to help solve the great sociological
puzzle of their time—the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
This raises two interesting questions: What are the great sociological puzzles of
our time? How are today’s sociologists responding to the challenges presented by the
social settings in which we live? We devote the rest of this book to answering these
questions in depth.
It would be wrong to suggest that the research of tens of thousands of sociologists
around the world is animated by just a few key issues. Hundreds of debates enliven sociology
today. Some focus on small issues relevant to particular fields and geographical
areas, others on big issues that seek to characterize the entire historical era for
humanity as a whole. Among the big issues, two stand out. The greatest sociological
puzzles of our time are the causes and consequences of the Postindustrial Revolution
and globalization.
The Postindustrial Revolution is the technology-driven shift from employment
in factories to employment in offices, and the consequences of that shift for nearly
all human activities (Bell, 1973; Toffee, 1990). For example, as a result of the Postindustrial
Revolution, non manual occupations now outnumber manual occupations,
and women have been drawn into the system of higher education and the paid labor
force in large numbers. This shift has transformed the way we work and study, our
standard of living, the way we form families, and much else. Globalization is the
process by which formerly separate economies, states, and cultures are becoming
tied together and people are becoming increasingly aware of their growing interdependence
(Giddens, 1990: 64; Guillén, 2001). Especially in recent decades, rapid
increases in the volume of international trade, travel, and communication have broken
down the isolation and independence of most countries and people. Also contributing
to globalization is the growth of many institutions that bind corporations,
companies, and cultures together. These processes have caused people to depend
more than ever on people in other countries for products, services, ideas, and even
a sense of identity.
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