SOCI201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: A Number, Government Spending

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCI201
• Professor: Best Joel

Document Summary

The bottom line: numbers deserve careful, critical attention. Clicker question: hi(cid:373)(cid:373)elstei(cid:374)"s (cid:862)hidde(cid:374) choi(cid:272)es a(cid:374)d missi(cid:374)g nu(cid:373)(cid:271)ers(cid:863) fo(cid:272)uses mtf statisti(cid:272)s is: the monitoring the future survey of adolescent drug use. (cid:862)e(cid:448)ery year si(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:1005)95(cid:1004), the (cid:374)u(cid:373)(cid:271)er of a(cid:373)eri(cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:272)hildre(cid:374) gu(cid:374)(cid:374)ed do(cid:449)(cid:374) has dou(cid:271)led. (cid:863: journal article published in 1995, this means in 1995, 35,000,000,000,000+ (date article was published, 2011= 1,000,000,000,000,000,000+ (assuming the trend has continued) (cid:862)the (cid:374)u(cid:373)(cid:271)er of a(cid:373)eri(cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:272)hildre(cid:374) killed ea(cid:272)h year (cid:271)y gu(cid:374)s has dou(cid:271)led si(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:1005)95(cid:1004)(cid:863: (cid:272)hildre(cid:374)"s defe(cid:374)se fu(cid:374)d, this is reworded and sounds correct. It means every year it doubled by one. Numbers seem real, like rocks: we tend to think numbers are real, like facts, a better analogy jewels. People actually dig and find the stone, some people polish it, etc. Similarly, people produce statistics: data is socially constructed. Statistics come from some type of process. The simple, three-part recipe for creating a social problem: 1. A terrible example (example: adam walsh missing child: (cid:1006).