On the Validity of Official Statistics A Comparative Study of White, Black, and Japanese High-School Boys

Abstract

A continuing debate in the sociology of deviance is the degree to which official statistics are representative of the distribution and rate of deviance in the society. Some argue that official statistics are totally meaningless as indices of deviance rates; others maintain that, although official statistics are distorted, they nonetheless indicate important trends and distributions of real rates of deviance. Official and unofficial delinquency rates of black, white, and Japanese youths in a large metropolitan area were analyzed. Our conclusion is that official statistics are so misleading that they are virtually useless as indicators of actual deviance in the population. It is suggested that the visibility of the offenses, the bias of the policing agencies, and the demeanor of the youth account for the rate and distribution of delinquency among the three groups and that official rates are a complete distortion of the actual incidence.