A blog on the use of secondary data in social scientific research.

"Secondary analysis involves the re-use of pre-existing qualitative data derived from previous research studies. These data include material such as semi-structured interviews, responses to open-ended questions in questionnaires, field notes and research diaries." (Heaton 2004:1)

The use of secondary data in social scientific research is popular amongst many social scientists as  there are many benefits to the researcher. These include high-quality data can be obtained, data is available on a large scale, allows for comparative research; therefore the researcher can easily identify patterns, trends and shifts in the data. Another advantage of using secondary data is that most of the data is available to the public for free; therefore not putting the researcher at expense. Secondary analysis is usually used for two main purposes; firstly they can be used to investigate new or additional research questions; alternatively they can be used to verify the findings of previous research (Heaton 2004). This shows that secondary data in social scientific research is versatile and can be used in various ways. 

Despite the numerous advantages of using secondary data in social scientific research, there are also numerous disadvantages. For example, some of the data may be dated and therefore inaccurate as times have changed as Gillies and Edwards (2005) warn that utilization of qualitative datasets generated in the past: requires more than a simple historical comparison of data. The focus of ... studies shift over time, limiting the contextual commensurability  between different historically and culturally specific data sets and generating numerous conceptual and methodological questions...relevant themes and accounts are likely to be embedded within a range of topic areas that were previously ascendant. There are also ethical concerns, such as participant consent, this can be an issue as the participant may not have agreed to be used within the research being carried out. There are also other general weaknesses to using secondary data in social scientific research, for example the researcher cannot add questions if they wish, also there may be scepticism surrounding the quality of the research the conditions in which the research was carried out. Another big problem with using secondary data is it requires the use of the "sociological imagination" (Mills 1959) , this is the idea that there are stories and reasons behind the data, however the researcher cannot access this.


Reference List

Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York, Oxford University Press.

Gillies and Edwards (2005) Secondary analysis in exploring family and social change:addressing the issue of context Vol. 6, no1. Art 44

Heaton, J (2004) Secondary analysis of Qualitative data: an overview Historical social research, Vol 33-2008- No. 3, 33-45

"The UK should abandon its current drugs policy because the war on drugs is not being won" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26026025

The quote "war on drugs" was first used by President Nixon on the 17th June 1971 (Nixon cited in Bertram et al 1996:104) and was used to describe the actions needed in order to overcome the drug epidemic. Forty years after President Nixon said this, the Global Commission on drug policy stated that the "war on drugs" had failed. It is estimated that drug trafficking across the world exists as a $400 billion trade ( Newburn 2012:439).

The UK has a tough approach to Drugs and Drugs use, drug addiction is not seen as a health matter, but a matter that needs to be dealt with by the Criminal Justice system. This has led to drug addicts becoming marginalised in society, and the general public stigmatising those who have drug misuse problems. Many politicians including Nick Clegg suggest that we need new and different approaches to dealing with drugs and drugs users. This inevitably would lead to a decline in drug use and be a step in the right direction to combating the "war on drugs". The way in which the British society and the government handle drug addiction is widely debated and this has led to it becoming a controversial subject. Clegg, however argues that it is time to change "Mr Clegg said British politicians owed it to young people in the UK and countries like Colombia to look at different approaches - although he insisted he was not advocating full legalisation (BBC 04/02/2014).

Personally I feel that as country we need to decriminalise Drugs and drug use as this would change the way society deals with the problem of addiction from a legal and treatment perspective. There are numerous advantages of decriminalising drugs, for example The idea behind Decriminalisation is the possession and use of drugs is handled as a public health problem and not a criminal activity. Cases of substance abuse and addiction are handled by counsellors, psychologists and social workers instead of professions within the criminal justice system such as the police.This would mean the CJS  would become freed up to deal with more important cases. Another advantage of decriminalisation is stigma and labelling attached to drug use would cause a paradigm shift. In the book ‘The drug takers: the social meaning of drug use’ (1971) the criminologist Jock Young studied marijuana users and found that the more the media reported on the group of young people smoking weed, the more the young people became socially excluded and marginalised.However decriminalisation would mean that peoples perspectives would change on those who use drugs and would mean drug users would become more accepted into wider society. 

Portugal decriminalised all drugs in 2001, this has led to a dramatic fall in addictions and an increase in the amount of people seeking treatment for their drug use and abuse. There has also there has been a decline in Drug Trafficking and a  decline in other drug related problems, such as sexually transmitted diseases and deaths from drug overdoses.I understand that there are limitations to decriminalisation, for example it may encourage drug use, however I feel the UK would benefit from similar legislation and ideas about the way in which drugs should be dealt with. The legalisation debate continues to be discussed and debated amongst academics; therefore there have been numerous social research projects and the production of numerous academia on the topic. Research carried out and published in the report ‘A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across the Globe’ is the first report to support Release’s campaign ‘Drugs - It’s Time for Better Laws’ researched into the decriminalisation and the impact it has had in countries all over the world, for example findings suggest that 

Germany continues to have moderately high rates of use of cannabis, cocaine and LSD, the prevalence of use among adults is significantly below that of the UK

In Portugal, recent and current reported drug use declined among 15 to 24 year olds from 2001 to 2007.

On the criminal justice side, Portugal has reduced the number of criminal drug offences from approximately 14,000 per year to an average of 5000 to 5500 per year after decriminalisation (release 2013: 24, 30, 32) 

These statistics show just how successful decriminalisation is and continues to lower the number of addicts and the amount of drugs on the streets across the world.

Reference list

Bertram, E. (1996). Drug war politics the price of denial. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Newburn, T. (2012). Criminology. London, Routledge.

Release (2013) ‘A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across 
the Globe’ http://www.release.org.uk/sites/release.org.uk/files/pdf/publications/Release_Quiet_Revolution_2013.pdf (accessed 06/04/2014)