Collection of statistical data. Data collection methods
Part one
Basic concepts and categories of general theory of statistics
Topic I
SUBJECT, METHOD AND OBJECTIVES OF STATISTICS
1. Subject of statistics
Numerous definitions of statistics as a science about the quantitative characteristics of social and natural phenomena and processes can be reduced to two definitions: narrow and broad.
In a broad sense, statistics is a science that studies mass phenomena occurring in aggregates of certain factors or phenomena of a certain property and between interacting aggregates. The totality itself, as a sum of facts, signs, phenomena, consists of elements, the disappearance of one of which does not destroy the qualitative characteristics of this totality. Thus, the population of a city remains its population even after one of the components of its maintenance - an individual - moves to another city or another locality or even leaves the country. Or agriculture, transport and industry remain certain aggregates corresponding to their characteristics even when the sectoral structure or their importance in the production of the gross national product undergoes noticeable changes.
Different aggregates as a whole consists of units, which in turn can be characterized by their parameters, properties, their content, which influences the content of the entire aggregate, which unites these units in units. If we are talking about industry, then statistics consider it as a set (sum) of enterprises. And each enterprise, forming one of its constituent units, in turn is characterized by its content in terms of the number of jobs, equipment, output and corresponding statistics.
A specific feature of statistics is that in all cases its data refers to the sum of factors, i.e. to the entirety. The characteristics of individual individual data make sense only as a basis, a basis for obtaining general and summary characteristics of the population being studied.
Thus, statistics as a science in a broad sense studies all mass phenomena, no matter what area they belong to. When studying a mass phenomenon, statistics characterize it not only quantitatively. Using numerical values, but also qualitatively, revealing its content and dynamics of development.
Statistics in the narrow sense is a quantitative set associated with the processing of individual observation data characteristic of subjects. phenomena that make up the individual parameters of a unit of the population.
So, for example, the average grain yield for the country as a whole reflects the total yield for all areas used for growing grain.
One statistic. But the yield of different areas, which can be reflected in a comparative relationship to each other and the maximum and minimum yield can be detected, is another statistic.
Statistical analysis of the productivity of various plots of land can be the basis for statistics of other characteristics and parameters characterizing the population under study (yield in this case), such parameters as capital investments, technical equipment of production for the analyzed plots, etc. and so on.
In all these cases we are talking about statistics in a narrower sense of its definition.
Statistics as a science is a type of social and government activity aimed at obtaining, processing and analyzing information that characterizes the quantitative patterns of social life in all its diversity and inextricable connection with its quantitative content. In this sense, the concept of “statistics” coincides with the concept of “statistical accounting”. Accounting, in any society, is the means by which society has the necessary information about the state of the economy, social and other aspects of the life of society as a whole or its individual structures. This accounting makes it possible to carry out appropriate organization and management of economic processes.
Statistics is also understood as the process of its “conducting”, implementation, i.e. collecting and processing data, facts necessary to obtain statistical information in the previously indicated senses of the content of the subject of statistics (in the broad and narrow sense of the subject).
The necessary information can be collected in order to obtain generalized characteristics for the mass of cases of this type of information. Such, for example, is information collected for population censuses, when statistical services periodically conduct nationwide campaigns to record the quantitative and qualitative composition of the population on a certain date.
In other cases, statistics (as a certain type of activity) uses information recorded in the process of performing accounting functions for the main type of activity of the relevant services. This is how statistics of births, deaths, marriages, divorces, road accidents, the number of students in schools, universities, etc. are formed. and so on. This also includes the use of statistical information obtained from enterprise performance reports, data from accountants, etc.
Statistics like special kind activities with the above content allows us to identify statistical patterns based on scientific research. So, the demand for any product is by its nature a phenomenon determined by various factors: income, tastes of the population, fashion, season, etc. It can be argued that whenever prices fall, there is an increase in demand for the corresponding goods. But the measure of price reduction and the measure of demand growth can only be determined on the basis of statistical processing of data on sales of goods at the same or different prices. In this case, they use indicators of the so-called elasticity of demand and supply of goods, which is widely used in the marketing services of various companies.
2. Method for studying statistical populations
The general methodology for studying statistical populations is the use of the basic principles that guide any science. These principles, as a kind of principles, include the following:
1. objectivity of the phenomena and processes being studied;
2. identifying the relationship and consistency in which the content of the factors being studied is manifested;
3. goal setting, i.e. achievement of set goals on the part of the researcher studying the relevant statistical data.
This is expressed in obtaining information about trends, patterns and possible consequences of the development of the processes being studied. Knowledge of the patterns of development of socio-economic processes that interest society is of great practical importance.
The features of statistical data analysis include the method of mass observation, the scientific validity of the qualitative content of groupings and its results, the calculation and analysis of generalized and generalizing indicators of the objects being studied.
As for specific methods of economic, industrial or statistics of culture, population, national wealth, etc., there may be specific methods for collecting, grouping and analyzing the corresponding aggregates (the sum of facts).
In economic statistics, for example, the balance method is widely used as the most common method of mutually linking individual indicators in a unified system of economic relations in social production. The methods used in economic statistics also include the compilation of groupings, the calculation of relative indicators ( percentage), comparisons, calculus various types average values, indices, etc.
The connecting links method consists in the fact that two volumetric, i.e. quantitative indicators are compared on the basis of the relationship existing between them. For example, labor productivity in physical terms and hours worked, or volume of transportation in tons and medium range transportation in km.
When analyzing the dynamics of development National economy The main method for identifying this dynamics (movement) is the index method, time series analysis methods.
In statistical analysis of the basic economic patterns of national economic development, an important statistical method is to calculate the closeness of connections between indicators using correlation and dispersion analysis, etc.
In addition to the above methods, mathematical and statistical research methods have become widespread, which are expanding as the scale of computer use moves and the creation of automated systems.
3. Main tasks of statistics
The main task of statistics is to obtain and appropriately process statistical information for making decisions aimed at achieving the desired result in economic, socio-economic, scientific, cultural and other types of creative activities of the state, public organizations, economic structures of society, etc. and so on.
Statistics are designed to help identify the most pressing problems of economic and socio-political content, as well as to substantiate ways to achieve the diverse goals of social development and, first of all, such as the active participation of the population in the implementation of major economic tasks related to the development of market relations in our country.
The tasks of statistics of specific areas of statistical activity include all those issues that are resolved by the corresponding economic or social structure.
Topic 1. Subject and method of statistics
1. The main task of statistics as a science is:
A) development of calculation methods and comparative analysis economics and social development various countries;
B) information support for the process of Russia’s integration into world economy;
C) development of a system of indicators of social development processes and methods for measuring them.
Statistics- This social science, studying phenomena and processes public life, it reveals the laws of the emergence and development of these phenomena and their relationships.
statistical science– all practical human activities in collecting, processing, accumulating and analyzing digital data that characterize education, the country’s economy, its culture and other vital phenomena in the life of society;
2. The subject of statistical science is:
A) study of the quantitative side of mass social phenomena;
B) study of the socio-economic content of mass social phenomena;
B) analysis quality features social phenomena.
Subject statistical science are:
1) massive socio-economic phenomena of life;
2) the quantitative side of these phenomena in specific conditions of place and time.
3. The main method of statistics is:
A) analysis of dynamics and mathematical forecasting of mass social phenomena;
B) selective statistical observation, processing and analysis of the data obtained;
C) correlation and regression analysis of statistical indicators.
Statistical research is divided into three successive stages:
1) statistical observation, i.e. collection of primary statistical material;
2) summary and development of observation results, i.e. their processing;
3) analysis of the obtained summary materials.
4. Statistical indicators are:
A) quantitative assessment of the properties of the mass phenomenon being studied;
B) qualitative characteristics of the development of the phenomena being studied;
C) a characteristic property of the phenomenon being studied that distinguishes it from other phenomena.
Primary statistical information is expressed primarily in the form of absolute indicators, which are the quantitative basis of all forms of accounting.
5. A statistical population is:
A) many units of the phenomenon being studied, united by a single qualitative basis;
B) socio-economic types of the mass phenomenon being studied;
C) a variety of statistical indicators describing the phenomenon being studied.
Statistical population- this is a set of units (objects, phenomena), united by a single pattern and varying within the limits of general quality.
A specific property of a statistical population is mass of units, since the phenomenon is characterized by a mass process and all the variety of causes and forms that determine it.
Under units of the population its indivisible primary elements are understood, expressing its qualitative homogeneity, i.e., being carriers of characteristics.
Under qualitative homogeneity of units aggregate is understood as the similarity of units (objects, phenomena) according to some essential characteristics, but differing in some other characteristics.
Topic 2. Methods for collecting statistical information
1. Statistical observation is:
A) systematization of facts describing the phenomenon being studied;
B) registration of established facts in accounting documents for their subsequent generalization;
C) scientifically organized work to collect mass primary data on the phenomena and processes of social life.
Statistical observation- this is organized work to collect primary information about the mass phenomena and processes of social life being studied. Statistical observation is carried out in an organized manner and according to a pre-developed program and plan.
2. Sample observation is:
A) observation, in which data collection is based on the principle of voluntary filling out questionnaires;
B) observation, in which that part of the population units in which the value of the studied characteristic is predominant in the entire volume is subjected to examination;
C) observation, in which the characteristics of the entire set of facts are given based on some part of it, selected at random.
This observation is based on the idea that a certain part of the units selected at random can represent the entire population of the phenomenon being studied according to the characteristics of interest to the researcher. The purpose of sample observation is to obtain information primarily to determine the summary general characteristics of the entire population being studied.
3. The statistical observation program is:
A) list of indicators to be studied;
B) a set of explanations and instructions for filling out reporting documents;
C) forms of certain forms of accounting and reporting.
Developing a plan for conducting statistical observation is the most important stage preparation of statistical observation. The plan must contain the formulation and solution of organizational issues, such as establishing the goals and objectives of observation, developing observation programs, defining the object and unit of observation, choosing the type and method of observation.
The purpose of surveillance is to obtain the main result of a statistical study.
In order to organize statistical observation, it is necessary to accurately establish the object of observation.
The collections of units about which statistical data must be collected are called objects of statistical observation.
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Chapter 9
STATISTICAL SOURCES
Statistical sources are a complex set of documents, complex in origin and composition, which record systematic information and data purposefully collected to make informed decisions. management decisions. These materials characterize the quantitative patterns of history human society inextricably linked with their quality content. Statistical sources arise in the process of collecting, processing, analyzing and publishing information about the object of study. They include: a program of current accounting or special statistical surveys; primary accounting documents (reports, including accounting; registration cards, forms, questionnaires, statements); summaries of primary statistical data; publication of statistical works.
Statistical sources are organically connected with office documentation, which contains current accounting and reporting materials necessary for daily activities government agencies, privately owned enterprises, public organizations. The expansion of the scale and complexity of management functions required more complete and reliable information about various spheres of life of the state and society than before. Along with the generalization of current statistics, such mass information of the same type could be obtained as a result of its one-time collection under a specific program.
In the second half of the 19th century. Qualitative changes have occurred in the development of domestic statistics: a transition has been made from economic-geographical and statistical descriptions to a quantitative description of the main phenomena of historical reality. Statistics materials have formed into a special type of written historical sources. Their main significance for historians is that they make mass data available to researchers. When working with statistical materials, it is necessary to keep in mind that they are, by their origin, mass historical sources.
The class of mass historical sources was identified by I.D. Kovalchenko. He believed that “from the point of view of the internal nature and impact on the social organism, the entire diverse set of phenomena of social life can be divided into two categories - mass and individual phenomena. The first “represent a set of historical phenomena (objects), on the one hand, possessing the same properties, and on the other hand, characterized by different measures of these properties. Collections of such objects constitute more or less complex systems with inherent structures that are subject to continuous fluctuations and changes. Therefore, the total result of the functioning of such systems is the resultant of its different states, i.e. is objectively natural." Individual phenomena of social life, in contrast to mass ones, manifest themselves as subjectively individual.
Therefore, “mass sources are those that characterize such objects of reality that form certain social systems with corresponding structures. Mass sources reflect the essence and interaction of mass objects that make up these systems, and, consequently, the structure, properties and state of the systems themselves.” The structural nature of information from mass sources allows the use of quantitative research methods and modern computer technology for its extraction, processing and analysis.
Multi-stage creation statistical sources determined the repeated subjectivization of the information recorded in them. At each stage - developing a program for collecting information, its implementation, processing primary materials and preparing statistical works - the compilers (subjects), based on their own ideas about the object of study and the tasks facing them, corrected the material in their own way. The historian must remember that statistical sources, like any other, do not represent reality, which is characterized by the data they contain, but a reflection of reality. When using a subjectivized picture of the past as the initial basis for research, a preliminary critical analysis of this picture is necessary. When working with statistical sources, such analysis is always multi-stage.
Data collection programs
The object of statistical study can be various spheres of social life and social activity. In this regard, it is customary to highlight statistics of population, industry, agriculture, labor, trade, transport, etc. Statistical sources are created government institutions, privately owned enterprises, public organizations in order to obtain the mass information they need. The composition of this information is recorded in statistical data collection programs.
Thus, the program of the first general population census in Russia, approved by Emperor Nicholas II on June 5, 1895, provided for the collection of personal information about all persons living in the territory of the state, regardless of gender, age, condition, religion, nationality, citizenship. The census form included the following questions: first name, patronymic, last name (or nickname); floor; age (how many years or months have passed since birth); marital status (single, married, widowed, divorced); attitude towards the head of the household and the head of one’s family (relative, in-law, adopted child or tenant, servant, employee, etc.); class, condition or rank; place (province, district, city) of birth, registration for those obliged to register, permanent residence; religion; native language; literacy; occupation, craft, trade, position or service (the main one, that is, the one that provides the main means of subsistence; secondary, or auxiliary). The census was carried out on January 28, 1897. Thanks to the collected information, the population of Russia was for the first time counted simultaneously and according to a unified program.
Systematic characteristics of the population of the RSFSR and the USSR are contained in materials from several censuses. The questions included in their programs were aimed at obtaining as complete and accurate information as possible, which would allow a correct assessment of the achieved level of demographic and sociocultural development of the country. The changes that have taken place can be judged by the wording of the same question in census programs. We will show this by comparing the wording of the question on literacy and education in the census forms of 1897, 1920, 1926, 1937, 1939 and 1959.
In 1897, literacy was defined as the ability to read. For those who were literate, it was necessary to clarify where they were studying, studied or completed their education course.
In 1920, a census of the population of the RSFSR was carried out, the data of which was supposed to be used “as the basis of Soviet construction.” In the census form, the question about literacy was formulated in more detail: a) reads and writes or only reads in Russian; b) reads and writes or only reads in another language (you should indicate which language); c) or completely illiterate. When asked about educational qualifications, it was necessary to name “the most recent institution in which you studied,” indicating its type (general education or special education) and whether you completed the course.
The program of the first all-Union population census of 1926 retained the same formulation of the question about literacy. It made it possible to obtain the necessary information in connection with the policy of the Soviet state to eliminate illiteracy. The instructions for filling out the census form explained that only those persons who can read at least syllables and know how to write their last name should be considered literate. Persons who knew how to sign their name without knowing how to read were recorded as completely illiterate.
In the census form filled out in 1937, the question was asked very succinctly: “Are you literate?” The answer was expected to be equally brief: “yes” or “no.” Subquestions about the level of literacy and the language in which the respondent can read and write were not included in the census form. But the question about education was detailed, the answers to which were supposed to characterize achievements in this area: what school does he study in (primary, secondary or higher); what grade or course you are in, graduated from high school or high school. It should be noted that the above list does not include types of training that were widespread at that time, such as: FZU schools, trade union schools, various courses, etc.
In the 1939 census form, the wording of the literacy question was again expanded: “reads and writes or only reads in any language; or completely illiterate.” However, the language itself, as during the 1937 census, was not noted, and, therefore, the collected information obviously contained less information on this issue than that received in 1926. For students it was necessary to indicate: the full name of the educational institution, school, courses; in what class or course he is studying. Question about finishing high school or high school was singled out as independent.
The 1959 All-Union Population Census of the USSR was the most recent general demographic survey that recorded information about the illiterate. Due to the fact that by this time illiteracy in the country had been largely eliminated, the question on literacy was not included in the census form as an independent one. He came in integral part in the question on education, which was significantly expanded compared to the programs of earlier population censuses: “For persons 9 years of age and older who have not had primary education, indicate: reads and writes or only reads in any language; or completely illiterate.” A differentiated assessment of the level of education was provided: higher, incomplete higher, specialized secondary, general secondary, seven-year, primary. For students, in addition, the full name of the educational institution should be indicated.
The results of general population censuses conducted in the RSFSR and the USSR clearly reflected the nature and dynamics of demographic changes in the country.
In the second half of the 19th century. There have been qualitative changes in domestic industrial statistics. Throughout the 19th century. The main source of current information about enterprises in the manufacturing industry, which occupied a central position in the structure of industrial production in Russia, were statements sent out annually to factories and factories.
Their distribution and development of the received information was carried out by the Department of Trade and Manufactures of the Ministry of Finance. The statement form was legislatively approved in the 1830s, but in 1884 - 1885. amendments are made to it on an express basis to expand the range of requested information.
According to the 1885 statement questionnaire, the owner of the enterprise had to provide information about: the location of the establishment; the date of its foundation; the number of manufactured products in physical and value terms; number of steam engines and their power; other types of engines; number of workers (adults, children, men, women employed in the factory or working on the side); wages and working hours; the number of mechanisms used; fuel; raw materials; sales of products; on the continuity of production throughout the year. The new form also contained questions about factory buildings; on the education and citizenship of persons in charge of production; about the school, hospital, savings bank, etc. available at the factory.
In 1895, the Department of Trade and Manufactures of the Ministry of Finance attempted to reform the methods of collecting statistical information on the factory industry. The goal of the reform was formulated by the Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte: the state’s need to constantly obtain broad economic information. In a circular address to the owners of industrial enterprises, he explained that the system of state patronage of industry requires “constantly and vigilantly monitoring the progress of the development of this industry, at least in its main branches, the most important changes in its technical and economic conditions and the results of these changes in connection with the general interests of the national economy.”
In total, the 1895 statement included 35 questions, many of which, in turn, consisted of a system of tables and a number of subquestions. Paragraphs 1-8 drew the attention of “the owner or manager of an industrial establishment, responsible by law for the accuracy of the information reported” (clause 5), to the need to compulsorily fill out a statement “for the last reporting year, if the enterprise has “at least fifteen workers”, or, when the number of workers is less than fifteen, - “steam boiler, steam engine or other mechanical engines and machines or factory and factory devices” (clauses 1-2). It was required to indicate: the name of the industrial establishment; its exact location; list of productions; information about the owner, production manager, etc.
Questions 9-10 are devoted to characterization manufactured goods(products) and their sales. Each product (product) had to be named separately, indicating the quantity (pounds, pieces, bags, etc.) and cost (amount in rubles). Questions 11-13 provided for obtaining equally detailed information about raw materials and fuel consumed during the reporting year. Questions 14-17 clarified the state of the enterprise's power supply, the number and characteristics of existing steam boilers and machines, as well as machine tools, indicating the number of workers employed on them.
Questions 18-21 concerned the length of the working year and the number holidays when the enterprise was not operating. Questions 22-33 required information about the composition of the workers; the length of their working day; characteristics wages, living conditions, organization medical care, insurance. Question 34 contained subquestions about state, city and zemstvo fees. Finally, question 35 required a statement a short history enterprises.
More than 15 thousand completed statements of enterprises were received, the data of which was partially published in the publication “List of Factories and Plants. Factory industry of Russia" (St. Petersburg, 1897).
After 1897, register accounting as the main form of obtaining statistical information on the activities of the manufacturing industry in Russia ceased. The system of annual collections by government agencies of information on industrial production is being replaced by the method of one-time industry surveys. Since the 1930s in the USSR, statistical accounting of industry was carried out on the basis annual reports state enterprises, compiled in their office work according to established statistical forms.
Similar trends in the development of domestic statistics were reflected in programs for collecting information on agricultural production. Until the 80s of the XIX century. Only gubernatorial reports contained such information for all categories of landowners. Sowing and harvesting of crops (grains and potatoes) were taken into account in physical terms, i.e. in the volume of grain sown and harvested. The method for calculating them was simple: local officials found out the general size of the crops of winter and spring crops, and then, based on trial threshing, determined the height of the yield “in sams”, multiplying by which gave the estimated volume of the gross grain harvest.
In 1881, for the first time in Russia, the acreage under individual crops was recorded. As a result of this innovation, the object of statistical study became the efficiency of landowner production, assessed as the ratio of yield per unit of sown area. The Central Statistical Committee (CSK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was responsible for collecting data on crop areas and yields. To obtain information about the areas under crops of various crops, questionnaires were sent to all rural communities and to all owners and tenants of estates.
Until 1903 inclusive, when collecting information on the areas sown under various crops, the CSK distinguished two main categories of crops - on allotment lands and owned lands. The latter included all lands, except allotment lands, including those purchased from private owners by entire rural communities, as well as those leased from individual communal peasants. Since 1904, information on the size of crops was collected separately by land: allotment lands, purchased by entire rural societies, rented by peasants from private owners, privately owned.
In parallel, taking into account the sown areas, which were identified by the method of continuous census, the CSK collected information on sowing and yield per unit area. From 1883 to 1915, harvest statistics data were published annually by the Central Scientific Research Center in the series “Harvest of the 18th Year,” which was part of the multi-volume “Statistics of the Russian Empire.”
Simultaneously with the CSK, since 1881, information on harvest statistics was collected by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Industry (since 1894 - the Department of Rural Economics and Agricultural Statistics) of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property. Voluntary correspondents - owners of estates - recorded data on the expected and actual harvest of various crops on allotment and privately owned lands, and then, on their basis, the ministry determined the average yield per tithe. The collected information was published annually in several editions in the publication “18... year in agricultural terms based on materials received from the owners” (St. Petersburg, 1881 - 1915). It should be borne in mind that the information from the Ministry of Agriculture on harvests is mostly collected on estates where yields were above average, and therefore, in general, they are higher than similar data from CSK statistics.
Another set of sources on harvests consists of materials from zemstvo statistics. The first statistical work was carried out by zemstvos already in the late 60s - early 70s of the 19th century. From the mid-70s, statistical bureaus or departments began to be created under provincial and then district zemstvo administrations. In the 80s, they operated in most provinces, in which, according to the regulations of 1864, zemstvos were introduced. Initially, zemstvo statistics arose with the purpose of studying the objects of zemstvo taxation. But already in the 70s and 80s, zemstvo statistical research programs set a broader task - to describe the main elements that make up the economic well-being of the village and, above all, peasant farm.
The information collected by zemstvo statisticians on the size of crops, yields and harvesting of grain is scattered in time and space and less systematic, compared with the statistics of the Central Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture. But their important advantage is that information about agriculture is given along with many other indicators about peasant and privately owned farming and characterizes the situation in smaller territorial units- not in provinces and districts, but in individual villages and farms.
The content value of house-to-house surveys of peasant households was determined by data collection programs that included from 100 to 250 indicators. These programs were neither uniform for different provinces and districts, nor unchanged during repeated surveys. Regional features were clearly evident in them: in non-black earth provinces, the fishing activities of the population were taken into account in more detail, while in the south, primarily the agricultural activities of peasants were analyzed in detail. But due to the generally unified bourgeois-capitalist trends in the development of the domestic village in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Despite all the differences in the door-to-door survey programs in individual provinces, the basic composition of the information taken into account was the same.
As a rule, a household description of a peasant household included information: about the householder (last name, first name; if not assigned to the community, then where from; nationality; religion; class), about the composition of the family (divided by gender, age, literacy), about allotment land (sown, uncultivated, under a meadow, leased, abandoned), about the amount of own and rented land, about the size of crops (separately - on allotment land, on own land, on rented land), about the crops grown (oats, rye, wheat , barley, buckwheat, etc.), about the number of livestock (horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs), about haymaking, about equipment, about buildings, about outside earnings of family members (local and latrine), about hired workers, about arrears, etc.
In survey programs for privately owned farms, the composition of the requested information is different. First of all, it was necessary to indicate: the name, patronymic and surname of the owner, his class affiliation, the location of the estate (county, parish, distance from the county town, railway station, highway). A number of questions included detailed description land belonging to the owner and its use: how much land is on the estate (under the estate, garden and vegetable gardens; arable, hayfield; under the forest); from the number of arable land on the estate - how many tithes are used for their own plowing, how many tithes are leased for a long term, how many tithes are distributed to small tenants for one summer, etc.; what kind of crop rotation is adopted on the estate, i.e. how many years does the land rest, what crops are then grown and in what order; how the fields are cultivated: by permanent workers, foreign day laborers or neighboring peasants - if the latter, then for what money, on what conditions, with whose equipment and livestock; how many acres were sown of rye, winter wheat, spring wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, and other plants; by whom and under what conditions the grain is harvested, their average yield in pounds, etc. Equally detailed information was collected on cattle breeding, forestry, haymaking, implements, buildings and all other elements of the proprietary farming system.
In the forms for descriptions of villages and communities, the questions were more general in nature: are there any lands located in common use all the householders of the society or all the inhabitants of the village; for how many souls the allotment is allocated; whether the arable land is divided according to souls (by quality or on other grounds), how the location affects the yield of the fields and the ease of cultivation; what kind of grain is sown primarily, how many measures or poods are sown per tithe; Do they fertilize the land and what kind of grain is used primarily for it (if they don’t fertilize it, then why - do they consider the fertilizer useless or due to a lack of manure); when is cleaning done various kinds bread (do climatic conditions or mandatory work prevent the timely harvesting of bread), etc.
The experience of zemstvo-statistical descriptions was subsequently used by Soviet statisticians in the development of agricultural survey programs in the 1920s, and from the 1930s - in the preparation of forms for annual reports of collective and state farms.
If data collection programs characterize the possible completeness of information from statistical sources, then the reliability of the information largely depends on the way in which the information was collected.
Collection of statistical information
It is customary to distinguish between two main methods of obtaining statistical data: 1) expeditionary, in which specially trained persons collect information and check it directly on the spot, and 2) questionnaire (correspondent), when information is provided by the owner of the estate or enterprise, a representative of the administration, a volunteer correspondent and etc. Greater reliability and accuracy of information, as established by research, was ensured by the expeditionary method.
Statistics of government institutions of the Russian Empire were most often based on the correspondent method of data collection (or on extracting them from office documentation). Therefore, the statistical information of zemstvos obtained by the expeditionary method is rightly considered the highest achievement of domestic pre-revolutionary statistics. According to the method of collecting data, zemstvo statistics are divided into current (according to the testimony of voluntary correspondents and periodic reports of zemstvo institutions) and basic (according to the testimony of householders). The very name of this second set of statistical materials indicates that it was considered as the main one.
The technique of collecting data using the expeditionary method required that members of zemstvo statistical bureaus travel to the field. To conduct a household census, a meeting of householders was usually convened, at which their survey took place. This technique provided more accurate information than visiting farms, as it ensured greater clarity of answers and mutual control. Statistical data was initially recorded in the form of community lists, and then household cards, which were more convenient for subsequent processing, began to be widely used.
Accurate recording of responses in accordance with the questions in the data collection program was important. Specially drawn up instructions explained what should be considered, for example, a yard: “Every householder who lives at his own risk, pays or does not pay taxes, has his own house or lives in an apartment is considered a yard.”
To the question: “Which householders should we rewrite?” - the instructions recommended: “You need to rewrite all available householders, peasants and non-peasants, assigned to a given society and not assigned; but it is necessary to note in the title of the card the class and place from which the householders who are not assigned to the society came. Absentee householders of the society that is being described, if not a single member of the family of these owners is in the village, although they are entered on the card for counting souls paying taxes, but instead of all the details about their household, only where they went and why is noted.”
When collecting information about crops, it was necessary: “Crop crops can be ascertained as accurately as possible while moving; Since often a householder has his land scattered in different places, so that he is not able to immediately determine the area occupied by this or that grain, it is necessary to slowly ask him in advance - where, how much, what he has sown, gradually writing down what he says on a separate piece of paper, and then, having calculated the total area sown with bread, puts it on a card. To get an answer to the question: how much fallow has been plowed for winter, for spring, if the owner has not finished plowing yet, you need to carefully ask him how much he plowed and how much more he plans to plow?”
In connection with the question of the literate, an explanation is given: “Between literate people, one should distinguish between the semi-literate - those who can only read - and the literate, who can both read and write. Put the sign A over the years of the illiterate; for example, 4OA means: a forty-year-old man can only read; a number without a sign will show that the person written down is quite literate.” Let us note that the form of the All-Russian Population Census of 1897 did not provide for detailed information on literacy and was limited to indicating the need to record only the ability or inability to read.
The technique used by zemstvo statisticians for collecting material and checking it ensured the reliability and high degree of accuracy of the data.
The reliability of statistical information obtained by the correspondent method is lower, since their verification could only be carried out logically by comparing answers to interrelated questions of the program. The same technique is effective when assessing statistical data from public reporting materials. Let us show this using the example of domestic shareholder statistics of the late 19th – early 20th centuries.
Since the mid-80s of the XIX century. the law established the mandatory publication of final balance sheets and extracts from annual reports of companies in the journal of the Ministry of Finance “Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade” (from January 1, 1886 in two special appendices to this publication: “Balance sheets of credit institutions” for banks and “Reports enterprises obliged to public reporting" for the rest joint-stock enterprises). The published extract from the report should have contained the following information: the amounts of fixed (i.e. share capital), reserve, reserve and other capital, the profit and loss account for the reporting year, the distribution of “net” (i.e. minus costs) profit from indicating the dividend due per share. Control over the provision of data for publication was assigned to the provincial treasury chambers as local bodies of the Ministry of Finance.
For the government, shareholder statistics represented a tool for taxation of joint stock companies. The obligation to publish annual balance sheet data was assigned to the boards of companies in connection with the tax on share capital (15 kopecks for every hundred rubles) and the interest charge on profits exceeding 3% in relation to the amount of share capital.
By publishing balance sheet data, company executives pursued two divergent goals: first, they sought to avoid excessive taxation and, second, they wanted to attract shareholders. Therefore, the officially announced amount of the company's profit was usually not inflated. At the same time, there was a lower limit to possible manipulations. It was determined by the need to provide shareholders with a fairly high dividend. This goal could be achieved if published information about the amount of profit and dividends indicated the successful progress of the enterprise. Thus, a range of reliability of balance sheet information about the profitability of the enterprise was formed.
The verification of the company's published balance sheet data was carried out, first of all, by comparing information over a number of years. This technique makes it possible to identify, regardless of the wishes of the balance sheet compilers, the actual trends in the development of enterprises. Researchers have found that the greatest mobility is found in balance sheet indicators that characterize working capital and company credit. A less sensitive barometer of the state of affairs, due to the reasons stated above, is information about the amount of “net” profit and dividend received. The indicator of the amount of share capital, since its change could be made each time only with the special permission of the government, obviously could not be flexible.
Of the two indicators of profitability required for companies’ balance sheets – “net” profit and the amount issued as dividends to shareholders – the first is not only larger, but, in the case of successful business progress of the enterprise, reveals a tendency towards accelerated growth (both in absolute and in relative terms – to the amount of the company’s share capital – in terms). For example, Joint-Stock Company Kolomna Machine-Building Plant at the beginning of the 20th century. twice (for the 1906 and 1916 operating years) it issued a dividend of 14% to the company's share capital to shareholders. In the first case, the amount issued was 1.05 million rubles (with the shown “net” profit being just over 2 million rubles, or 26.9% of the share capital). In the second - 2.1 million rubles (with the shown “net” profit of about 7.5 million rubles, or 49.9% of the share capital).
All these “tricks” were well known to government officials. An additional opportunity for them to check the statistical data published by companies was created by storing the main accounting books in the archives of enterprises. Thanks to the publication of balance sheets and high degree preservation in the archives Russian Federation documentation of joint-stock companies of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, such verification can also be carried out by modern researchers.
Of course, one or another method of collecting statistical data in itself did not guarantee its reliability. An example of how, when solving the same statistical problem - counting the population of the USSR - significantly different results were obtained with an interval of only two years, are the All-Union censuses of 1937 and 1939. The first census determined the country's population at 162 million people. Its organization was recognized by a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR as unsatisfactory, and its materials themselves were recognized as “defective.” The second census, approved by the government, showed a figure of 170 million people.
What is the reason for such significant discrepancies in statistical data and in the assessment of the organization of their collection? The main reason was that the government set a political task for statisticians: to confirm the estimated population of the country with the results of the census. It was announced by I.V. Stalin at the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - 168 million people at the end of 1933. Since then in science there was an idea according to which an increase in the living standard of the population automatically leads to its expanded reproduction, it was expected that by 1937 The total population of the USSR will be approximately 180 million people.
The 1937 census was an experimental one-day census. It was held on January 6, Christmas Eve, and took into account only the existing population, i.e. those who were at home when the meter arrived. The organizers of the 1937 census were accused of deliberately undercounting the population. It was alleged that they violated the official instructions, according to which the census forms had to include not only persons who spent the night in a given premises, but also those temporarily absent (night shift, market, etc.). The one-day census was preceded by a preliminary survey of the population for five days, and then the census forms were filled out. Allegedly in violation of the instructions, a memo was attached to each census form, according to which it was necessary to cross out from the census form those who did not spend the night at home on the night of January 5-6, including those who left before 12 o’clock at night. Therefore, some persons who were previously included in the census forms and then left before 12 at night on January 5, considered themselves to be re-enumerated and did not re-record. In addition, the census was carried out only at large railway junctions, and at small stations no census was organized; in Ukraine, the preliminary round of the population was reduced to three days, etc. All of the above circumstances could, of course, contribute to the undercount of the population, but, according to existing estimates in modern literature, it did not go beyond the statistically acceptable.
When preparing the 1939 census, its organizers put forward the slogan: “Don’t miss a single person!” It became the motto of the socialist competition for conducting the census “excellently.” The census was expected to be carried out in cities within a week, and in villages – within a week and a half. Carefully selected counters and controllers have undergone special training. A technical minimum was developed for them, which contained, among other things, a clause on the “perversions and shortcomings” of the 1937 census, the main one of which was called “undercounting of the population.” This technical minimum had to be passed by each of the half a million enumerators who had to fill out census forms, and by each controller assigned to check the correctness of the population count during repeated rounds. To conduct the census, they chose a regular winter weekday - January 17, 1939. By this day, house books were put in order, the names of streets and squares were sorted, district maps were drawn up, etc.
Six months before the start of the census, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the All-Union Population Census of 1939” and approved instructions on the procedure for its conduct. The instructions listed in detail all categories of the population who might, for whatever reason, be absent from home during the census: all of them were registered at their location and received certificates of completion of the census. Prisoners corresponded in places of detention. Counters and inspectors were instructed to: “comprehensively study places of possible concentration of homeless, beggars, and street people”; inspect “attics, basements, asphalt boilers, public restrooms, etc.” Special expeditions were sent to search for human habitats in uninhabited and little-known places of the Karakum Desert.
To avoid repeat enumeration of the same person, enumerators and supervisors were advised to conduct the survey exclusively in a personal conversation. For these purposes, it was envisaged to visit the interviewee multiple times and only as a last resort, when it was completely impossible to interview him personally, information about him was entered into the lists from the words of family members, but after a thorough check of all the information. Persons who completed the census at their place of residence and left received a certificate of completion of the census so as not to have to go through it again.
Unlike the 1937 census, which took into account only the actual population, the 1939 census recorded both permanent and temporary residents in both the city and the countryside. The information from the 1939 census is more complete and, obviously, the thoroughness of its preparation and organization should have ensured the receipt of the most accurate information about the country's population.
Related information.
Information (statistical data) is understood as a set of quantitative characteristics of mass objects obtained as a result of observation, processing or calculations.
The main properties of statistical information include mass character And stability. The mass nature of information is associated with the characteristics of the subject of statistics, but its stability lies in the fact that once collected information remains unchanged, i.e. capable of becoming obsolete.
The collection of statistical information involves statistical observation - mass, systematic, scientifically based observation of objects, which consists in recording selected characteristics of each unit. It can be carried out by various organizations: statistical bodies, research institutions, economic services of exchanges, banks, firms. The process of its implementation consists of the following stages:
a) preparation of observation;
b) conducting mass data collection;
c) preparing the received data for processing;
d) development of proposals to improve surveillance.
Persons collecting information (registering characteristics of units of an object) - observers - are also called registrars or counters.
Organization and conduct of observation involves solving the following issues:
1. Establishing the purpose of surveillance. As a rule, the purpose of observation is most often practical - obtaining reliable information about an object in order to identify patterns of its development.
2. Defining the object of observation and establishing the unit of observation. An object of observation is understood as a statistical aggregate where the processes and phenomena necessary for research occur; a unit of observation is an element of an object that is a carrier of characteristics to be registered (for example, in an object such as a city, the unit can be enterprises, educational establishments, houses, residents, etc.).
3. Development of an observation program. The program is a list of signs to be recorded (questions to be answered) during observation (the so-called questionnaire). The program must contain features characterizing the object, arranged in a certain order (questions can be closed - “yes or no”, test - choosing one answer option from several, open - any answer to the question posed, etc.). The program is a statistical form - a uniform document.
4. Choosing a place and time of observation. The observation location is selected depending on the purpose of the observation, and the choice of the time for obtaining data is associated with the solution of the following two questions:
a) establishing a critical moment or observation interval (day, hour or other period of time) at which (or, accordingly, during which) the registration of characteristics should be carried out for each unit of the population under study);
b) determination of the observation period (the time required to conduct mass data collection, which is determined based on the volume of work and the number of personnel).
For example, when organizing population censuses, the critical moment is 0 o'clock on the census date (population data is recorded as of this moment), and data collection is carried out within 10-14 days from this date.
When organizing observation, it is also necessary to determine its forms, methods and types.
In domestic statistics, the following three are most often used: FORMS statistical observation:
1. Reporting. This is the main form of observation, with the help of which statistical authorities, within a certain period of time, receive from enterprises, organizations, institutions, firms and other economic entities data on the activities of the latter in the form of reporting documents in the prescribed manner. Reporting is submitted for certain periods (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually - current) and once a year (annual). The reporting indicates the industry to which the enterprise belongs, its form of ownership, organizational and legal form, number of employees, volume of output, profitability and other data.
2. Specially organized statistical observation. It is carried out either to obtain information missing from the reporting or to verify it. A classic example of this form is censuses - observations repeated at regular intervals in order to obtain data on the number, composition and condition of an object (census of population, material resources, perennial plantings, etc.).
3. Registers. This is a form of continuous statistical observation of long-term processes that have a beginning, a stage of development and an end. The register is a system that constantly monitors the state of the observation unit and takes into account the impact on it various factors. There are registers of population and enterprises.
Population registers are named lists of residents maintained by region. A resident of a given territory who has a certain characteristic is entered into the register. If a registered person loses this attribute, dies, or moves to another region, he is excluded from the register (in the latter case, information about him is transferred to the register at his new place of residence). The most common population registers currently are:
A) MARRIAGE REGISTRY(here the following characteristics are registered for persons at their place of residence: date and place of birth, gender, marriage and its dissolution, birth of children, death);
b) Pension Fund, registering persons who have reached retirement age (according to the main grid, men are 60 years old, women are 55 years old);
V) Military registration and enlistment office, including those liable for military service (persons who have reached conscription age up to 45 years) and military personnel;
G) Tax office, registering persons paying taxes (owning real estate, vehicles engaged in business activities);
d) Enterprise HR department, where those working on it are listed;
Along with the listed registers, there are many others that are less significant.
Enterprise registers contain data about the enterprise and its economic activities (its name, address, form of ownership, legal form, ownership of capital, number of employees, industry sector, value of fixed assets, volume of products, its nomenclature, assortment, revenue, profit, profitability, etc.).
From WAYS statistical observations are mainly distinguished:
1. Direct observation when the registrars themselves establish the fact to be recorded (for example, by measuring, weighing, counting, checking work, etc.) and make an entry in the observation form.
2. Documentary method, based on the use of accounting documents as a source of information (the data of interest to the observer is written out from the documents).
3. Survey, in which information is obtained from the words of the respondent (the bearer of the characteristics subject to registration).
The following survey options are most often used in statistics:
A) oral(forwarding), in which the registrar receives information directly from the respondent (in a conversation with him) and enters it into the form;
b) self-registration(the registrar distributes forms to respondents, explains the procedure for filling them out and collects the completed ones);
V) correspondent, in which forms sent by mail to the respondent are filled out by him and sent back to the organization conducting the observation;
G) questionnaire when the forms (questionnaires) handed to respondents are filled out voluntarily and anonymously;
d) turnout, which requires the respondent to provide information in person.
On KINDS statistical observation is divided according to the time of registration of facts and the coverage of population units.
According to the time of registration of facts, an observation occurs:
1. Continuous (current), in which changes in the studied characteristics are recorded as they occur.
2. Periodic, which allows you to obtain data reflecting changes in an object during several surveys of it, carried out over a certain time.
3. One-time, which provides information about an object only at the time of its study. So far, no survey of this object has been carried out, and a repeated survey is not planned or may be carried out after an indefinite period of time.
Based on the coverage of population units, observations are divided into:
1. Solid, the task of which is to obtain information about all units of the population without exception.
2. Not continuous, involving the examination of part of the population units. Incomplete observation does not provide a sufficiently complete and reliable picture of the population, but it is carried out in a shorter time and at lower costs. Non-continuous observation is divided into
A) selective based on the principle random selection of population units;
b) monographic, in which individual, specially selected units.
The considered forms, methods and types of statistical observation are three independent classification options for the information collection process. For example, a population census in form is a specially organized observation, in method it is a survey, and its expeditionary version, in type from the point of view of the time of registration of facts - periodic observation, from the point of view of coverage of population units - continuous.
The degree of correspondence of the indicator value determined from observation materials to its actual value is called accuracy of statistical observation, and the discrepancy between the values of quantities is observation error.
In conclusion of the review of the statistical method and its application to the study of crime, it is necessary to note those questions that are included in the sheets that provide information about the personality of the convicted; the answers to the questions are noted on the sheets by the courts considering the case on the merits.
In this regard, Russian statistical sheets contain the largest number of questions compared to statistical sheets of other countries. These questions are the following: 1) age of the convicted person (in all countries); 2) place of birth (same); 3) place of registration (only still in Austria); 4) permanent place residence (everywhere except England); 5) rank or estate (only with us); 6) birth within marriage or out of wedlock (also in Italy, France, Belgium); 7) nationality (only here), 8) religion (Germany, Austria and Hungary); 9) education (everywhere except Germany); 10) marital status (everywhere except England); 11) occupation (everywhere); 12) real estate (only in Austria and Hungary); 13) whether he is subject to habitual drunkenness (only still in Belgium); 14) the criminal act of which he is accused (nowhere); 15) crime or misdemeanor for which he was convicted (everywhere); 16) where the crime was committed (everywhere, except Austria and Italy), when (with the exception of Austria, everywhere), individually or in community (also Italy, France, Hungary), while intoxicated (nowhere); 17) was there consciousness at the trial (nowhere); 18) what he was sentenced to (everywhere); 19) the attitude of the convicted person to the victim (nowhere); 20) information about previous criminal records (everywhere).
When making comparisons, statistical sheets from Germany, Austria, Italy, France, England, Hungary, and Belgium were taken into account. This small comparison shows the extent to which statistical records in other countries are incomplete. But there are also many gaps in our sheets, and meanwhile the Ministry of Justice, in the order of supreme administration, has just - Supremely approved on May 20, 1909 (Article 584 of the Coll. Code) - issued new rules amending the rules on November 11, 1871: no new questions were added to them, but points 3, 13, 17, 19 were removed from the list.
The criminological section of the St. Petersburg Psycho-Neurological Institute as a scientific institution, which includes psychiatrists, lawyers, theorists and practitioners, and statisticians, having decided to devote its works to the study of Russian crime, could not help but dwell from the very beginning on the insufficiency and imperfection of those factual data about Russian crime, which should serve as material for scientific generalizations due to the fact that they do not contain the most essential information about the personality of the criminal, his mental state and social status. Wanting to follow a positive method in its research, the criminological section first of all turned to the data of our criminal statistics and in this regard, taking into account, of course, fully the impossibility of counting on any significant increase in the costs currently being incurred on this subject, it limited itself only to the assumptions of the most few and especially, in her opinion, urgent changes and additions in the procedure for collecting statistical data.
I. Dwelling on the statistical sheet about convicts, the criminological section took into account that clause 11 of the old edition (clause 10 new edition) concerns the marital status of a juvenile convict. There is no doubt that marital status and homelessness in its various forms are the main cause of child crime. This, of course, is recognized by the Ministry of Justice, at least, for example, in the bill on educational and correctional institutions for minors, which are supposed to admit children and those who have not committed a crime into these institutions, since they turn out to be homeless. Under such conditions, of course, it is extremely important to have accurate statistical data on the number of children with mental health problems among criminals. marital status or completely homeless. In these types, the criminological section would consider paragraph 11 and state it as follows (end): if a minor, then whether he lives with his parents, an orphan, an adopted child, a homeless person, and at the same time indicate in the instructions that here the main thing to clarify is the question of whether , whether the child is in the care and supervision of any adults or in fact, at least non-legally, he is left completely without a caretaker.
Moving then to paragraph 12 (paragraph 11 of the new edition), the criminological section found that the question proposed in this article should serve to clarify mainly the nature of the occupation, i.e. whether these activities are permanent, or temporary, or casual. Clarification of this circumstance is important, because the current increase in crime, especially in terms of property crimes, is largely explained by chance or at least the inconstancy, temporary nature of occupations. As Western European statistical data show, the growth of crime increases especially in industrial districts, where, due to production conditions, there is always a reserve army of workers and extreme fluctuations in the demand for labor occur, in some specialties reaching a year-to-year difference of almost 70% of the available workforce of a given industries. Therefore, this point should be stated as follows: “permanent, temporary or casual occupations.”
Paragraph 13 (12) raises the question only of the immovable property of the convicted person. In this wording, undoubtedly, this question cannot serve to clarify the economic causes of crime, because it gives an answer only regarding one of the types of property, and therefore it is preferable to express it in this wording: “permanent means of subsistence.”
Clause 14, issued in a completely new edition, was undoubtedly presented unsatisfactorily and perhaps that is why, without providing any valuable data, it is now recognized as subject to abolition. Meanwhile, there is, in essence, no other item in the statistical sheet that would contain data on such a matter of primary importance as the question of the mental state of the convict, the degree of his nervous balance. Fully understanding that a detailed clarification of this issue at trial could lead, perhaps, to the unfounded initiation of another issue of sanity, which was not raised in a timely manner at the preliminary stages of the process, the criminological section would therefore consider fully subjecting this issue to investigation at the preliminary investigation; here in the leaflet about the convicted person we limit ourselves to a question in the following wording: “Did you suffer from mental and nervous diseases(confinement in appropriate medical institutions, seizures, alcoholism, etc.).”
II. Turning then to the stage of preliminary investigation, the criminological section found that in this regard, in the collection and systematization of statistical data, a very significant step forward was made in 1902, since from this year, from the total figure indicating the number of terminated investigations (under Art. 277 of the statute of criminal proceedings), were allocated to a special column of cases terminated due to the absence of signs of a crime. Along this path, it would be desirable to take another important step, namely, to highlight another column to determine the number of cases dismissed under Art. 356 of the statute of criminal proceedings, i.e. due to the district court finding the accused to be mentally ill. In order for this wish to be fulfilled, it would be necessary to introduce for this relatively small category of accused special statistical sheets, which would include general issues contained in the sheet about the convicted person, and, in addition, special information characterizing the mental illness of the accused, namely, it would be desirable to include the following questions: a) characteristic features of the crime committed (cruelty, deliberation or, conversely, lack of motivation, method of commission, etc.) d.);
- b) heredity;
- c) alcoholism;
- d) signs of degeneration;
- e) a form of mental disorder.
The answers to these last questions could be given by one of the invited doctors during the examination itself at the administrative hearing of the court.
III. Finally, it would seem extremely important to attract greater attention than is currently the case to questions about the mental and nervous state of the accused and the investigative authorities. At this stage of the process, this additional investigation could in no way be considered an interruption in the correct course of justice, and on the contrary, it would save the process from unexpected discoveries and the need to postpone a case already begun by the hearing. At the same time, this would provide rich material for clarifying the individual state of the criminal (individual factors of crime). Currently, this individual state of the accused is examined only in cases where either there are already signs of obvious complete mental disorder at the time of interrogation, or the mental abnormality of the accused is indicated to the judicial investigator by the relatives of the accused or even the accused himself. There can be no doubt that these last instructions very often turn out to be fictitious, and, however, it is recognized as mandatory for the investigator to take them into account. Meanwhile, in the absence of an appropriate investigation, even a mental disorder during the commission of a crime, if it does not manifest itself sharply at the time of interrogation (eplelepsia larvata, etc.), can and probably often actually remains without any clarification during the preliminary investigation. If we add to this not only the exclusion of defense during the preliminary investigation and the even more important, too frequent in the provinces, lack of defense for the accused even at trial, then it becomes absolutely clear that some adjustment must be made to this case in the interests of both Russian justice, and Russian science.
Based on these considerations, the criminological section considered it necessary that the investigator, when interrogating each accused, enter into the protocol the answers to the following questions:
- 1) sharp features in the structure of the skull and face (symmetry, scars, etc.);
- 2) deformity in the structure of the body (goiter, hump, etc.);
- 3) state of general nutrition (fatness or emaciation);
- 4) the nature of speech (stuttering, stammering, childish speech);
- 5) noticeable movement disorders (paralysis, convulsions);
- 6) whether before the commission of the crime there were any sudden changes in material, family, moral status;
- 7) whether he suffered from mental or nervous diseases (confinement in appropriate medical institutions, seizures, alcoholism);
- 8) whether there are any signs of mental abnormality;
- 9) whether there were any cases of insanity, nervous diseases or alcoholism in the blood relationship.
IV. The study of the mental structure and its characteristics in criminals is of great importance not only for the purpose of studying the development of criminal tendencies in a person, but also for preventive purposes.
The study of the criminal while he is in prison, and at various moments, especially upon entry and before release, is of enormous importance for elucidating the influence of prison on the physical and mental condition criminal. Therefore, the criminological section considered it necessary to establish a special medical certificate for the prison doctor with the following content.
