A Translation of Andre-Michel Guerry's Essay on the Moral Statistics of France (1883)
A Sociological Report to the French Academy of Science
Description:... Guerry's Essay on the Moral Statistics of France was among the earliest empirical studies in sociology and criminology. This translation makes the work available for the first time in English. He used data from a variety of sources, most notably the newly-available compilation of criminal justice statistics collected by the French Ministry of Justice. Within the pages of his essay, the reader will find systematic and sophisticated analyses of crime, suicide, education, wealth and poverty, illegitimacy, prostitution, infanticide, military desertion, charitable giving, and other issues of his day (and ours). Guerry's far-reaching analysis exhibits awareness of methodological issues analysts of sociological and criminological data still grapple with today, including measurement error, statistical interaction, and the identification problem. His cartographic methods influenced the Chicago School of Sociology and his pioneering use of content analysis in studying suicide notes paved the way for generations of scholars down to our own day who make use of similar methods. The introduction explores Guerry's life and work, the social context in which it was conducted, its relationship to later developments in French sociology, and its continuing relevance in the 21st century.
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