<p>My interest in statistics is less on the math side but more on the use and misuse of objectively-valid statistics for political and economic purposes. Are non-math questions that involve issues of how to define data definitions, identify the appropriate number of demographic categories to use, or identity appropriate and meaningful boundaries among them in-scope at Cross Validated? For example, such questions might include, "Is it correct to include people who left high school early to complete a university degree in the definition of 'High School Dropout' for my research on literacy attainment?" or "If a person was previously incarcerated in a totalitarian country for purely political offenses such as criticizing the government and has now been convicted of their first crime in a 'Free' country, should I classify them in my statistical model of crime risk factors as first time offenders or recidivists?" </p>

<p>My guess is that neither of these questions would be in scope here and would be more suited for sites on Education and Criminology, respectively, or even a graduate classroom.</p>

<p>What is the consensus? Are these kind of questions welcome here or is the scope more or less limited to the math aspects of statistics?</p>

<p>Other potential questions along these lines:</p>

<ul>
<li>I am trying to determine whether there is any correlation between the age at which a child completes toilet training and their likelihood to be injured by an electrical shock as an adult. If someone experiences a shock that is too weak to cause any physical damage but that causes the person to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, do I count that as an injury?</li>
<li>I am developing a model to find trends between the schools that a person has attended and the likelihood that they will be convicted of a crime involving misuse of computer technology. Does using an XBox as a doorstop during a residential burglary count as misuse of computer technology?</li>
<li>One of my research subjects says that he is a Mexican Chicano but adamantly denies being "Hispanic". Do I need to create a new "Non-Hispanic Chicano or Mexican" category for my model plotting ethnic background versus educational attainment or do Best Practices in demographic modeling allow me to define all Mexicans as <em>ipso facto</em> Hispanic?</li>
</ul>
