SOCI 241, Social Problems - Ms. Yolanda A. Anderson: Books & eBooks

This anthology, which replaces Greenhaven's 1998 edition, spotlights current debates on American morality, social values, religion, and popular culture. Chapters include: Is American Culture in Decline? What Political and Cultural Influences Benefit Society?

This unique collection of case studies introduces readers to many of the common yet extraordinary social problems in contemporary American society. Employing a symbolic interaction approach to the case studies, the authors identify the origins of the problems, define the issues, and explore the outcomes and potential remedies.

Over the last thirty years, the U.S. penal population increased from around 300,000 to more than two million, with more than half a million prisoners returning to their home communities each year. What are the social costs to the communities from which this vast incarcerated population comes? And what happens to these communities when former prisoners return as free men and women in need of social and economic support? In Imprisoning America, an interdisciplinary group of leading researchers in economics, criminal justice, psychology, sociology, and social work goes beyond a narrow focus on crime to examine the connections between incarceration and family formation, labor markets, political participation, and community well-being. The book opens with a consideration of the impact of incarceration on families. Using a national survey of young parents, Bruce Western and colleagues show the enduring corrosive effects of incarceration on marriage and cohabitation, even after a prison sentence has been served. Kathryn Edin, Timothy Nelson, and Rechelle Parnal use in-depth life histories of low-income men in Philadelphia and Charleston, to study how incarceration not only damages but sometimes strengthens relations between fathers and their children. Imprisoning America then turns to how mass incarceration affects local communities and society at large. Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza use survey data and interviews with thirty former felons to explore the political ramifications of disenfranchising inmates and former felons. Harry Holzer, Stephen Raphael, and Michael Stoll examine how poor labor market opportunities for former prisoners are shaped by employers' (sometimes unreliable) background checks. Jeremy Travis concludes that corrections policy must extend beyond incarceration to help former prisoners reconnect with their families, communities, and the labor market. He recommends greater collaboration between prison officials and officials in child and family welfare services, educational and job training programs, and mental and public health agencies. Imprisoning America vividly illustrates that the experience of incarceration itself--and not just the criminal involvement of inmates--negatively affects diverse aspects of social membership. By contributing to the social exclusion of an already marginalized population, mass incarceration may actually increase crime rates, and threaten the public safety it was designed to secure. A rigorous portrayal of the pitfalls of getting tough on crime, Imprisoning America highlights the pressing need for new policies to support ex-prisoners and the families and communities to which they return.

For freshman- and sophomore-level courses in Social Problems. Now in a concise, paperback format, this text's logical organization - essential concepts, troubled institutions, inequality, deviance, and global problems - helps students gain a coherent understanding of social problems. The Ninth Edition maintains the clear, straightforward style of writing for which this book has become known.

This is a reference book and cannot be checked out.

With historical and multicultural sensitivity, this best-selling book probes the nature and causes of the major social changes confronting today's citizens. Using the latest research, current statistics, examples, charts, and tables, it delves into the social control and action issues inherent to each problem in a clear, easy-to-read format. Balancing viewpoints and supporting material with research and policy, the book covers topics in a micro-to-macro format, pointing out the interrelationships among today's social problems and approaching them from several perspectives. The first few chapters focus on individual behaviors such as drug use and crime. The middle chapters deal with inequality and discrimination, discussing such topics as poverty, prejudice, sexism, ageism, family life, and work. The final chapters discuss the problems of cities, environmental pollution, and war and terrorism: matters of global significance. Because the nature of the United States is changing, with health and health care crises, military invasions, economic downturn, shrinking public budgets and rising fiscal deficits, and environmental issues, this book becomes a necessary read for members of the medical profession that confront the tragedy of AIDS, law enforcement professionals who cope with crime and violence, elected officials and other political leaders who are expected to formulate sound social policies to address social problems, and citizens who wish to learn more about the social problems that are pervasive in our lives.

Social Problems in a Free Society offers an original perspective on social problems such as violations of the principles of individual rights and the free market. This book is a vision for reinvigorating the discipline in a fashion undreamt of within the wearisome strains of today's radical social problems theory.
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This critically acclaimed book delineates seven sociological perspectives used to examine social problems--social pathology, social disorganization, value conflict, deviant behavior, labeling, the critical perspective, and, new to the fifth edition, social constructionism. Unlike mostintroductory texts for courses on social problems which are organized topically around issues such as drug abuse, racial violence, and juvenile delinquency, this anthology focuses on the major theoretical perspectives used to examine social problems. Each section begins with an overview of the maincontributors to the perspective, its history, and an outline of its major characteristics, and closes with a critique of the perspective and questions for discussion. Long a standard in its field, The Study of Social Problems is an indispensable volume for building a strong theoretical foundation incourses on social problems.

Alcohol continues to be the substance of choice for today's youth, leading to serious physical, psychological, and social consequences. Alcohol Problems in Adolescents and Young Adults ably addresses this growing trend. The latest entry in the Recent Developments in Alcoholism series, it comprehensively presents a wide-ranging clinical picture of teen drinking - epidemiology, neurobiology, behavioral phenomena, diagnostic and assessment issues, prevention and treatment data - in a developmental context. Fifty expert contributors display the scientific rigor, practical wisdom, and nuanced analysis that readers have come to expect from previous volumes. Among the subjects studied in depth: - Initiation of alcohol use/abuse - Risk and protective factors for alcohol dependence - High-risk adolescent populations - Drinking habits of college students - Long-range consequences of teenage drinking - Family-, school-, and community-based prevention programs - Treatment of comorbid substance and psychiatric disorders Clinicians, researchers, and policy makers will find this a bedrock source of evidence-based knowledge, whether one's goal is choosing an age-appropriate assessment tool for eighth graders, preventing drinking among high school students, or understanding the alcohol-friendliness of campus culture. Here is a critical resource for all professionals dedicated to helping youngsters grow up sober.

Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessment of Children and Adolescents, Second Edition was written to provide a comprehensive foundation for conducting clinical assessment of child and adolescent social-emotional behavior in a practical, scientific, and culturally appropriate manner.
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'Mind, Heart and Soul in the Fight Against Poverty' explores the diversity of collaboration between faith institutions and development agencies - ranging from community level interventions in support of excluded populations; work on education, health, and HIV/AIDS; restoring communities after conflicts; and global efforts to bring greater clarity and meaning to challenges such as poor country debt, labor and the struggle against poverty. What is emerging is a set of new partnerships that are founded on common concerns for the welfare of poor communities and the global cause of social justice.
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Homelessness had become a social problem that was primarily not about solving the nation's housing crisis. The pressing question becomes: How (and why) did homelessness become the social problem in its own right, one that was only tangentially related to the problem of inappropriate or insufficient housing? Why, when people demanded that something be done about homelessness, did they get specific policies and unintended outcomes? Cynthia Bogard is not content with the shorthand answers that rested on bias and ideology, such as "conservative politics bred conservative policies" or "American individualism precludes government investment in housing." This did not explain homelessness sufficiently, especially given all the advocacy and research that had occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.Examining these "claimsmaking activities," as constructionists call them, however, is a daunting task because the activities engaged in by people in the attempt to persuade others are fluid, subtle, and complicated as are the responses to these social actions. This raised a second set of issues that the author is concerned with: How can we adequately represent and sociologically examine this very complicated human activity of social problems construction? Who does the construction, and to what effect?Bogard's answer to these questions is a book that can be read in two ways and on multiple levels. For those who are interested in the story of the career of homelessness as a social problem in America's two "national" cities, the book should be read from the beginning through the conclusion as a straight narrative. The technical matter in the appendix can be ignored. But for those readers with an interest in social problems constructionism, however, this book is meant as a "cook-book" of sorts. Each chapter emphasizes a feature of constructionism, such as an important group of claims makers or an important aspect of the claims making process.The work highlights a major feature in advanced societies: the intersection of interests and claims. Social constructions may be real, but they are comprised of no less real social interests. The work marks a real departure and advance over the original formulations of construction theory in social research.Cynthia J. Bogard is associate professor of sociology at Hofstra University.

A'social trap'is a situation where individuals, groups or organisations are unable to cooperate owing to mutual distrust and lack of social capital, even where cooperation would benefit all. Examples include civil strife, pervasive corruption, ethnic discrimination, depletion of natural resources and misuse of social insurance systems. Much has been written attempting to explain the problem, but rather less material is available on how to escape it.
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The anthology is designed as a starting point for academic debate about illegal drugs. The 25 reprinted articles cover reducing harm and reduction, law enforcement, supply reduction, the European Union's drug policies, and terrorism and drugs. Each appends suggested topics for debate. They are not i

From the 1970s to the new millennium, the prison population in the United States has quadrupled while an unprecedented amount of sentencing reform has taken place, largely intended to protect the public from dangerous criminals. This book details the California experience, including the history and politics of criminal sentencing policy reform, as well as the consequences of this activity to the criminal justice system. Using cutting-edge computer simulation modeling, Kathleen Auerhahn explores the impact that sentencing reforms dating back to the 1970s have had on the composition and structure of the criminal justice system, with specific focus on prison populations. She illustrates how dynamic systems simulation modeling is used to both examine "possible futures" under a variety of sentencing structures and sentencing policy alternatives, including narrowing "strike zones" and the early release of elderly offenders, in order to more effectively target the dangerous criminals these policies promise to remove from society via incarceration.