Full Description
Focus on Social Problems: A Contemporary Reader, Third Edition, exposes students to current issues in the field. The selections in this reader help students understand how social problems are defined and constructed, increase their empirical knowledge about the causes and consequences of social problems, and develop empathy. Working from a critical social constructionist foundation, the readings address a wide variety of social problems. Editors Mindy
Stombler and Amanda M. Jungels include a combination of research-based articles and popular media pieces. Each chapter opens with an interview of a social-change activist doing work related to the chapter's featured
social problem, giving students an opportunity to envision themselves as agents of social change.
Contents
Contents
Preface
Contributor List
Chapter 1: What is Sociology?
Chapter 2: Wealth and Income Inequality
Activist Interview: Denise Diaz
2.1 Unequality: Who Gets What and Why It Matters? Michael I. Norton
2.2 Income Inequality Threatens the American Dream Renee M. Shelby and Shelby Frost
2.3 The Ever-Growing Gap: Without Change, Afterican-American and Latino Families Won't Match White Wealth for Centuries Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins, Josh Hoxie, and Emanuel Nieves
BOX 2.1: The Second Racial Wealth Gap Mel Jones
2.4 Gender in the One Percent Jill E. Yavorsky, Lisa A. Keister, and Yue Qian
Chapter 3: Poverty
Activist Interview: Deborah Gilbert White
3.1 Confronting Poverty: Facts and Myths Mark R. Rank, Lawrence Eppard, and Heather Bullock
BOX 3.1: Challenging Stereotypes About Who Receives Welfare Amanda M. Jungels
3.2 Being Poor is Too Expensive Eric Ravenscraft
3.3 Revealing the Lives of People Who Live on $2 a Day Dale Keiger
3.4 Making Bank on Tribal Gaming? Poverty and the Myth of Native American Prosperity Ashley Rockwell
3.5 How Houston Guided 25,000 People Into Homes Michael Kimmelman
BOX 3.2: Vancouver Gave Homeless People $7,500 and It Changed Their Lives Lauren Kaljur
3.6 Investing in Ending Poverty Matthew Desmond
Chapter 4: Racial and Ethnic Inequality
Activist Interview: Julie Garreau
4.1 Sociologists on the Colorblind Question Elaine McArdle
BOX 4.1: AI Can Be Racist. Let's Make Sure it Works for Everyone Jeff Raikes
4.2 Racial Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Disparities Solomon Greene, Margery Austin Turner, and Ruth Gourevitch
BOX 4.2: Appraised: The Persistent Evaluation of White Neighborhoods as More Valuable than Communities of Color Junia Howell and Elizabeth Korver-Glenn
4.3 The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander
BOX 4.3: Chicago Police Pull Over Black Drivers Seven Times More Often Than White Drivers... Pascal Sabino
4.4 Evidence from Field Experiments in Hiring Shows Substantial Additional Racial Discrimination after the Callback Lincoln Quillian, John J. Lee and Mariana Oliver
4.5 When "Model Minorities" Become "Yellow Peril": Othering and the Racialization of Asian Americans in the COVID-19 Pandemic Yao Li and Harvey L. Nicholson, Jr.
BOX 4.4: Behind the Model Minority Myth SunAh M. Laybourn
Chapter 5: Social Problems Related to Gender and Sexuality
Activist Interview: Cameron Samuels
5.1 The Agency Myth: Persistence in Individual Explanations for Gender Inequality Emily K. Carian and Amy L. Johnson
BOX 5.1: Sexism among American Adults Margaret Edwards and Brian Schaffner
5.2 A Doll for Everyone': Meet Mattel's Gender-Neutral Doll Eliana Dockterman
5.3 The Miseducation of the American Boy Peggy Orenstein
5.4 Homophobic Bullying as Gender Policing... Joel Mittleman
BOX 5.2: America's War on Black Trans Women Annamarie Forestiere
5.5 Inequitable Access, Information & Support: A Social Analysis of America's Sex Education Programs Ann Jenkin LaVanway
BOX 5.3: If You Ignore Porn, You Aren't Teaching Sex Ed Peggy Orenstein
5.6 The Complexities of Sexual Consent Among College StudentsEL Charlene L. Muehlenhard, Terry P. Humphreys, Kristen N. Jozkowski & Zoë D. Peterson
5.7 Sex Trafficking, Social Inequality, and Our Evolving Legal Consciousness Renee M. Shelby and Kara Tsukerman
Chapter 6: Social Problems Related to Politics and the Political Systems
Activist Interview: Rachel Clay
6.1 The Cost of Admission: Political Elites and the National Discourse Chris M. Vidmar
BOX 6.1: A Bitter Pill: How Big Pharma Lobbies to Keep Prescription Drug Prices High Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
6.2 Democracy for Whom? How Criminal Punishment Marginalizes the Political Voices of Black and Brown Americans Brianna Remster and Rory Kramer
6.3 Preparing to Fight AI-Backed Voter Suppression Mekela Panditharatne
BOX 6.2: Gerrymandering Explained Julia Kirschenbaum and Michael Li
6.4 Understanding Democratic Decline in the United States Vanessa Williamson
BOX 6.3: What Happens When Democracies Become Perniciously Polarized? Jennifer McCoy and Benjamin Press
Chapter 7: Social Problems Related to Media
Activist Interview: Josh Golin
7.1 A Modern Empire: The Concentration of Media Desmond Goss and Jenna-Ashley Lee
7.2 Activist Voices Missing from Corporate Coverage of Uprisings Loretta Graceffo
BOX 7.1: When Does Murder Make The News? It Depends On The Victim's Race Beth Schwartzapfel
7.3 How the American Media Landscape is Polarizing the Country Flavia Roscini
BOX 7.2: How Shows Like Will & Grace and Black-ish Can Change Your Brain Maanvi Singh
7.4 Representation of Women of Color on the Covers of the Top Three Fashion Magazines: a Content Analysis Natalie A. Mitchell, Tony Stovall, David Avalos
Chapter 8: Social Problems Related to Education System
Activist Interview: Jorge Fanjul
8.1 Deep Inequality at the Heart of American Education Claire Cain Miller
BOX 8.1: Post-COVID Learning Losses: Children Face Potentially Permanent Setbacks Ryan Doan-Nguyen
8.2 Reconsidering Police in Schools Marc Schindler and Ryan King
BOX 8.2: Half of the 250 Kids Expelled from Preschool Each Day are Black Boys Sara Novak
8.3 Diversifying Society's Leaders? The Determinants and Consequences of Admission to Highly Selective Colleges Raj Chetty, David J. Deming, and John N. Friedman
BOX 8.3: Degrees of Blackness: Racial Screening in University Admissions Charmian Lam
8.4 "There Was Definitely a Thumb on the Scale to Get Boys" Susan Dominus
8.5 Does Investing in Knowledge Still Pay the Best Interest? Bailey A. Brown
Chapter 9: Social Problems Related to Families
Activist Interview: Amy Ard
9.1 How is the Division of Household Labor Related to Stalled Gender Equality? Marin Christensen
9.2 Does it Pay to Have Kids? Not for Working Moms Kirstin Ralston-Coley
9.3 Diaper Despair and Deflecting Inequalities Jennifer Randles and Jennifer Sherman
9.4 The Long Reach of Criminalization: Low-Income Black Mothers Parenting Adolescents in the Mass Incarceration Era Sinikka Elliott and Megan Reid
9.5 Sociology of Gaslighting Paige L. Sweet
BOX 9.1: Perceiving Domestic Violence as a Personal or Public Problem Audrey Lutmer
Chapter 10: Social Problems Related to Health and the Healthcare System
Activist Interview: Matthew McCurdy
10.1 Inequality before Birth Contributes to Health Inequality in Adults Janet Currie
10.2 Dying Early: America's Life Expectancy Crisis Joel Achenbach, Dan Keating, Laurie McGinley, Akilah Johnson and Jahi Chikwendiu
BOX 10.1: How Does the U.S. Healthcare System Compare to Other Countries? The Peter G. Peterson Foundation
10.3 The Art of Medicine: Reckoning with Histories of Medical Racism and Violence in the United States Ayah Nuriddin, Graham Mooney, Alexandre I. R. White
BOX 10.2: How Medical Education Is Missing the Bull's-eye LaShyra Nolen
10.4 Suicide: Risk, Guns, and Whiteness Jonathan M. Metzl
BOX 10.3: From a Society of Survivors to a Survivor Society: Examining Gun Trauma in the U.S. Jennifer Carlson
10.5 Why America's Black Mothers and Babies are in a Life-or-Death Crisis Linda Villarosa
10.6 How We Do Harm Otis Webb Brawley and Paul Goldberg
Chapter 11: Social Problems Related to Crime and the Criminal Justice System
Activist Interview: Ebony Underwood
11.1 The Smoking Gun: American Masculinity, Gun Culture, and the Problem of Mass Shootings Tristan Bridges, Tara Leigh Tober, and Sara Tyberg
BOX 11.1: The Impact of School Safety Drills for Active Shootings Everytown Research & Policy
11.2 Crimes of the Powerful: Crafting Criminality Angie Luvara and Miriam Konrad
11.3 For-Profit Justice: How the Private Prison Industry and the Criminal Justice System Benefit from Mass Incarceration Amanda M. Jungels
BOX 11.2 Fees for Freedom: Class Exploitation in the Criminal Justice System Amanda M. Jungels
11.4 Criminalized or Medicalized? Examining the Role of Race in Responses to Drug Use Sadé L. Lindsay and Mike Vuolo
11.5 The Runaround: Punishment, Welfare, and Poverty Survival after Prison John M. Halushka
11.6 Too Much Policing: Why Calls are Made to Defund the Police Jennifer E. Cobbina-Dungy and Delores Jones-Brown
BOX 11.3:
