Author's Choice "Crossroads" Reader to accompany Parrillo's "Contemporary Social Problems"

A short, inexpensive collection of readings from Pearson Custom Publishing's Crossroads database selected by Vincent N. Parrillo specifically to accompany his textbook, Contemporary Social Problems, Fifth Edition.

Table of Contents:
1. Social Problems as Collective Behavior , Herbert Blumer. Accompanies Chapter 1, “Sociology and Social Problems.” This important essay discusses further the concept of how social conditions become social problems through our perceptions, values, definitions, and collective behavior. 2. Female Sexuality and the Beauty Myth , Naomi Wolf. Accompanies Chapter 2, “Examples of Sociological Perspectives: The Individual in Modern Society.” The commodity-self is fully explained in this discussion of how beauty pornography and consumer culture make it increasingly difficult for us to interact on humanistic terms. 3. The Obligation to Endure , Rachel Carson. Accompanies Chapter 3, “Population and the Environment.” The interconnectivity of our ecosystem becomes apparent in this still pertinent classic essay about how solutions to one problem create even more serious problems. 4. America's Cities: They Can Yet Be Resurrected , The Economist. Accompanies Chapter 4, “Cities and Urban Dwellers.” Positive signs of urban revival in New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and elsewhere suggest ways that U.S. cities can reverse their decline and improve the quality of life. 5. The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills. Accompanies Chapter 5, “Power, Work, and the Workplace.” This classic work offers still timely insight into concentrated power (corporate, military, political) and its influence in what does and does not get defined as a social problem. 6. Why the U.S. Antipoverty System Doesn't Work Very Well , Timothy M. Smeeding. Accompanies Chapter 6, “Poverty and Social Class.” Why do seven other industrialized countries do a better job of keeping their children and elderly citizens out of poverty, and what lessons can we learn from them? 7. Worth More Than We Earn: Fair Pay as a Step Toward Gender Equity , Ida I. Castro. Accompanies Chapter 7, “Gender Inequality and Heterosexism.” Found in this article are reasons for the income disparities between men and women discussed in the main text, as well as what can be done to reduce the wage gap. 8. Beyond the Melting Pot Reconsidered , Elijah Anderson. Accompanies Chapter 8, “Race and Ethnic Relations.” America's growing diversity challenges further its divisive racial atmosphere and puts today's “race man” (and woman) in a difficult bind between identity and social acceptance. 9. Violent Crime: Myths, Facts, and Solutions: The Conservative and Progressive Answers , D. Stanley Eitzen. Accompanies Chapter 9, “Crime and Violence.” In keeping with the themes of problematic definitions and solutions in the text, this article examines misinformation and misdirected solutions about violent crime in the United States. 10. The Way We Weren't: The Myth and Reality of the “Traditional” Family , Stephanie Coontz. Accompanies Chapter 10, “The Family.” The sociohistorical discussion in the text of the traditional family gets fuller treatment here from its source material about family life from colonial times to the present. 11. The Medically Uninsured: Will They Always Be With Us? , Steven A. Schroeder. Accompanies Chapter 11, “Health Care.” Among the discussed U.S. health care problems is its uneven delivery system and this article explains why Americans do not demand universal health care as found in all other countries. 12. Can Charter Schools Meet the Challenge? , Mike Rose. Accompanies Chapter 12, “Problems in Education.” Augmenting the discussion on charter schools in the text, this article explores the criticisms, successes, problems, and new directions in this alternative education approach. 13. Does Europe Do It Better? Lessons from Holland, Britain and Switzerland , Robert J. MacConn and Peter Reuter. Accompanies Chapter 13, “Alcohol and Drug Abuse.” This article discusses more fully the Dutch and British drug control policies as well as that of Switzerland, suggesting U.S. policy makers could learn much from these examples. 14. Global Trafficking in Women: Some Issues and Strategies , Lin Chew. Accompanies Chapter 14, “Sexual Behavior.” In this article, we not only learn of the international problems of prostitution and the trafficking of women, but also of another instance of a solution to a problem creating a new problem.