Seeing Social Problems: The Hidden Stories Behind Contemporary Issues

Seeing Social Problems: The Hidden Stories Behind Contemporary Issues shows students how to think about social problems in a new way, by carefully analyzing headline-making issues they are already familiar with and illustrating the connection between individual problems and larger social forces. Each chapter engages students in thinking about the world sociologically by focusing on a specific case study that represents a more general social problem. The chapters always start with the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and personal experiences that students bring to the case—what author Ira Silver refers to as the conventional wisdom—and effectively demonstrate to them the "first wisdom" of sociology: "things are not what they seem." In each instance, Silver shows how sociologists ask questions, gather empirical data, use multiple perspectives, and consider larger social forces to discover the "hidden stories" behind individual behavior. Included with this title: The password-protected Instructor Resource Site (formally known as SAGE Edge) offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides.

Table of Contents:
Preface: To the Instructor Acknowledgments About the Author Chapter 1 • Looking beyond What You Already Know: Becoming Curious about Social Problems Social Problems Are Everywhere The Virtue of Sociology: Opening Your Eyes to the Hidden World around You Viewing Our Society through Different Lenses Recognizing That Social Problems Have Diverse Explanations What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Chapter 2 • Opportunity for Few: The Withering of the American Dream Struggling to Get Ahead in the Land of Opportunity The Opportunity Divide: How American Society Produces Economic Inequality Blocked Opportunities: How Social Forces Impede Low-Income Youth from Living the Dream Tarnished Hopes for the Future: How Poverty Impedes Low-Income People’s Motivations to Get Ahead A Personal Tale from the Other Side of the Opportunity Divide: How Social Forces Bolster Success Rethinking Welfare: How the Sociological Perspective Can Widen Your Understanding of Who Deserves Help Taking Collective Responsibility: Why the Withering of the American Dream Is Everyone’s Problem What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 3 • “I Can’t Breathe”: Policing, Race, and Violence Violent Encounters between Cops and People of Color Assigning Personal Blame, Either to Bad Cops or to Dangerous Black Men Responding to Public Fears: Police Brutality as a By-product of Getting Tough on Crime The Hidden Roots of Crime: How Race Shapes Opportunity The Sociological Stories behind the Footage: Taking a Deeper Look at Police Violence Videos What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 4 • The Color of Drug Abuse: Handcuffs for Some Addicts, Help for Others Crack and Opioids: A Tale of Two Drug Epidemics Race and the Social Construction of Drugs The Racial Inequalities Underlying Drug Enforcement Policing Drugs by Creating Scapegoats Not as Simple as “Just Say No”: The Social Forces Contributing to Drug Abuse What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 5 • Slim Chances: Weight Anxiety in a Society That Prizes Thinness Thin Is In: The Social Construction of Body Size Bias without Boundaries: The Pervasiveness of Size Discrimination in American Society The Elephant in the Room: Explaining Why Obesity Is Most Prevalent in Low-Income Communities Feeling the Weight: Why People of Average Size May Be Insecure about Their Bodies Debunking Conventional Wisdom about Body Size What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 6 • What’s Sex Got to Do with It? Uncovering the Roots of Teen Pregnancy Parental Anxiety Gone Wild: Raising Kids in a Society Where Sexualized Images Are Everywhere Who’s Doing What and When? Shifting Views about Sex, Birth Control, and Pregnancy Dim Hopes for the Future: Highlighting the Social Forces That Contribute to Teens Having Babies “Acting Like Sluts”: How the Individual Perspective toward Teen Pregnancy Reinforces Gender Inequality Reducing Teen Pregnancy: Early Educational Opportunity Is Key Looking Cross-Culturally; Exposing an Alternative Way to Understand Teens and Sex What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 7 • “Everybody’s Doing It”: Getting Ahead by Cheating From Champ to Chump: How Lance Armstrong Tarnished His Reputation Riding the Road to Victory A Sketchy Path to the Top: Doping in Sports Striving to Be #1: Competing in a Winner-Take-All Society Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Who’s a Cheater When Second Best Feels Like Losing: The Medicalization of Imperfection Game On: Seeing Cheating as a Way to Conform with Mainstream Values What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 8 • Living in Infamy: Mass Shootings as Enduring Expressions of Masculinity Making Sense of the Senseless: Exploring What Drives Mass Shooters to Commit Acts of Destruction Seeking Revenge: Viewing Mass Shootings as Efforts by Disrespected Males to Get Even The Columbine Effect: How Online Networks Enable Aggrieved Males to Plot the Next Rampage Violence without Outrage: How Mass Shootings Resemble Riots Cementing Their Legacy as “Real Men”: How Rampage Reporting Immortalizes Toxic Masculinity What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 9 • #MeToo: Why Gender Violence Is Everyone’s Problem Publicizing Trauma: How Social Media Has Brought Gender Violence out of the Shadows Exhibiting Entitlement: Gender Violence as a Display of Male Power Adding Insult to Injury: Why Blaming Gender Violence Survivors for Their Victimization Contributes to the Problem “Be A Man”: Violence as a Socially Acceptable Expression of Masculinity Seeing Gender Violence as Everyone’s Problem What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 10 • Bearing Witness to Inhumanity: Making Sense of Cruelty to Animals Feeling Their Pain: Exploring Why Animal Cruelty So Deeply Affects Us Gory Thrills: Making Sense of the Pleasure Some People Get from Abusing Animals Tastes So Cruel: Exposing the Hidden Workings of the Factory Farming System Confronting Our Inhumanity: A Look at Efforts to Cease the Practice of Animal Entertainment The Payoff of the Sociological Perspective: Seeing Who We Are through Our Relationships with Animals What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 11 • “Better Safe Than Sorry”: Protecting Children from Strangers and Other Dangers Careful Who You Friend: Exploring the Predatory Behavior of Strangers Lurking on the Internet Unequal Childhoods: Exposing Why Some Kids Are More Prone Than Others to Online Exploitation by Strangers Overprotecting Children: The Unintended Consequences of Safeguarding Kids from Risk Strangers with Benefits: Discovering the Advantages of Interacting with Unfamiliar People in Public Thinking Straight about Threats to Children What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 12 • Have Kids Gotten Meaner? An Up-Close Look at Cyberbullying and Suicide Any Time and Place: How Teens Use Technology to Act Cruelly toward One Another A Peek Inside Teen Culture: Uncovering Social Forces That Give Rise to Cyberbullying Not a Solitary Act of Desperation: Exposing Social Forces That Lead Teens to Die from Suicide Getting to the Root of Kids’ Meanness toward One Another What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 13 • “You’re Such a Downer”: Why Mental Illness Goes beyond Personal Suffering Diseases of the Mind: Exploring the Wide Array of Psychiatric Disorders Conditions Blood Tests Cannot Prove: The Social Construction of Mental Illness Inexact Science: Explaining Cases Where ADHD Is Misdiagnosed Being Sad When You’re Supposed to Be Happy: How American Culture Influences the Experience of Depression “Feeling Crazy”: How Gender Shapes the Ways People Think about and Cope with Mental Illness People Whose Minds Are Merely Different: Challenging the Stigma Associated with Mental Illness What Do You Know Now? Key Terms Notes Chapter 14 • Eyes Wide Open: The Benefits of Seeing Social Problems from Multiple Perspectives Benefit #1: Recognizing Different Realities Benefit #2: Expanding Your Focus Benefit #3: Getting to the Heart of the Matter Benefit #4: Looking Inward Notes Glossary Index

About the Author :
Ira Silver is Professor of Sociology at Framingham State University, where he has taught since 2002. He also teaches during the summer at Wellesley College. He received his B.A. summa cum laude from Amherst College and his Masters and Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University. In addition to teaching Social Problems, Ira’s courses include: Nonprofit Giving; Death & Dying; Animals & Society; Society, Technology & the Future; Sport in Society; and Issues & Influences in Education.  Ira has authored or edited four previous books. Giving Hope: How You Can Restore the American Dream (CreateSpace, 2013) is a guide for charitable giving that addresses the opportunity divide in the U.S. Social Problems: Readings (Norton, 2008) is a collection of essays about contemporary issues. Academic Street Smarts: Informal Professionalization of Graduate Students in Sociology (American Sociological Association, 2008) is a collection of essay that provides tips for career success in the field.Unequal Partnerships: Beyond the Rhetoric of Philanthropic Collaboration (Routledge, 2006) is a study of power relations between grantors and grantees.