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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Social problems : a Canadian perspective / Lorne Tepperman, Josh Curtis and Rachel La Touche.
Names: Tepperman, Lorne, author. | Curtis, Josh, author. | La Touche, Rachel A., author.
Description: Fifth edition. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190169796 | Canadiana (ebook) 2019016980X |
ISBN 9780199032785 (softcover) | ISBN 9780199032792 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Social problems—Textbooks. | LCSH: Canada—Social conditions—Textbooks. |
LCGFT: Textbooks.
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Interior design: Laurie McGregor
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Printed and bound in Canada
1 2 3 4 — 23 22 21 20
Contents iii
Contents
Preface ix
How This Book Is Organized xi
Acknowledgements xiii
PART ONE Introduction 1

What Are Social Problems? 3
Learning Objectives 3
What Is a “Social Problem”? 4
Sociology and the Study of Social Problems 4
Social Problems and the Sociological Imagination 7
Social Problems Research as a Moral Enterprise 8
Social Problems: Then and Now 12
Theoretical Perspectives on Social Problems 12
Solutions to Social Problems 20
Chapter Summary 25
Questions for Critical Thought 25
Exploring Social Problems 26
Recommended Readings and Websites 26
PART TWO Inequalities 27

Class, Poverty, and Economic Inequality 29
Introduction 30
Measuring Poverty 33
Measuring Well-Being and Inequality 37
Poverty in Canada 38
Poverty as an Urban Problem 40
The Government’s Role in Reducing Poverty 43
Theoretical Perspectives on Poverty 44
Social Consequences of Poverty and Economic Inequality 47
Health Consequences of Poverty and Economic Inequality 50
Solving the Problems of Poverty and Economic Inequality 51
Chapter Summary 59
Recommended Readings 60
iv Contents
Race and Ethnic Relations 61

Introduction 62
Race 62
Ethnicity 62
Multiculturalism in Canada 64
The Vertical Mosaic 67
Theoretical Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity 72
Racism and Prejudice: Social Problems 77
Social Consequences of Race and Ethnicity 80
Governmental and Organizational Solutions to Prejudice and Racism 87
Chapter Summary 88
Gender Relations 91
Introduction 92
The Battle over Gender Today 93
Defining Sexism and Gender Inequality 94
Factors That Reinforce Gender
Inequality at Home 97
Problems of Structural Sexism 100
Gender Stereotypes in the Media 103
Theoretical Perspectives on Gender Relations and Inequality 104
Social Consequences of Gender Inequality 107
Self-Esteem and Appearance Issues 111
Claims-Making in Gender Relations and Sexism 114
Policy and Institutional Solutions to Gender Inequality 114
Chapter Summary 115
Sexualities 118
Introduction 119
Sexual Orientation 119
Attitudes and Laws 123
Gay Rights Movement 125
Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Orientation 130
Homophobia and Heterosexism 133
Social Consequences of Homophobia 134
Contents v
Health Consequences of Homophobia 141

Solutions to Homophobia 143
Chapter Summary 147
PART 3 Outcomes 151

Crime and Violence 153
Introduction 154
Defining Crime, Laws, and Social Order 154
Crime in Canada and Elsewhere 155
The Demography of Crime 162
Theoretical Perspectives on Crime 170
Social Effects of Crime and Violence 174
Economic Consequences of Crime 179
Health Effects of Crime and Violence 181
Solutions to the Crime and Violence Problem 182
Chapter Summary 184
Health Issues, Addictions,

and Substance-Use Disorders 186
Introduction 187
Defining and Measuring Health 187
Measuring Health and Illness 188
Pandemics: Threats to Canadian
and Global Health 190
Theoretical Perspectives on Health, Illness,
and Health Care 198
The Social Determinants of Health 202
Solutions to Problems in Health Outcomes and Health-Care Delivery 203
Addictions and Substance-Use Disorders: Why They’re a Problem 204
How Do Drugs and Alcohol Cause Social Problems? 205
Medicalization and the Transformation of a Problem 207
Social and Physical Characteristics of Addictions 209
Social Consequences of Addiction and Substance-Use Disorder 214
Health Consequences of Addictions 215
Solutions to Health and Addiction Problems 217
Chapter Summary 220
vi Contents

Global Inequality, War,

and Terrorism 222
Globalization and Global Inequality 223
Theoretical Perspectives on Globalization
and Global Inequality 224
Consequences of Globalization
and Global Inequality 229
Globalization, War, and Terrorism 233
Theoretical Perspectives on War
and Terrorism 239
Social Consequences of War 244
Solutions to Global Inequality, War,
and Terrorism 247
Chapter Summary 251
PART 4 Domains 253

Families 255
Introduction 256
Theoretical Perspectives on the Family 264
Social Consequences of Family Life 267
Health Consequences of Family Life 273
Fertility Trends 275
The Boomerang Effect 277
Family Violence 279
Solutions to Family Problems 282
Chapter Summary 285
Aging and the Life Course 288

Introduction 289
Cross-Cultural Attitudes to Aging 289
Contents vii
The Idea of a “Life Course” 291

Aspects of the Sociology of Aging 293
Social Consequences of Aging 297
Health Consequences of Aging 301
Solutions for Problems of Aging 307
Claims-Making and the Social Construction
of Aging 315
Chapter Summary 316
Schools 318
Introduction 319
Defining Education and Its Social Problems 319
Education and Gender 327
Education and Race 328
The Effectiveness of Schooling 332
Theoretical Perspectives on Education 334
Social Consequences of Education 336
Bullying 341
Solutions to Educational Social Problems 345
Chapter Summary 346
Workplaces 348
Introduction 349
Comparative Economic Systems 350
The Bureaucratization of Work 354
Theoretical Perspectives on Work
and Unemployment 354
Social Consequences of Work 357
Vulnerable Populations 364
Unemployment and Its Effects 370
Social Consequences of Unemployment 373
Health Consequences of Work 373
Solutions to Unemployment 376
Chapter Summary 378
viii Contents

Populations and the Natural

Environment 380
Introduction 381
World Population in Context 381
The Demographic Transition 383
Contrasting Perspectives on Population Change 384
Population Density 386
Urban Sociology: A Primer 389
Theoretical Perspectives on Urban Life 393
Theoretical Perspectives on Environmental Problems 394
Social Consequences of Population Growth and Urbanization 396
Social Consequences of Environmental Problems 400
Solutions to Population Problems 406
Social Responses and Solutions to Environmental Problems 407
Chapter Summary 409
PART 5 The Future 411

What Problems Are On the Way? 413
Introduction 414
Theoretical Perspectives on Future Studies 417
Technology: Making and Solving Problems 418
Trends in Social Problems Projected to
the Near Future 420
Chapter Summary 436
Glossary 438
References 444
Index 493
Preface
Welcome to the fifth edition of Social Problems: A Canadian Perspective. As in earlier
editions, in this text we continue to assume that there is such a thing as a “social prob-
lem.” A social problem is any circumstance that many people experience and that has
both social causes and social consequences. The social problems we discuss actually
exist. We can verify that fact with our own eyes and with the measurement tools of
social science. Yet, each social problem is also socially constructed, in the sense that
people think, define, and react to it as such. If people were to stop thinking about social
problems, they would cease to exist, at least at the level of consciousness, social defini-
tion, and social action.
Because of this socially constructed aspect of social problems, we can trace their rise
and fall over time. We can study how people came to share the understanding that a
certain circumstance was problematic. To take a simple example, few people in Canada
today consider the so-called promiscuity of young women to be a social problem, al-
though this was not the case in the past. Likewise, few Canadians today are troubled by
what used to be called “miscegenation”—couples from two different races having sexual
relations—although in earlier times many considered this a serious social problem. On
the other hand, many people today consider climate change to be an important social
problem, although 50 years ago this issue was barely discussed.
Sociologists study why certain behaviours, and not others, come to occupy our con-
cern and evoke the label of “social problem.” This takes us into the areas of changing
morality and moral panics—sudden, intense, widespread, and often fleeting concerns
about the immorality of one particular group. The rise and fall of social problems also
reflects social, intellectual, and scientific changes. At any given time, there are problems
in society that can be shown to harm our quality of life, but only a few people see them
as problems and government and other powerful agencies do little to address them.
The social problems that last the longest and evoke the most concern are those that
are not merely socially constructed and thus not simply problems “in people’s minds.”
They are serious matters of health and of life and death. Poverty, racial discrimination,
poor working conditions, domestic violence—these are all serious social problems be-
cause, at the extremes, they hurt or kill people. In less extreme circumstances, they exac-
erbate illness and reduce people’s well-being and quality of life. Increasingly, we live in a
world in which we are all, always, in danger of harm from sources that are often hidden
from view and beyond human control. These risks are frequently the result of human ac-
tivity, especially the applications of science and technology to the natural environment.
Often, they are the result of what we are taught to regard fondly as “progress.”
So, apart from the perceived immorality, injustice, or unfairness of the problems
discussed in this book, serious social problems cost our society many human lives and
many days lost from work and family life; they also lead to shattered families, workplace
conflict, and destroyed hopes. These problems are not merely “in people’s minds.” In fact,
the job of the sociologist, in these cases, is to bring them to people’s conscious attention.
x Preface
To summarize, we are particularly interested in both potential and actual social

problems—problems that cause trouble and are seen as causing trouble. We will pay no
attention whatsoever to the more pleasant sides of life—making this a somewhat dark-
hued book. Moreover, we will pay only passing attention to issues that may briefly be
considered problems but, in the end, prove not to be. Actual and potential problems that
lurk below the consciousness of most people will make intermittent appearances in this
book, especially in the final chapter.
Social science has a poor batting average in solving human problems. It has not done
well at bringing about change, as we will see. The problem here is in part the complexity
of the roots of social problems and in part the will and ability (or lack thereof) of soci-
ety’s agencies of power to address the problems. Yet we, as authors of this book, believe
that the purpose of sociology today, just as in the nineteenth century when it began, is
to use knowledge to improve social life. Thus, our goal in a book like this is to aid the
understanding of the roots of social problems, their health consequences for individuals
and society as a whole, and how these can be addressed. For this task, it is important that
we explore facts and theories concerning how problems develop and are maintained and
how they are interrelated. We believe that these theories help us organize our facts and
work toward solving our problems.
We should say a few final words about the purpose of a book as general as this one.
This text duplicates some of what you may have learned in an introduction to sociology
course. The duplication is intentional. We want to refresh your memory of the basic
principles of sociology before proceeding to a close discussion of social problems. Some
instructors may even find that this book can substitute for a book that introduces first-
time students to the field of sociology. In addition, this book covers a variety of prob-
lems, each briefly. This brevity is also intentional. We want to get students thinking in
a particular way so that they can study these same problems, new problems, or changed
problems on their own. We do not offer the last word on any social problem presented
here—only the beginnings of a discussion informed by sociological principles.
We do not offer sociology as a cure-all. We emphasize how difficult it has been to
solve many social problems and how very little has been done about some of them. Like
many of our colleagues in sociology, we understand the concerns of post-modernity. The
“project” of modernization that engaged thinkers and social practitioners for much of
the last three centuries has taken a new turn. The horrors of the twentieth century shook
our faith in reason and in the power of humans to build a better world using science and
technology, social legislation, mass media, higher education, and secular values. No one
who spends a few moments thinking about the Holocaust, the two world wars, the ter-
rorism of 11 September 2001, and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Syria, Palestine, and Israel, not to mention recurring crises in Africa, Asia, and
Eastern Europe, environmental degradation in many parts of the world, and continued
practices of imperialist domination will readily indulge fantasies about the perfection, or
even the perfectibility, of human societies. Part of the reason for this is that the solutions
to social problems are often complex and costly. Another reason is that the solutions are
political matters requiring strong commitment from society’s elites.
In this respect, one of sociology’s three founders was particularly prescient. Sociolo-
gist Max Weber saw the nightmare of modern society coming. His eyes were open to the
“iron cage” of modernity, especially to how bureaucracies and governments can enslave
and torment humans more effectively than has ever been known before. Weber believed
Preface xi
that bureaucracies would become all-powerful in society and that their elites would end
up largely serving their own interests, which would frequently be contrary to the inter-
ests of average people. Only those problems and solutions seen as important by powerful
interests would be addressed in societies of the future (that is, in our time now).
Another founder of sociology, Karl Marx, believed that communism would solve all
problems of the human condition. He appears to have been wrong, although some still
argue that his theories have never been put to a proper test in any society. Of the three
leading figures in sociology during its developing years, Émile Durkheim was the most
optimistic and therefore the most wrong about the twentieth century. He believed that
societies change in a progressive direction, solving social problems over time through the
differentiation and specialization of tasks, with modest negative side effects of anomie,
or alienation, on the part of individuals because of the processes of social change.
Yet, despite having been shaken by the twentieth century and its horrors, we persist
in our efforts. As long as we live, most of us strive to build a better world for our children,
our community, and ourselves. It is in the hope of continuing this optimistic effort that
we, the authors, have written this book. We believe that social problems really do exist and
do great harm. Furthermore, we believe that knowledge and purposeful informed action
may still improve human life. This, then, is where we begin our study of social problems.
How This Book Is Organized

We will see that sociologists, like other social scientists, have a variety of theories about
society and its social problems. Throughout this book, we will return to three sociolog-
ical theories—structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism—
as well as to two other important perspectives for understanding problems in society—
feminism, which varies in its analysis and solutions from liberal to radical points of
view, and social constructionism, an outgrowth of symbolic interactionism that posits
that groups of people create and recreate their own realities. Each contributes import-
ant elements to our understanding of society and social problems. None of them rules
out the validity or contribution of any other. Each of the theories approaches social life
from a different standpoint, asking different questions and looking at different kinds
of evidence. Therefore, each adds to our understanding of social problems, in different
ways. These approaches compete for our attention and loyalty. Sociologists tend to prefer
and attach themselves to one approach rather than another. At the same time, applied
sociologists go about analyzing and solving real-life problems in families, workplaces,
organizations, and societies by combining insights from all of these perspectives.
We also employ an additional perspective—the population health perspective—in
each chapter. This perspective focuses attention on the physical and psychological harm
caused by social problems to individuals and, thereby, on the harm caused to society. This
perspective also emphasizes the social sources and consequences of people’s illness and
health. The population health perspective complements the other perspectives: it not so
much contradicts them as it adds to and extends them. This perspective simply focuses
more explicitly on the issues of the health of individuals and societies. All of the theoret-
ical approaches will be discussed in further detail in Chapter 1 and the ensuing chapters.
We have organized this book to reflect our assumptions about social problems. We
begin each chapter with a brief general introduction to the problem at hand. We then
xii Preface
follow with a section containing some facts about the problem, setting the stage for
our understanding of it. This section is not meant to replace other information about
the problem gained, for example, from academic reports, newspapers, magazines, or
television reportage. The facts presented in books such as this one must be somewhat
selective, and they tend to age quickly. We therefore urge the reader to seek additional
information from other sources about all of the problems discussed in this book.
Next, in each chapter, we review a range of theoretical approaches to the problem
under discussion. We show how these approaches ask different questions and come to
different conclusions. These theories help us organize our understanding of the problem.
Since the theory sections are invariably brief, we urge the reader to explore further the
assumptions and implications of the different approaches. Critical thinking questions at
the end of each chapter will help the reader do this.
In each chapter, the discussion of theoretical approaches is followed by a section on the
social consequences of the social problem in question. As we shall see throughout the book
(often by way of mild repetition), most of the social problems we discuss are connected
to one another, some more closely than others. For example, there is no adequate way to
discuss work and unemployment without discussing poverty; no way to discuss family
problems without also considering aging, gender inequality, and sexual orientation; and
no way to discuss ageism without discussing stereotypes. A few general principles related
to social inequality and social exclusion resurface time and again to inform our discussion.
Many serious social problems share a similar range of consequences. Problems such
as exploitation, discrimination, and exclusion tend to impoverish people, isolate them,
and weaken their stake in the future of the community. Some social problems are com-
monly associated with crime, violence, addiction, stress, mental illness (for example,
depression), and physical illness. We view these consequences as problems in their own
right, and our goal is to help society solve them or at least reduce their prevalence. We
therefore need to deal with the root causes of the social problems. These root causes are
very much social in nature. As sociologists, we need to explain what occurs and why, and
we need to suggest how this situation might be improved. As citizens, we should try to
understand the problems and their roots, and we should do what we can to improve the
situation—for ourselves and for future generations.
In important respects, this edition departs from earlier editions. Most important,
this edition has a new co-author, Dr Rachel La Touche. She brings to the book new
ideas and perspectives that we think improve the book immeasurably. One new chapter,
written by Dr La Touche, is on the timely topic of global inequality, war, and terrorism.
In addition, all chapters in this book have been rewritten: updated, shortened, clarified,
and tightened up. A number of pedagogical features have also been incorporated to
make this text a more effective learning tool for students. Yet, for all this, the book has
remained the same in its fundamental approach.
Each chapter includes the following components:
• Learning objectives
• An introduction that sets the content of the chapter in a wider context
• Theme boxes that reinforce chapter material:
“Be an Active Citizen”
“Social Problems in a Global Context”
“P.O.V.”
Preface xiii
“Our Voices”
“@issue”
“Intersections”
• A margin glossary in each chapter and a compiled glossary at the back of the
book
• A new feature titled “Exploring Social Problems”
• Chapter Summary
• Questions for Critical Thought
• Recommended Readings and Websites
The text’s well-developed art program is designed to make the book more accessible
and engaging. Sixty-nine photographs, 73 figures (including 3 maps), 31 tables, and the
numerous boxed inserts covering the full range of subject matter help clarify important
concepts and make the subjects come alive.
In addition, this text is accompanied by an impressive ancillary package.
• Test Generator. This comprehensive bank of test questions contains the fol-
lowing for each chapter: 30 multiple-choice questions, 20 true-or-false ques-
tions, and 10 short-answer questions.
• Instructor’s Manual. Each chapter in this helpful instructor resource contains
the following: a chapter overview, 5 to 10 learning objectives, 10 to 15 key
concepts and names, 10 to 15 concepts for discussion or debate, and 3 to 5
suggested class activities.
• PowerPoint Slides. Multiple slides for each chapter reiterate key points in the
text and act as a useful study tool for students and a helpful lecture tool for
instructors.
• New Video-Link Library. Opening a window to a wider world of investiga-
tion, this new ancillary feature includes 8 to 10 video weblinks per chapter, a
summary for each video, 3 to 5 discussion questions based on each video, and a
correlation guide linking videos with chapters in this textbook.
• Student Study Guide. This package of review material is designed to rein-
force students’ understanding of concepts discussed in the text. Each chapter
in this resource contains the following: a chapter summary, 5 to 10 learning
objectives, 5 to 10 key terms and concepts, 10 to 15 annotated further readings
and websites, 10 multiple-choice questions, 10 true-or-false questions, and 5
short-answer questions.
Instructors should contact their Oxford University Press representative regarding

ancillary materials.
Acknowledgements
Our first thank-you is to the outstanding University of Toronto and University of Calgary
undergraduate students who helped us research this book. They are (in alphabetical order)
Omar Abdelgawwad, Angela Abenoja, Zara Ahmad, Paige Berling-MacKenzie, Nabi
Dressler, Joy Jiang, Winnie Lee, Olivia Levy, Pia Morar, Ashley Ramnaraine, Hafsah
xiv Preface
Siddiqui, Jenna Walsh, and Juanita Xiong. It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to work
with these talented young people—one of the two best parts of working on this book.
The other best part of this project was working with the people at Oxford University
Press and their associates. Rhiannon Wong and then Lauren Wing served as develop-
mental editors and oversaw the process of flow and standardization—no small feat in the
production of a large book. Thank you, Rhiannon and Lauren, for your ceaseless efforts
on our behalf. Leslie Saffrey edited the copy, clearly and carefully, forcing us always to
improve our thinking and writing. Thank you, Leslie; it is always a pleasure to work
with you.
We also want to thank our anonymous reviewers and undergraduate students who
have read and responded to material in the first four editions. They have all given us
new ideas about what to discuss and how to discuss it most effectively. We’ve learned
a lot writing this book, and it’s been fun, too. So, read the book and let us know what
you think. We want this book to make your world clearer and more meaningful. If you
have some ideas about how we can do that better in the next edition, send us an email
at lorne.tepperman@utoronto.ca.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the following reviewers, along with those re-
viewers who chose to remain anonymous, whose thoughtful comments and suggestions
have helped to shape this current edition of Social Problems.
…………………………
Lorne Tepperman
Josh Curtis
Rachel La Touche
November 2019
PART ONE
Introduction
▲ KenWiedemann/iStock
What Are Social Problems?
Learning Objectives
• To understand what a social problem is
• To learn how sociologists think about the sociological imagination
• To find out how sociologists think about social change
• To recognize the historical context of social problems
• To discover the value of information as a social resource
• To learn the competing theories that explain social problems
▲ Nikada/iStock
4 PART I Introduction
What Is a “Social Problem”?

Social problem This book is about social problems, so we should start with a definition. In its most gen-
A social condition eral terms, a social problem is a social condition or behaviour that is thought to warrant
or behaviour that is
public concern and collective action. This seemingly simple definition contains, as we’ll
thought to warrant
public concern and
see, a multitude of complexities.
collective action. Today, there’s no shortage of social problems in what Staeheli (2008, p. 562) calls
the “terrains of political claims-making.” We see struggles everywhere over issues and in-
equalities (Khader, 2017; Tyler, 2015; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2007). These struggles don’t
merely represent identities and personal interests. They’re also efforts to change broader
social, political, and economic relationships. Our society is drowning in problems and
protests, with claims of importance and demands for consideration and dignity. The
political terrain is clogged with political actors and activists trying to influence our views
and political lives (Taft, 2009).
Such jostling for attention makes it hard for us to single out the problems that most
deserve our notice. We can’t work for every cause, yet we want to support the right
causes. But how can we tell the truth from a lie? At the same time, this competition for
attention gives us a sense that our views matter—and they do! Social problems point to
ways that society can be improved. We need to understand them, because once we do,
we can solve them.
That’s where sociology comes in. As the systematic study of societies, sociology is
well equipped to help us educate ourselves about current problems and their possible
solutions. Sociology, more than any other field, helps us find solutions to the serious
problems that ordinary Canadians face.
Sociology and the Study

of Social Problems
The sociological study of social problems (sometimes called social issues) is at least as
old as the study of sociology itself (McMullin, 2004). In fact, much of early sociology
focused on studying social issues. Sociology’s founders, Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim,
and Max Weber, were all concerned with social issues, though they spoke about them
in different ways. Other masters of sociology—especially Herbert Blumer, Erving
Goffman, and Howard Becker—contributed significantly to the symbolic interaction-
ist approach. They too made significant contributions to understanding social problems
of various kinds.
The rise of sociology itself—like the rise of the study of social issues—coincided
with the rise of “modern” societies in the nineteenth century. During this formative
period, Western Europe and North America shared deep confidence in the idea of “prog-
ress.” “Progress” then included industrialization and urbanization. Inventions, scientific
discoveries, and new ideas were proliferating rapidly. “Progress” also meant the possi-
bility of using knowledge to bring about social improvement or social “amelioration.”
Nowadays it’s clear that “progress” helped some people more than others. One question
that perplexes sociologists is why some nations have been far more able to benefit from
modernity than others. What, they ask, causes global inequality? And why has moder-
nity solved some social problems and created new ones?
Social Problems in a Global Context
BOX 1.1 Global Inequality

Global inequality refers to the different opportu- sensitive to social inequality. The Human Devel-
nities people in different societies have for secur- opment Index (HDI) is such a measure. The HDI
ing a good (i.e., healthy, safe, and prosperous) life. was developed by the United Nations to measure
Empirical evidence shows that the chances for a and rank countries’ levels of human development,
good life are good in the Global North, in higher- using three separate measures of well-being:
income countries like the US, Canada, and those of standard of living (measured, once again, by GDP
Western Europe. These chances are worse in the per capita); life expectancy (average longevity
Global South: less industrialized countries mainly and health, measured by life expectancy at birth);
in the southern hemisphere where people have and human capital (average formal education and
lower average incomes. knowledge, measured by adult and youth literacy
We see this in measures of well-being that rates).
are correlated but far from identical. One mea- The two measures don’t rank countries iden-
sure uses gross domestic product (GDP) per tically. Some countries rank far higher on the HDI
capita. We can gauge a country’s well-being than on the GDP per capita measure, and vice
from the total income of all its residents, divided versa: for example, Canada has one of the high-
by its population. Using this measure (GDP per est HDI scores but not one of the highest GDP per
capita, US dollars, 2017), we find the follow- capita ratings. By contrast, Kuwait and United
ing numbers: USA, $59,928; Canada, $44, 871; Arab Emirates have some of the highest GDP per
world, $10,749; Mexico, $8,910; Nigeria, $1,968 capita scores but don’t have high HDI scores. We’ll
(World Bank, n.d.). have more to say about this in Chapter 8, in dis-
However, this measure of national well-being cussing global inequality.
is far from perfect, since social inequality influ-
ences how prosperity is distributed within a coun-
Source
try. This unequal distribution of well-being means World Bank. (n.d.). GDP per capita. Retrieved from https://data.
we need a measure of national well-being that’s worldbank.org/indicator/ny.gdp.pcap.cd
From the beginning, sociologists, like social reformers, tended to think that human-
ity could improve social life through the systematic study of social issues. Society could
solve its problems by expelling ignorance, superstition, prejudice, and blind custom,
and applying knowledge instead. Social research could diagnose a social problem, then
invent and evaluate solutions. Early sociologists thought that humanity could direct
social change to better ends: to resolving conflict and rebuilding society around new
principles of organization. This is evident in the work of Émile Durkheim (e.g., The
Division of Labour in Society [1893/1964]), Karl Marx (e.g., Capital [1862–3/1990]), and
Max Weber (e.g., his writings on bureaucracy [2013]).
Sociologists today still struggle to understand the patterns of social life that cause
what we’ll call “social problems.” We sociologists aren’t—and can’t be—all-knowing
narrators. However, as socially conscious members of our society, we want to take part
in a struggle against the social problems we do see by clarifying them. To do so—
imperfectly, but as well as possible—we need to learn and use the knowledge collected
by expert researchers. This book is an introductory collection and explanation of the

sociological knowledge we have today about social problems.
In examining social problems, we’ll use sociological ideas to understand them, so-
ciological tools to measure them, and sociological theories to link them. Certain master
themes or accounts will emerge that reflect different ways of viewing these problems.
We’ll pass over many topics and themes, because space doesn’t allow us to address them.
What we do discuss we’ll treat briefly, pointing students to further research. In the
interest of space, we must ignore non-sociological (e.g., psychological and biological)
approaches to the same social problems.
Objective and Subjective Elements

From a sociological standpoint, social problems have two aspects that sometimes seem
contradictory: objective and subjective elements.
Objective elements Objective elements are the measurable features of a problem. They’re also what we
The measurable might call the problem’s scientific (or empirically verifiable) aspects. We know about a
features of a harmful
problem because we can measure it and measure the harm it does. For example, system-
social condition. Such
harmful conditions
atic measurements of crime, poverty, or alcohol abuse show a problem exists and that it
might include crime, harms people. We can study the causes and effects of each of these—of crime, poverty,
poverty, or alcohol or alcohol abuse—without making a moral judgment and even without judging the
abuse. problem as “serious” or “trivial.” We can count and measure its incidence and its conse-
quences. We can study the changes in social life that cause the numbers or rates of the
problem to increase or decrease. And we can make and test theories about its changing
rate of occurrence—all while being morally neutral.
Studying social problems in this way is based on a philosophical premise called
“positivism” which says that we can know material reality with our senses: we can see,
hear, touch, smell, and taste it. What we commonly call “science” is the systematic effort
to find and test natural laws through measurements of this observed reality.
Subjective elements Subjective elements, on the other hand, are people’s evaluations of sensed reality
Beliefs and and the processes that influence their evaluations. These evaluations include the creation
evaluations that
of moralistic labels (“wrong,” “immoral,” “sick,” and so on) that people apply to particu-
influence people’s
behaviour. They
lar acts or situations and the accounts they give to explain these acts and situations. Such
include the moralistic moral and aesthetic judgments reflect people’s beliefs and tastes.
labels that people As sociologists, we know that people’s morals and tastes can become a social reality.
apply to particular If people think, for example, that smoking marijuana is evil, that multiculturalism is
acts or situations and wrong, that LGBTQI+ people are sick, or that old people are unfit, then these beliefs
the accounts they
give of these acts and
become part of social reality too. People start to behave as though these beliefs are cor-
situations. rect, and their behaviours affect the way society is organized. They are different from the
objective aspects but no less critical.
A goal of sociology is to study these subjective beliefs and their outcomes. These
“subjective realities,” or social constructs, as sociologists call them, are just as important
as empirical realities for understanding the social issues we study. Therefore, it’s import-
ant, for example, to understand public opinions about society’s most pressing problems.
Changes in both measurable reality and people’s views of quantifiable reality in-
fluence people’s perception of a social problem. As sociologists, we must assess changes
in both. By bringing together these objective and subjective elements, we can define
a social problem as both a condition and a process. As a condition, a social problem is
an empirically observed situation that threatens the well-being of a significant part of

society. As a process, a social problem is the sequence of events by which members of a
community come to see the situation as deserving collective remedial action.
Because space is limited in this book, we’ll tend to focus on the objective elements
of social problems in the chapters that follow. However, you should remember that for
every social problem, there’s a set of problem-framing processes that bring it to public
attention. As you read the book, see if you can imagine how the individual problems we
discuss were brought to public attention or, in some cases, buried out of sight.
Social Problems and the Sociological

Imagination
What sociologist C. Wright Mills (1959) called the sociological imagination is a Sociological
skill that helps us understand social problems. It’s the acquired ability to see connec- imagination
A term used by
tions between one’s own life (micro-events) and the social world in which one lives
sociologist C. Wright
(macro-events). In this way, the sociological imagination helps us connect personal trou- Mills in his 1959 book,
bles and public issues. This micro–macro link is the real subject matter of sociology. The Sociological
Further, it’s our key to understanding how social problems affect our lives. Imagination,
For example, a recent university graduate who is unemployed may view their job- to describe the
lessness as a private trouble that mainly involves them and their immediate family mem- sociologist’s ability
to connect large-
bers. Considered this way, they may feel shame and guilt, as well as frustration and scale public issues
anxiety about being unemployed. But the shame and guilt may be short-sighted. At any to people’s personal
moment, hundreds of thousands of Canadians may be unemployed for reasons beyond experiences.
their control. Thus, unemployment is a public issue, not merely a personal trouble. The
same is true for many other problems that you or someone you know may face, including
crime, racism, family violence, poverty, drug addiction, and so on. In each case, the so-
ciological imagination connects the conditions of our personal lives to the broader social
context in which we live.
Sociologists make these connections by closely analyzing reality at two levels, micro
and macro. Microsociology, or micro-level analysis, focuses on the interactions between
people in small groups. This approach studies people’s understanding and experience
of social problems at the local, personal level (Fine & Fields, 2008). Macrosociology,
or macro-level analysis, focuses on society and its institutions. It explores the ways that
changes in major organizations and institutions affect the population as a whole (Krause,
2013). For example, it may study the way changes in the economy affect family life.
We need both levels of analysis for a proper understanding of social problems. Look-
ing at both levels helps us see that public issues may translate to private problems and
that many private troubles are essentially public issues.
Take the case of homeless youth in Canada, discussed in an article by Piat et al.
(2015). They interviewed homeless youth to learn about their personal histories and the
reasons they came to live on the street. The researchers found out that individual factors
such as substance abuse, relationship conflicts, and mental health issues play a role in
contributing to homelessness. But, public problems are also important. They found that
youth have negative experiences in foster care and other care settings. Homeless youth
encounter difficulties in securing stable and adequate housing, and often face discrim-
ination. As a result, they end up living in drug-involved and unsafe neighbourhoods.
The Canaian Press/Francis Vachon
Homeless youth on the streets of Toronto. We need both macrosociological and micro-
sociological insights to understand the causes of homelessness today.
Solving the problem of youth homelessness will require new policy approaches to the
provision of adequate long-term housing and improvements to the Canadian foster care
system to ensure that youth can integrate into society once of age.
Social Problems Research

as a Moral Enterprise
You may have learned in an introductory course that sociology rests on the notion that
we can improve society through research and by applying research-based knowledge
(Zazar, 2008).
Paradoxically, however, our efforts to improve society sometimes backfire. Solutions
to old problems sometimes create new ones. Industrial modernity has improved most
people’s standard of living, level of education, longevity, and health. However, industrial
modernity has also come with costs, including massive environmental pollution, mass
deaths in warfare, new forms of thought control, and new possibilities for crime, addic-
tion, and genocide. No other century combined as much technological progress with as
much intentional death and destruction as the twentieth century (Tippelt, 2009).
In their effort to improve society, sociologists often find that they’re competing with
common sense and the mass media—both sources of misinformation. Popular myths,
ideologies, and stereotypes perpetuate harmful conditions. Too often, we find the media
turning “public issues” into “private troubles,” blaming victims and stigmatizing them
for having problems. For example, people may blame homeless youth for running away
from home, dropping out of school, committing petty crimes, using drugs, and so on.
Consider mental illness, another widespread and growing public health concern (in-
cluding on college and university campuses). Mental illness is a growing problem in our
society, and its prevalence points to significant strains and pressures throughout society
(Moore et al., 2009). Mental illness includes depression, anxiety, obsessive/compulsive
disorder, panic, addiction, and others. Outbreaks of depression cause people severe suf-
fering and often lead to higher risks of death, disability, and secondary illness. How
can the problem be merely “personal” if a large and growing fraction of the Canadian
population shares the problem?
Sociologists typically start by identifying the social conditions that make people
vulnerable to these so-called “personal troubles.” In his classic study, Suicide (1897/1951),
Émile Durkheim pointed out that a lack of social integration and social control are
likely to cause considerable mental distress. They may even lead to increases in the
suicide rate. Nowhere is the truth of this more obvious than among homeless people.
Besides social isolation, they also suffer disproportionately from unemployment, pov-
erty, physical weakness, and mental illness (Lippert & Lee, 2015; Caan, 2009; Weir-
Hughes, 2009).
When doing research, sociologists look for social factors that increase the likelihood
of problem behaviours. For example, risky sexual activity in adolescence may lead to
teenage parenthood. Teenage parenthood, in turn, reduces the possibility of school com-
pletion and increases the risk of unemployment, financial dependence, and low earnings
(Diaz & Fiel, 2016). Dropping out of school early also increases the risk of early parent-
hood, as does low socio-economic status, poor grades, and social isolation (Westcott,
2005; Ramirez, Granados, Cruz, Pérez & Castellón, 2016). As sociologists, we need
to study the links among these problems and find ways of preventing them. Efforts to
address these problems retroactively are often unsuccessful.
However, identifying and prioritizing the causes of social problems is never easy,
because most problems have multiple causes (as well as multiple consequences). When
you study a group afflicted by many problems—for example, immigrant sex workers,
or unemployed Indigenous rural people, or racialized youth in jail—where do you start
the analysis? These are the questions we consider in Box 1.2, which is concerned with
determining whether the causes of current “obesity” issues are social or cultural.
Social Construction
Social reality—how people perceive the world around them—is continuously changing.
Social reality is (almost) infinitely flexible and always open to interpersonal influence (Searle,
2006). The flexibility and changeability of social life is a central finding of research on re-
ligion, culture, ideology, mass communication, propaganda, and social media. The widely
varying ways people think about reality are clear in historical and cross-national research.
To help them make sense of the world and their lives in it, people invent accounts of
reality. These stories—however imaginary—lead to actions that are real in their effects.
Sociologists (e.g., Merton, 1995) have attributed this observation to the early Ameri-
can sociologist W.I. Thomas, who crafted the “Thomas theorem”: when people define
POV
BOX 1.2 How Much Weight Is Too Much?

Today, many people are talking about weight they weigh. Second, different cultural groups have
issues. Some people want to lose weight to set different weight, appearance, and eating norms
a good example for their children or because of and develop eating habits according to these
health problems they’re experiencing (for exam- norms. Third, we can’t assume that people who
ple, sore knees when walking). But underneath exceed the weight norms are unhealthy, fail to eat
these accounts and others like them, we hear well, or fail to exercise.
another motive: these people—usually women— So, when social scientists talk about weight
want to weigh what people of their age and height issues—about how much weight is too much—
are supposed to weigh in our society. Thus, they’re they often talk at cross-purposes. Public health
trying to satisfy cultural—and often gendered— researchers and epidemiologists may be con-
expectations of how people are supposed to look. cerned that people who carry “too much” weight
We should note several misconceptions about are risking serious health problems and that our
weight issues. First, the frequent assumption that society as a whole is falling into this category.
people who exceed the weight norms of our so- Cultural analysts, on the other hand, think the
ciety because they lack discipline or self-control problem artificial: that by setting up appearance
is mostly unfounded. Many other cultural, social, norms a majority of the adult population can’t
psychological, and genetic factors play a part in meet, we stigmatize people and distress them
determining how much people eat, how quickly unnecessarily. What’s your point of view on this
they metabolize their food, and therefore what matter?
a situation as real, the situation will be real in its effects. Put differently, how you see
things shapes how you behave. As a result, people who can influence public perception
of an issue have a lot of power.
Social
constructionism An approach to understanding the subjective part of reality is called social construc-
A sociological tionism. It rests on a theory of knowledge stated by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luck-
approach that mann in their book The Social Construction of Reality (1966). Often, the social construction
examines the way of reality involves the work of moral entrepreneurs. These are spin doctors, elites, interest
people create a
groups, or even community leaders who classify some situations as problems. Framing
shared interpretation
of social reality.
problems is a form of claims-making. This procedure explains the problem in a particular
way and blames some people (or kinds of people) as deviants or wrongdoers.
Moral entrepreneurs
The meaning of anything, including a social problem, is the product of dominant
Crusading reformers
who are disturbed
cultural and symbolic practices in a group or society. Nowhere is this so obvious—at
by particular social least to modern eyes—as in the social construction of witchcraft in the sixteenth and
problems they see seventeenth centuries. The persecution of midwives and wise women as “witches” shows
in the world. They how panic can be socially constructed. In short, social constructionism looks at the ways
set out to correct people create, learn, and teach accounts of social reality. And when people act on their
the problem by
shared knowledge of this “reality,” they increase the likelihood of its permanence. To
constructing and
publicizing stories think in those terms becomes habitual and seems natural, even unavoidable.
about it. With that in mind, we’ll have to repeatedly ask ourselves throughout this book
whether something is a real problem—a problem whose growing existence and
consequences can be measured with factual data—or merely a social construction, one Claims-making
issue among a great many we might consider. As sociologists, we need to have the clear- Promoting a particular
moral vision of social
est possible understanding of reality, even if this understanding challenges prevailing
life that identifies who
wisdom or the dominant ideology. Similarly, as sociologists, we need to learn as much as or what is a problem
we can about the social processes by which genuine social problems receive less attention and what people
than they deserve. By doing so, we learn a great deal about how society works. We also should do about it.
learn how to make the public aware of social problems that need concerted action.
Warnings, Panics, and Claims

One goal of the powerful people in our society—elected politicians, corporate lead-
ers, and heads of important public institutions—is to undermine dissent and control
it by producing public concern or confusion about it. They use claims-making strate-
gies to provoke intense feelings of fear, anger, and confusion—to label their enemies as
trouble-makers, for example.
To call attention to something they consider a problem, claims-makers rely on
common idioms and styles of speaking that reflect core cultural values. Often, they urge
people to avoid certain types of risk above all else (Krinsky, 2008). For example, political
and other leaders may call on people to act to protect their homeland, their families, and
their “way of life.” They also use emotional images to sway public opinion. These might
include pictures of babies crying, houses burning, or beautiful young women praying
with the national flag fluttering in the background.
The media are important in shaping the public view of a problem. In fact, popular
opinions today are more often formed by media depictions than by first-hand experi-
ence. Therefore, the media play a crucial part in how the public will respond to any
public issue. For example, the media can influence public opinion by either ignoring a
problem or repeatedly discussing it (Hansen, 2017). As well, they can portray the alleged
problem in calm ways or emotional ways, with clear heroes and villains. Some media
manipulation is subtler than this.
Sometimes, organization insiders (for example, in the nuclear power or tobacco in-
dustries) take part in the claims-making (Ding, 2009; Taylor, 2014). Whistle-blowers Whistle-blowers
are unusual claims-makers who speak out against their immediate interests and those Employees who
expose illegal or
of their employer. Lacking the organizational power to promote their definitions of the
unethical conduct
social problem, they gain influence from their apparent inside knowledge and courage. within (or by) the
Often whistle-blowers, blacklisted in their industries, have to turn to social movements organization that
for employment. Some, like Edward Snowden, are viewed as enemies of the state and employs them.
hunted down by global police organizations.
And sometimes, ordinary people come together to make claims and demand change.
We often underestimate our ability, as ordinary people, to bring about change. However,
many fundamental changes in the past century resulted directly from claims-making
by the women’s rights, civil rights, anti-war, gay rights, and environmental movements. Moral panics
Some issues grow slowly and hold the public interest for a long time, such as do- Public expressions of
mestic violence and school violence (Tanner, 2009). Others quickly peak and lose public feeling based typically
on false beliefs that
interest, as did the panic over alleged devil worship in the 1990s. Sociologists refer to a named group of
such brief, intense periods of concern as moral panics and to the people considered people (often, a
responsible for these sensed threats as folk devils (Cohen, 2011). Moral panics, like fads, minority group) poses
are short-lived, but they sometimes leave a legacy of laws, stereotypes, and social conflict. a menace to society.
Some would say problems become social problems mainly when claims-makers and
moral entrepreneurs succeed in pointing them out. However, as sociologists, we can also
apply other standards to determine whether something is a social problem, even if no one
else has yet identified it as one. With all the social issues we discuss in this book, we need to
understand why we think something is a social problem before we study its causes and effects.
Social Problems: Then and Now

To better appreciate the fact that social issues are socially constructed and therefore
change in importance over time, consider the following comparison between this book
and what is arguably the first “modern” textbook on social problems.
In 1961, nearly 60 years ago, Robert Merton and Robert Nisbet (1961), two of the
world’s leading sociological theorists, published an edited book on social problems of
their day. We can learn a lot from what this classic textbook failed to discuss and from
what we no longer discuss (at similar length) in this book.
Note first that the Merton and Nisbet textbook paid little attention to global in-
equality, which receives a chapter’s worth of discussion in the book you’re reading today.
It ignored problems related to physical health. Nor did it mention problems of the natu-
ral environment. Finally, it excluded issues of youth and the early life cycle. On the other
hand, it paid a great deal of attention to juvenile delinquency, giving that topic a chapter
of its own. It devoted a chapter as well to suicide. It provided separate chapter-length
treatments of problem drinking, drug addiction, and mental illness. It even included a
chapter on “community disorganization.”
The chapter on sexual behaviour by distinguished sociologist Kingsley Davis points
to a similar change in viewpoint in the past 60 years. Treated as social problems in
Davis’s chapter are premarital and extramarital sex relations, prostitution, and homosex-
uality. Few North Americans—and even fewer Canadians—today view premarital sex
or homosexuality as social problems. Extramarital sex relations may cause (or signify)
relationship problems today, but few would see extramarital sex as a social problem.
Finally, the problems we associate with prostitution today—including poverty, sexism,
violence, exploitation, sex trafficking, and substance abuse—aren’t blamed on the sex
workers themselves, as they often were in the past.
In short, sociology has changed in the last 50 or 60 years, and it will continue to
evolve. We’ll briefly discuss the future of social problems, and even the future of sociol-
ogy, in the last chapter of this book. But for now, aware that sociology—like society—
changes over time, we’ll consider the main theoretical approaches to social problems that
evolved over the past century.
Theoretical Perspectives on Social Problems

We’ve already mentioned that, for reasons of space, this book will mainly examine
sociological theories about social problems. That said, there are many approaches to
social issues, even within sociology. What follows is a brief discussion of these different
approaches.
We’ll say more about each sociological approach in the chapters that follow.
TABLE 1 .1 The Main Sociological Approaches

Sociological Perspective Focuses on . . . Begins with the Question . . .
Structural Functionalism The persistence and universality of “How does this arrangement help
social arrangements society survive/stay the same?”
Conflict Theory Inequality, conflict, and change “Who benefits from the existing
order?”
Symbolic Interactionism The way people negotiate mean- “How do people reach an under-
ings and understandings with one standing about X?”
another
Social Constructionism The ways people create a sense “How do people come to view X as
that something is a problem (or not) a social problem (or not)?”
Feminism The gendering of social life “How is X different for men and for
women?”
Post-Modernism and The techniques people in power use “How do we really know that X is
Post-Structuralism to falsify popular understanding of going on?” and “Who benefits from
the real world the belief that X is going on?”
Population Health Perspective The ways social problems manifest “How does a high or low rate of X in
in widespread health problems the population reflect a social and
economic inequality?”
Structural Functionalism Structural

functionalism
This theoretical model
One sociological approach, structural functionalism, views society as a set of intercon- highlights the way
nected elements that, allegedly, work together to preserve the stability and well-being of each institution works
society. By cooperating, these institutions are supposed to contribute to society’s survival to fulfill the needs of
and well-being. Families, for instance, produce and nurture new members of society, society. Also called
while the economy produces and distributes goods and services. Both institutions are “functionalism,” this
macrosociological
necessary, and both benefit society most when they work together.
approach uses
Ideally, according to this approach, the political system works to supply society with a societal, not
leadership and goal-setting. This institution serves society best when it enjoys public individual, level of
confidence. Then, people are most likely to involve themselves in the political system, analysis.
by voting and other methods. However, young people are less likely than older people Manifest functions
The obvious and
to vote, in part because they’re less likely to have confidence in electoral politics and the
intended goals or
government (Wattenberg, 2015). This means that the political system is less representa- effects of social
tive of public views and less able to serve effectively. structures and
Robert Merton (1968), a key figure in developing this perspective, proposed that institutions.
social institutions perform both manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions Latent functions
are intended and easily recognized, while latent functions are unintended and less vis- Hidden, unstated,
and unintended
ible. For example, the evident purpose of universities is to educate students and grant
consequences of
them degrees, as well as offer them the necessary skills for future employment. The activities in an
latent role of universities could be matchmaking—bringing together widely different organization or
people to provide opportunities for them to enter into relationships. Chances are, you institution.
wanted to attend university to get a good job rather than find your soulmate. We con-
sider the latter a latent function because it isn’t the result imagined or advertised by
university officials.
According to functionalists, the cause of most social problems is a failure of
institutions to fulfill their roles. This failure is most likely to occur during times of rapid

change, which produces social disorganization and disrupts traditional ways of doing
things. French sociologist Émile Durkheim introduced the term anomie to describe the
Norms condition of disorder that causes social norms to be weak or uncertain. The rapid indus-
Rules of society trialization and urbanization of North America between 1870 and 1950 led to social up-
that specify proper
heaval in many areas. The disorganization brought crime, poverty, addiction, inadequate
behaviour in different
settings.
housing, domestic violence, and other social problems in its wake. As we saw earlier, this
functionalist concern with social disorganization had a massive impact on the study of
social issues in the last century.
As traditional norms and relations broke down, social control declined, and people
felt less tied to one another. As a result, they became more likely to engage in deviant
types of behaviour (for example, drug use and crime). The general solution to social
problems, according to this functionalist perspective, is to strengthen social norms and
social institutions and slow the pace of social change.
Conflict Theory
Conflict theory A second approach, conflict theory, has its roots in the primary division between “haves”
A theoretical and “have-nots.” Conflict theorists criticize functionalist sociologists for ignoring the
approach, drawn
inequality, conflict, and disagreement that exist among members of society. Instead,
from the writings of
Marx and Engels, that
conflict theorists view society as a collection of varied groups struggling over unequally
highlights conflict and distributed wealth and power.
change as permanent Conflict theory mainly originates in the works of German philosopher Karl Marx
features of society. (e.g., Marx & Engels, 1848/1998; Marx, 1862–3/1990) and others. Marx notes that in an
industrial, capitalist society, two broad groups emerge: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
The bourgeoisie owns the means of production and the proletariat, the working class, must
sell their labour to the bourgeoisie in exchange for a living wage. The capitalists use their
power and influence to ensure they remain in positions of dominance over the workers.
Conflict theories propose that social problems stem mainly from the economic and
political inequalities that exist between social classes. For the capitalist class to preserve
its power and privilege, it must ensure that working-class people have no opportunity to
take these away. Thus, the modern capitalist society is a battleground between capitalists
and workers. The elected government plays an ambiguous role in this conflict, usually
siding with the capitalists but sometimes siding with the workers. This inequality and
conflict lead to social problems, including those involving physical or mental health.
Conflict theorists contend that workers in a capitalist system feel alienated from the
processes and products of their labour. Because they can’t control or change the conditions
of their work, they’re powerless and stuck in jobs that exploit them. Under capitalism,
they’re alienated from their work, their fellow workers, the products of their work, and
even from themselves. In short, they feel alienated because capitalists have exploited them:
denied them a fair and just payment for the value they produce through their labour.
Non-Marxist conflict theories propose that many social conflicts are based on
non-class-based interests, values, and beliefs. These include ethnic, racial, and religious
busracavus/iStock
Does the use of prescription painkillers count as a social problem?
differences, for example. Critics point out the Marxist approach has stressed the impor-
tance of economic inequality at the expense of these other types of inequality. In this
book, we’ll examine a variety of social inequalities and their consequences.
Symbolic Interactionism
The functionalist and conflict perspectives focus on social institutions, but symbolic Symbolic
interactionism focuses on small-group interactions. The symbolic interactionist sees interactionism
This sociological
society as an abstract unit that’s made up of people who interact and share meanings,
approach studies
definitions, and interpretations with one another. Followers of this approach analyze the ways people
how people come to frame certain situations as social problems and how people learn to interpret and respond
engage in such “framing” activities. to the actions of
An early interactionist was the German sociologist Georg Simmel (1976), who stud- others. For symbolic
ied the unsettling effects of urbanization on mental health. He found the urban lifestyle interactionists, society
and its problems
to be relentless and alienating. City-dwellers, seeking to limit the jarring stimulation are products of
that city life offers, often restrict their contact with others. The result, fragmentation of continuous face-to-
urban life, leads people to decrease their social interaction and shared experience. It’s face interaction.
within such a framework of isolated and isolating experiences that urban people must
work out their social lives together.
Social Constructionism
Symbolic interactionism is especially helpful in explaining social constructionism,
which we discussed earlier in this chapter. Consider labelling theory, which rests on the
premise that something is a social problem mainly if groups of people define it as such.
In this sense, labelling theory is a close cousin of the social constructionist viewpoint
discussed earlier. Howard Becker (1963), for example, proposed that moral entrepre-
neurs are people who can translate their beliefs into social rules and norms. Anyone who
violates these rules—for example, by smoking marijuana—is labelled “deviant,” and
their actions are defined as social problems. The act of smoking marijuana becomes a
social problem mainly because moral entrepreneurs make it one.
Consistent with the basic premise of labelling theory, Herbert Blumer (1971) pro-
posed that people construct social problems in stages. The first stage is social recognition,
the point at which a given behaviour—say, marijuana smoking—is identified by moral
entrepreneurs as a social concern. Second, social legitimating takes place when a person
in authority recognizes the activity as a serious threat to social stability. With drug use,
this stage might occur when public officials discover a connection between marijuana
smoking and the failure to do homework, for example. The third stage, termed mobili-
zation for action, is the point at which social organizations begin planning ways to deal
with the problem. The final step is developing and carrying out an official plan, such as a
government-sanctioned “war on drugs.”
Critics of the symbolic interactionist perspective propose that social problems may
exist even when people fail to recognize them as problems. Date rape and domestic
violence, for example, weren’t considered social problems more than a few decades ago.
Still, they were going on, despite an absence of public attention and labelling. On the
other hand, many parents who in the past considered marijuana smoking to be a prob-
lem may no longer do so now that the federal government has decriminalized marijuana
possession.
It’s easy to see how the social constructionist approach grows out of symbolic
interactionism. It was influenced particularly by the early-twentieth-century work of
George Herbert Mead, because it’s about how societies invent and promote new rules.
In all social life, we play by social rules; we first learn to play by rules as young chil-
dren. It was Mead (1934) who wrote that children learn to interact with others by
acquiring a shared system of rules and symbols that allows them to share meanings.
With shared meanings, they can play together, perform complementary roles, and
relate to the social group as what he called a “generalized other.” For Mead, this ability
is the basis of all social order. Shared rules and meanings make social interaction pos-
sible, and interaction allows people to cooperate and influence one another. Social life,
for Mead, is thus the sharing of rules and meanings—that is, the cooperative social
construction of reality.
It’s through this face-to-face, symbol-using interaction that people “construct” re-
ality together, as is made clear in Berger and Luckmann’s classic work The Social Con-
struction of Reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). Berger and Luckmann claimed that
the purpose of sociology is to understand “the reality of everyday life”—how it’s expe-
rienced, coordinated, and organized. They pointed out that the everyday world is inter-
subjective, meaning that we must all find communicative meeting places for common or
shared understanding. They also stressed that the everyday world is taken for granted:
we don’t recognize the extent to which the world is socially constructed, and so it’s the
job of the sociologist to foster that awareness in us.
The goal of social constructionism is to examine how people interact to create their
shared social reality. Berger and Luckmann proposed that all knowledge—including the
most taken-for-granted knowledge of everyday life—is created, preserved, and spread
by social interaction. That’s what it means to say that our understanding of the world is
socially constructed. According to this social constructionist approach, any idea, how-
ever natural or obvious it may seem to the people who accept it, is just an invention of
a particular culture or society. As sociologists (and sociologists in training), we need
to understand how (and why) certain meanings become widely accepted as “true” and
compelling, while many others don’t.
From a social constructionist standpoint, then, we need to constantly attend to the
way social meanings are constructed and deconstructed. What, for example, is the social
meaning of the word “slut,” and what does it mean to “dress like a slut”? Is dressing “like a
slut” a tacit invitation to sex, as some men and some courts have maintained? It’s precisely
this debate that has drawn thousands of young women out to “slutwalks” in hundreds of
cities around the world. And that leads us to a discussion of the feminist approach.
Feminism
There are varieties of feminist thinking: liberal feminism, socialist feminism, radical
feminism, ecofeminism, and others. However, feminist thinking tends to focus on
gender inequality and the relations of dominance and subordination between men and
women. Feminists are interested in how gender inequality makes women’s lives differ-
ent from men’s. They note that women are often obliged to act out a role that men have
defined. This role shapes their most important social activities at home, at work, and
in the public domain. It also forces women to submit to male domination and to risk
exclusion—even violence—at the hands of men. Thus, acceptance of the female role is
far costlier—and even more dangerous—to women than men’s acceptance of the male
role is to men.
We usually divide feminist history into three (or more) waves or stages. The first
wave, occurring at the start of the twentieth century, promoted women’s suffrage.
The second wave, beginning in the 1960s, fought to establish legal, cultural, and
social equalities for women, including reproductive rights and the right to equal
pay. Some say Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique (1963/2013) kick-started
the second wave. It used survey results to show that women in the paid workforce
were more satisfied with their lives than women who mainly did housework (see also
Gilmore, 2008).
The third wave of feminism began in the 1990s and was a reaction to second-wave
feminism. Many third-wave feminists proposed that second-wave feminism mainly ad-
dressed the concerns of highly educated white women (Dougherty & Denker, 2014;
Gillis 2007). Third-wave feminism was concerned with redefining feminism to be more
inclusive. Unlike previous waves, it assumed no consensus on feminist issues such as
pornography or gender roles. It recognized that women from different class and racial
backgrounds were likely to have different points of view on many topics of interest to
women. More generally, it acknowledged that different “kinds” of women led different
kinds of lives, and so had different types of problems. And this realization led to a rec-
ognition of the importance of intersectionality, as discussed in Box 1.3.
A common theme across the many types of feminism is the view that gender in-
equality isn’t a result of biological differences. Men’s and women’s biological differences
don’t explain, let alone justify separate social roles, rights, and responsibilities. Instead,
gender inequality is a result of socio-economic and ideological factors. Feminists differ
Intersections
BOX 1.3 The Study of Overlapping Disadvantages

Social problems are often especially tricky when Some have critiqued the concept of inter-
social groups face more than one barrier and their sectionality because there’s no “intersection,”
disadvantages intersect. Known as intersectional- strictly speaking, between the dimensions of
ity, this overlapping of disadvantages occurs when disadvantage. A black woman may experience
individuals and groups face struggles on various racism due to her race and sexism due to her
levels (Hancock, 2016). A lesbian black woman, for gender. As such, she suffers greater discrimina-
example, faces discrimination in three dimensions: tion than a white woman. However, some argue
sexual orientation, race, and gender. The same there’s no “overlap” between the two categories.
term—intersectionality—may also apply to males: We see merely the addition, not the multiplica-
for example, when people discriminate against a tion, of disadvantages (Carastathis, 2016). Nev-
Hispanic, elderly man because of both his race and ertheless, the concept is useful in capturing the
age (Hancock, 2016). greater discrimination experienced by different
Many studies have shown that people who disadvantaged groups.
are disadvantaged in more than one area of their
lives, including gender, age, race, and sexual ori-
Sources
entation, tend to be more vulnerable than others, A. Carastathis. (2016). Intersectionality: Origins, contestations,
socially and economically. For example, they have horizons. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
A.-M.Hancock. (2016). Intersectionality: An intellectual history.
more trouble acquiring stable employment and
New York: Oxford University Press.
remain ready targets for social discrimination A. Örtenblad et al. (2017). Gender equality in a global perspec-
(Örtenblad, 2017). tive. New York: Taylor & Francis.
in thinking about how they might achieve change, but they’re committed to erasing the
Patriarchy continued social inequality between men and women. They agree that patriarchy—or
A form of social control by men—organizes the way most societies work. As well, they recognize that
organization in which
personal life has a political side, and that both the public and private spheres of life are
men are the rulers
of the household,
gendered (that is, unequal for men and women).
community, and For these reasons, women’s social experience dramatically differs from men’s. And,
society. In everyday because of routinely different experiences and differences in power, women and men
sociological use, it view the world differently. For example, men and women typically hold different views
means domination of about divorce, since each might experience separation differently. For men, separation
women and children
by adult men.
often means a brief drop in their standard of living, and a substantial drop in parenting
responsibilities, since mothers usually win custody of their children. For women, it often
means a dramatic, long-term loss in income and some increase in parental responsibili-
ties. We’ll have more to say about this in Chapter 9, on families.
Three other features tend to characterize feminist research in sociology. First, as
mentioned, feminists pay the greatest attention to the gendering of experiences. “Gen-
dering” is the idea that certain experiences are specific to women or to men and can’t be
automatically generalized to both genders. A second common concern is the problem of
victimization, since women are often the victims of crime, abuse, and discrimination.
Similarly, feminists are often interested in the experiences of other victimized groups.
These include racial minorities, the poor, and LGBTQI+ people. Third, and following
from this, feminists are especially interested in intersectionality. Intersectionality, as
we’ve noted, is the interaction of gender with other socio-demographic characteristics
such as class and race to produce combinations of disadvantage (e.g., the particular
problems of black men, disabled lesbians, or Muslim immigrant women), as discussed
in Box 1.3.
Post-Modernism and Post-Structuralism

In this book, we’ll have less to say about two related approaches that have received
relatively less application to the study of social problems than the other four main
approaches (conflict theory, functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and feminist
theory).
Post-modernism is a style of thinking or school of thought in the social sciences and Post-modernism
humanities that denies the validity of universal, sweeping statements about the world or A school of thought
that denies the
groups of people within the world and analyzes the motives behind such statements
validity of universal,
and the consequences of people believing them. It uses the method of deconstruction sweeping statements
to reveal hidden assumptions and ideologies in analyses of social situations, including about the world or
studies of social problems. Most would agree that, after a period of wide acceptance, groups of people
post-modernist approaches have lost some of their significance in mainstream sociology, within the world,
especially in North America. However, they continue to be important in cultural studies and analyzes the
motives behind such
and various humanistic disciplines. statements and the
Post-structuralism is a related concept that, in a sense, takes analytical deconstruc- consequences of
tion even further than post-modernism (though many would say post-modernism and people believing them.
post-structuralism are similar, if not identical). The entry on post-structuralism in the Post-structuralism
Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (2015) states that the approach is essential for two reasons: A concept related
Post-structuralism can help us to think of new ways to solve old problems, and it makes to post-modernism
finding the truth seem impossible. Post-structuralism might also help sociologists recog- focused on analytical
nize the biases and perspectives reflected in their work. deconstruction.
We see this approach illustrated in a recent book by Lorne Tepperman and Nicole
Meredith, titled Outsights: Inequality from Inside and Out (2016). In this book, the au-
thors show how society’s “insiders” and “outsiders” (or “haves” and “have-nots”) develop
different accounts of social inequality in Canadian society, both its causes and conse-
quences. These include widely varying accounts of social problems related to inequality,
such as crime, ill health, and social conflict. What’s more, many academics often tend to
support and validate insider accounts by ignoring outsider accounts.
Population Health Perspective

The population health perspective is a broad approach that aims to improve the health
of society and to reduce health inequalities between social groups (Bourgeault, 2017;
Raphael, 2004).
According to The Chief Public Health Officer’s Report on the State of Public Health
in Canada (Tam, 2017), determinants of health include income and social factors, social
support networks, education, employment, working and living conditions, health prac-
tices, health services, stress, coping skills, gender, and culture, among other factors.
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
%
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Men Women
First Nations living off reserve Métis Inuit Non-aboriginal (provinces only)
FIGURE 1 .1 Prevalence of Lifetime Suicidal Thoughts,

By Population, Aged 26 to 59 Years
Source: Attawapiskat: Four things to help understand the suicide crisis. (2016). The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from https://www.
theglobeandmail.com/news/national/attawapiskat-four-things-to-help-understand-the-suicidecrisis/article29583059/
Further, these determinants interact and overlap with one another in a complex web.
Where health is concerned, we know a social problem exists by the sickness and death
it causes, whether people choose to recognize this harm or not. This outlook gives us
an essentially objective understanding of the worst social problems and their urgency.
The population health perspective holds that population health—the average level
of health in a population—is a sensitive measure of how well a society is working. People
who approach social problems from this perspective recognize that most social inequal-
ities have significant health effects, and that declines in population health reveal social
problems, regardless of whether they’ve been widely noted. For these researchers, the
goal in dealing with social issues is always to prevent and reduce harm. As an example,
they’d advocate decriminalizing drug use and treating people with drug addictions or
mental health problems, rather than imprisoning them.
So, for example, we note in Figure 1.1 that Indigenous people are more prone to
suicidal ideation than other Canadians. Consequently, as expected, suicide rates among
Indigenous people are much higher than among non-Indigenous Canadians.
Solutions to Social Problems

C. Wright Mills, in his classic work The Sociological Imagination (1959), made clear that
knowledge can be power —if only people choose to act on their knowledge. Sometimes,
individual solutions are good enough for the problems we face. When we know what’s
going on in society, and then work in our best interests, we stand a chance of improving
our condition.
Solutions fall into two main categories—individual and collective. Faced with
a problem, people may try to solve it on their own, in their personal interest. Using
individual-level solutions, they may be able to “work the system” to their benefit. How-

ever, faced with the same problem, other people may seek the help of others to solve the
problem collectively. By definition, collective solutions need the cooperation of many

people if they’re to succeed.
Let’s briefly consider the ways people try to solve the problems of exclusion, poverty,
and inequality in Canadian society, either individually or collectively.
Individual Solutions
As an individual, you may solve the problem of exclusion by getting whatever credentials
allow you to enter the group you hope to join. Seeking higher education is widely under-
stood to be the best way to improve your prospects. However, some face racial and ethnic
discrimination that impedes their educational and economic opportunities. What can
someone do about discrimination against their ethnic or racial group?
Individual action has little effect on widespread discrimination, but that doesn’t
mean a person’s actions don’t matter. One way people can address exclusion is to begin
to think about themselves differently. We see this in the social movements for feminism,
Indigenous rights, and LGBTQI+ rights, in which people learned rethink their collective
standing, to understand how their oppression and marginalization came about and was
maintained. Leaders within each community foster discussion and the awareness that
doing what they thought was impossible is within their grasp. Sometimes, individuals
can do this by themselves and help spread awareness to others.
Social networks can help people overcome exclusion and poverty. Especially helpful
is getting to know people who themselves have extensive networks These so-called so-
ciometric stars, or bridges, know and interact with many people in a wide variety of other
communities. By connecting with “stars” in other communities, they can help connect
people who are embedded in small, insulated communities. So, for example, someone in
Sherbrooke, Quebec, who wanted to find or connect with a member of the Catholic com-
munity in Red Deer, Alberta, might start by contacting a Catholic priest in Sherbrooke.
Other helpful links might include doctors, lawyers, and elected political figures.
At colleges and universities people can establish new networks and connect with
new people, but may also find that they spend less time with their own community.
However, those who can maintain membership in two or more communities will find
themselves with an extensive network and all the benefits that it provides.
With that in mind, there are severe limits to what an individual can do on their own
to solve social problems that originate in the larger society. Consider the issue of social
inequality. The data in Figure 1.2 show that Canada’s top earners are doing much better
than those at the bottom of the income ladder. Income inequality in Canada today is at
its highest point in over 60 years. Of course, you can use individual solutions to try to
avoid being swamped by this wave of inequality. But even if you succeed, your partner,
your parents, your siblings, your friends, and your children may not be so lucky. Solving
a massive problem like income inequality will require collective solutions.
In any group, you’ll always find some people who think that social problems arise
because of shortages: shortages of money, jobs, food, and the like. For example, they’ll
say that it’s impossible to pay everyone a living wage or guarantee that everyone has a
place to live and access to higher education. But inequality and scarcity aren’t the same
thing; nor should scarcity be used as an excuse for inequality. Collective action, which
requires substantial commitment from individuals (as we will see below and in more
detail in Chapter 2), is usually needed to solve such problems.
The richest 1% of Canadians made 15 times more THIS CHART SHOWS THE RATIO
OF THE INCOMES OF THE RICHEST
than the average Canadian made in 2010.
1% TO THE REST OF US IN CITIES
In 1980, the ratio was 9 times. ACROSS CANADA
How does your city rank?
26x
23x
18x
15x
13x 12x
11x 11x
Calgary Toronto Vancouver Montreal Regina Winnipeg Halifax Ottawa
FIGURE 1 .2 The Growing Gap Between the Rich

and Poor in Canada
Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. (2015). They’re richer than you think. Retrieved from http://www.policyalternatives.
ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/Provincial-Inequality-Infographic-ByCity.jpg
Collective Solutions
The chief actors in modern society are not individuals but groups—ethnic communi-
ties, religious groups, professional associations and organizations, multinational corpo-
rations, political parties, and labour unions, to name a few. It’s from people working
together that satisfactory solutions to inequality must come. Individual action usually
can provide only a band-aid solution that doesn’t address the roots of the problem.
Legislation is one remedy for exclusion, and requires joint political effort by commu-
nities of people in different regions and of different ethnic groups, classes, and genders.
A second, widely used remedy is to form political parties, unions, or lobby groups within
one such community. But rather than eliminating inequality, this strategy may increase
misunderstanding, injustice, and conflict between isolated groups. It’s important, therefore,
that these organizations establish and maintain lines of communication and shared activi-
ties with other groups.
Social education and re-education are ideal vehicles for mobilizing a social group,
and schools and mass media are excellent channels for effecting such change. As al-
ready noted, strengthening individual identities is best done collectively—evidence that
change is possible changes people’s minds.
The benefits of slow, incremental individual change are much more limited (Kanter,
2008). For example, a woman given the opportunity to “model” executive abilities in
microgen/iStock
With the increased automation of work, machines are replacing humans in a wide
variety of tasks. For this and other reasons, many people will have increasing difficulty
finding jobs—especially unskilled and semi-skilled jobs.
a large organization is under unusual pressure to succeed “on behalf of all women.” In
this way, she’s judged by criteria unlike those applied to men. Even if she succeeds, other
people might just see her as an exception to her group. It takes many women performing
well in high positions to show that women are equally capable with men. Thus, anti-
discrimination laws are needed to ensure that many women have such opportunities.
And, as we saw earlier, legislation requires group effort and organization.
These group remedies for inequality don’t systematically address the question
of how people might link their advancements with those of society as a whole.
C. Wright Mills (1959) proposed that we study the links between personal lives and
public issues, since a great many people share the same troubles; the reason is that
those troubles are socially structured. We can’t solve personal problems without solv-
ing social problems.
People acting together in groups and organizations make history. The chapters that
follow will illustrate this notion in many different areas, especially around social policy
changes. Consider, for example, the research and political action that has changed our
understanding and control of domestic violence. Political action through groups and
organizations can be a long, slow road, and many journeys are unsuccessful. The way
ahead will present us with plenty of barriers, uncertainties, and disagreements. However,
as citizens and human beings, we nonetheless owe it to ourselves to strive.
The problem is that modest or piecemeal solutions to problems, however admirable,
may seem like mere band-aid solutions to many. These efforts appear to address a prob-
lem but really have little major or lasting effect. Consider the problem of food insecurity
in Canada. Many Canadians don’t have enough to eat and can’t be sure when they’ll
eat their next complete meal. Food banks emerged in Canada as a response to this—
specifically, in response to the inadequate support provided by unemployment insurance
Be an Active Citizen
BOX 1.4 Social Media and Activism

In his book Tweets and the Streets: Social Media can be no ‘technological fix’ to the problem of col-
and Contemporary Activism, on political protest in lective action” (2012, pp. 161–162).
the Middle East in 2011, Paolo Gerbaudo writes, In concluding this, the author reminds us of
“Contemporary movements use social media also the influential new role that social media— includ-
for tactical, that is, ‘practical’ purposes: to exchange ing Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms—play
information about the situation on the ground, and in collective action all around the world. He also
make up for the lack of a linear command struc- reminds us that commitment—emotionality—is
ture. . . . All in all, though . . . the most important critical but often short-lived (or “evanescent,” as
role of social media lies in the construction of an he calls it). What changes are you committed to
emotional sense of togetherness among dispersed making in your community, and how might you use
participants, rather than in the coordination of social media to achieve that? What might help to
‘combat’ operations on the ground. This emotional prolong your commitment to this collective action?
quality of activist use of social media is a reminder
of the fact that the understanding of social move-
Source
ment communications cannot be reduced to purely P. Gerbaudo. (2012). Tweets and the street: Social media and
technical factors, and, more importantly, that there contemporary activism. London: Pluto Press.
and funds from the provinces that didn’t enable people to put enough food on their
tables during the economic recession in the 1980s.
The first food bank opened in Alberta in 1981. Currently, there are 900 food banks in
Canada, which feed approximately 867,000 people per month, with 38 per cent of them
under the age of 18. According to Food Banks Canada’s Hunger Count 2018, Canadians
visited food banks 1.1 million times in March 2018 alone. Food banks, on the surface,
would seem to be great way to help those who are unable to afford food. But many have
argued that they’re merely a temporary solution that doesn’t address larger issues. Food
banks can work to create a public perception that hunger is a matter of charity, especially
when corporate sponsors step in to provide funds or food donations to a food bank. Many
use the expression “de-politicization of hunger” to suggest that governments are increas-
ingly able to turn a blind eye to meeting the basic needs of their citizens.
Food Banks Canada, the national organization representing Canadian food banks,
acknowledges the shortcomings of this system. One-third of the food banks don’t meet
the nutritional needs of their clients for several reasons: they run out of food, give people
less food out of fear of running out, or close too early in the day. The demand for food
usually exceeds the donations a food bank receives. Food banks, then, can mainly be
seen as a starting point to ending hunger in Canada. They make no contribution to solv-
ing the problem of poverty, which is the cause of widespread hunger. Nor do they help
to solve the problem of economic inequality, which is the cause of widespread poverty.
In the chapters to come, we’ll consider a variety of attempts by the state and community
organizers to solve some of the problems Canadians face.
Chapter Summary
The goal of sociology today, just as it was two centuries ago, is to use knowledge to
improve social life. Sociologists are concerned about the social problems that most obvi-
ously harm people—especially, those that do major harm to our health and quality of life.
Often, the government and other powerful agencies do too little to address these prob-
lems. One job in sociology is to issue a wake-up call. Another goal is to make students
more aware of the society in which they live.
Our primary goal in this book is to provide an understanding of social problems, their
effects, and how we can remedy these effects. For this task, it’s essential to explore the
ways problems develop and how they’re related to other issues. In the ideal social prob-
lems textbook—a book two or three times as long as this one—we’d give additional and
equal attention to showing the importance of many approaches—quantitative and qual-
itative, positivist and interpretivist, for example—and how they might be combined or
fused in a single comprehensive approach. But for now, your takeaway message is that
every approach contributes to our understanding of social problems. How problems rise
and decline, gain and lose public attention—this is all part of the larger, more compre-
hensive story.
All of our social institutions—families, the economy, government, education, and
others—should contribute to the healthy operation of society. Often, they fail to do so.
Sometimes, as functionalists suggest, our key institutions fail to fulfill their roles because
of rapid change. Sometimes, as conflict theorists suggest, social inequalities are the key
to understanding social problems. Occasionally, social issues go unnoticed and unsolved
because there’s no moral entrepreneur to champion the cause for change. And some-
times, social problems go unnoticed because the vulnerable people afflicted by these
problems are the least able to mobilize in their own interest.
It’s the search for explanations and solutions that makes the study of social problems
fascinating. We think you’ll understand the world much more deeply after you read this
book. By the end, you’ll be better able to apply sociological theories to problems of inter-
est to you. And, most important, you’ll be better able to think of ways to change society
for the better.
Questions for Critical Thought

1. How might you, as an active citizen, help to study and solve problems associated with
homelessness in your own community?
2. What role might students play in raising the awareness of their parents (and other
members of the previous generations) on issues related to racial discrimination and
race-related poverty?
3. How might you organize a group at your college or university to make it more accessi-
ble to and friendlier toward people with physical and mental disabilities? Do you know
of any groups with similar aims that already exist?
4. Do you think unemployment is a social problem or an economic problem? As some-
one who’s already in the workforce, or will likely enter the workforce soon, what do
you think policy-makers should do to make the transition between education and
the workforce easier and smoother? Why do you think unemployment rates vary by
gender, educational attainment, and ethnic group?
5. In what ways are race and ethnicity linked to poverty? Can you identify any patterns
within Canada? Can you come up with some ideas as to how race-related poverty
could be dealt with and resolved?
Exploring Social Problems

1. Does your university have policies to combat the problems of sexual abuse and ha-
rassment on campus? Find out what rules are in place to address these problems.
What improvements or suggestions would you offer to university officials to help them
address these problems more effectively?
2. What acts of animal cruelty have you witnessed personally? What acts of animal cru-
elty have you read or heard about in the media? Which organizations are involved in
the protection of animals? Have you considered taking any actions personally to deal
with this problem in our society?
Recommended Readings and Websites

Abrutyn, S. (2013). Teaching sociological theory for a new century: Contending with the
time crunch. The American Sociologist, 44(2), 132–154.
Crone, J. (2015). How can we solve our social problems? Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE .
Harris, D. (2014). The complete guide to writing questionnaires: How to get better infor-
mation for better decisions. Durham, NC: I&M Press.
Huff, D. (1954). How to lie with statistics. New York: W.W. Norton.
Ritzer, G., & Stepnisky, J. (2017). Classical sociological theory (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: SAGE .
Ritzer, G., & Stepnisky, J. (2017). Modern sociological theory (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: SAGE .
Smith, D. (2017). Globalizing social problems: An agenda for the twenty-first century.
Social Problems, 64(1), 1–13.
Swedberg, R. (2017). Theorizing in sociological research: A new perspective, a new de-
parture? Annual Review Of Sociology, 43(1), 189–206.
Taylor, S., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods:
A guidebook and resource. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)

www.csa-scs.ca
Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS)
www.csls.ca
Conference Board of Canada (CBoC)
www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/aboutus.aspx Online Dictionary of Sociology
http://bitbucket.icaap.org/
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx
Statistics Canada
www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html
PART TWO
Inequalities
▲ nikitje/iStock
Class, Poverty, and

Economic Inequality
Learning Objectives
• To understand the relationship between social class and inequality
• To understand “relative” and “absolute” poverty
• To differentiate measures of poverty, including LICOs and poverty lines
• To examine the nature of poverty and income inequality in Canada and around
the world
• To understand how wealth is concentrated in capitalist societies
• To see how inequality intersects with other social problems
• To know the effects of poverty on children, youth, and the elderly
• To understand homelessness and urban poverty and their effects on health
• To learn about the different theoretical perspectives on economic inequality
• To examine solutions to poverty and economic inequality
▲ Eric Buermeyer / Shutterstock
30 PART II Inequalities
Introduction
economic inequality Economic inequality refers to income and wealth differences across individuals and
Differences in groups. The sociological approach is that poverty and inequality are important public
income and wealth
issues with causes and consequences (Curtis, 2016). By using our sociological imagina-
across individuals
and groups within a
tion we can begin to see how poverty and inequality relate to each other and to issues of
society. ideology, governance, and power.
In the nineteenth century, Karl Marx first introduced the notion of social class and
its relation to poverty and inequality in his social, economic, and philosophical works.
Marx stressed that people always organize around their relationship to the means of pro-
duction. Some own it, and others don’t. Those who do enjoy the greatest power. In a cap-
italist industrial society, those who own the capital and productive technology control
the available jobs. The rest—proletarians—must sell their time and labour to capitalists
to earn wages that allow them to survive economically. The capitalists, to maximize
their profits, pay the workers as little as possible and sell the product for as high a price
as possible (Marx & Engels, 1848/1955).
classes Classes, in sociological thinking, are groups of people who share a common eco-
Systems of ordering nomic condition, interest, or, as Marx described it, relationship to the means of pro-
in society whereby
duction (i.e., to technology and capital). In Marx’s logic there are two main classes:
people are organized
into categories
owners and workers. This binary—“have” and “have-not”—is fundamental to all social
based on their socio- relations, since these two classes are forever locked in conflict.
economic conditions The relationship of people to the means of production is critical to this way of think-
and interests. ing. This dividing line separates those who must sell their work, their time, or their
labour to earn wages so they can survive from those who buy this work and gain profits
from the goods and services that workers produce. The profit gained by the second group
depends mainly on the price of the manufactured product minus the cost of labour. As a
result, profit-making depends on keeping prices high and wages (and other costs of pro-
duction) low. But high prices, low wages, and poor working conditions aren’t good for
workers; so workers struggle—through unions, cooperatives, legislation, and other po-
litical means—to improve their wages, working conditions, job security, and the prices
they have to pay for food, shelter, and health care.
People with the same relationship to the means of production ought to have an inter-
est in banding together—the workers to protect their wages and working conditions, the
employers to protect their profit and control. But for this to happen, people in the same
class must develop an awareness of their common interest, commit themselves to working
together for common goals, and come to see their individual well-being as connected to
the collective well-being of their class. Marx referred to this process as obtaining a “class
class consciousness for itself.” Developing class consciousness is difficult. Many factors interfere with it.
An awareness of This capitalist class system has a long-range tendency to produce monopolies of
one’s place in the
wealth and ever-increasing inequality, globalization and imperialism, overproduction,
social class structure,
particularly as it
and recurrent financial crises. Those at the bottom are impoverished, desperate, and
relates to political willing to do almost anything to survive.
class struggle. In this system, employers may take steps to prevent the formation of unions or to cur-
tail discussions of workers’ concerns. Legislators sympathetic to the interests of owners
may make laws that give employers more power or workers less power in the event of a
conflict. The police or military may be used to break strikes. Workers themselves may be
reluctant to share a common cause with people of different racial or ethnic groups. Or,
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“Stop!” cried Margate, ghastly white. “How did you learn that? How do
you know——”
“Oh, I know that you rascals will not get away with this job,” Nick
sternly interrupted. “I’ll soon have you landed where——”
Guelpa, or Margate, broke in upon him with a terrible oath.
“You will, eh?” he fiercely added. “You’ll find you are wrong. You are
depending upon that fellow, Garvan, but we’ve got him, also, as we’ve got
you. See for yourself.”
He flung aside the portière that hung across the open door of an adjoining
room, then in darkness.
Plainly visible in the light shed through the doorway, however, sat Patsy
Garvan, bound and gagged and tied to a wooden chair. This was two hours
after he had been transferred from the hotel, and his recovery from the drug
Guelpa had injected.
“And that’s not all,” Guelpa fiercely added. “Spring open that panel,
Biddle. Let him see—let him see for himself!”
Biddle touched a hidden spring in the wainscoted wall, and a panel flew
open.
In the space beyond sat—the two jewel caskets stolen from the Hotel
Westgate that morning.
“We’ve not had time to open them, to whack up the swag,” Guelpa went
on, as if beside himself with fierce and bitter rage. “There will be time
enough for that. We’ve got Garvan and we’ve got you. I’ll send you to the
devil on the spot. I’ll give you a dose that will—oh, perdition, Scoville, I’ve
left it in my suite. I went out in such a hurry that I forgot it. I must have it.
It’s the only thing that will cause death and defy detection. I must have it. I’ll
go and get it. Watch me—watch both till I return. And remember the signal
—the signal! I’ll send both to the devil. Wait till I return.”
And Doctor Guelpa, after pouring forth these commands with a ferocity
that precluded interruption, turned and rushed like a madman out of the
house.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MAN ON THE BED.
It was more than an hour previous to the episodes last described, when
Chick Carter responded to Nick’s brief instructions from Mrs. Clayton’s
residence, and then set out post-haste for the Hotel Westgate.
He did not know, of course, why Nick had been led to suspect Guelpa,
nor anything about what Patsy had discovered and what had befallen him.
That Nick suspected Guelpa, however, and very seriously, Chick had not a
doubt.
It was not eight o’clock when he approached the huge hotel, and purely
by a stroke of good luck, nearing a side entrance to the house, he discovered
the very man he was seeking.
Doctor Guelpa had just emerged and was hurrying away.
“By Jove, fortune favors me,” thought Chick, with a thrill of satisfaction.
“This is better than I could have hoped. There must be something in the
wind, or he would not be in such a hurry. If he gives me the slip, however,
I’ll eat my hat. I’d give something to know what Nick has on him.”
Chick knew, however, that he needed only to follow the directions given
him.
With no great difficulty, he shadowed Guelpa to his office in Fifth
Avenue, a walk of about six minutes, and saw him enter the dark rooms,
those on the first floor of a remodeled house.
Much to Chick’s surprise, however, after waiting and watching for
several minutes, no light appeared at either of the windows.
“By gracious, that’s mighty strange,” he said to himself, then concealed
in an opposite doorway. “Is he remaining in there in darkness? What’s his
game, in that case, and why is he—great guns! there he is, now!”
Doctor Guelpa had come hurrying around the near corner, and was
evidently returning to the hotel.
Chick shadowed him again, but not without a quick survey of the
opposite house and the adjoining buildings.
“I’ll swear he did not come out of that house,” he said to himself. “There
is no way of getting to a back entrance from the avenue. There may be an
alley leading in from the side street. Either that, or he went through the first
house around the corner. Later, by Jove, I may discover which. The game
seems to have just broken cover.”
Chick followed Guelpa back to the hotel and saw him enter his suite.
Not content with that, wondering what he might be doing, he crept to the
door and peered through the keyhole.
The aperture, though limited, commanded a view of the parlor and the
bedroom directly beyond it. Both were brightly lighted—and Chick saw
enough to warrant all of the suspicions he had attributed to Nick.
He saw the man within discarding his Guelpa disguise and transforming
himself into a counterfeit of Chester Clayton.
“Thundering guns!” he said to himself. “This does settle it. But what’s his
next move?”
Chick concealed himself to wait and see.
Ten minutes later Guelpa stole down the side stairs and out of the house.
He was just in time to catch a passing taxicab.
Chick reached the side door just in time, moreover, to hear Guelpa shout
his hurried directions to the chauffeur.
“Great Scott!” he muttered, pausing. “To Nick’s residence! Why the
dickens is he going there? By Jove, I have it! He has discovered that Nick
suspects him and he now is out to get him. He reasons that he can fool the
old war horse and get by as Clayton.
“I may be wrong, but I’ll wager that he will get well fooled himself. It’s
now a thousand to one that he went to some house near his office, probably
the one back of it, in order to make arrangements for holding up the chief.
By gracious, that’s good enough for me to take a chance on. I’ll hike back
there and await developments. There would be nothing in nailing that rascal
alone. If I am right, which seems more than probable, we can get the whole
gang by this other course.”
Chick knew, of course, assuming that his theory was correct, that some
little time must elapse before Guelpa could return in company with Nick. He
did not hurry his investigation, therefore.
He returned to Fifth Avenue and had another look at Doctor Guelpa’s
business quarters.
They were in darkness, as before, with no sign of life within.
“I’ll see what I can discover around the corner,” Chick said to himself.
“The rat went out that way, I’ll wager.”
His investigations in that direction took him much longer. He could find
no way of getting to the rear of the house to which Nick was later brought. It
had, as a matter of fact, been boarded up by the rascals.
Chick then went back and picked the lock of Guelpa’s door, entering and
seeking the rear exit.
He then found that it led to the rear door of the other house.
Chick arrived there just in time, moreover, to hear from the back area the
arrival of Nick and Guelpa, both of whose voices he immediately
recognized.
“This does settle it,” he congratulated himself. “I’ll get in there and hold
up the whole gang. If I can get all of them under my guns—well, there’ll be
nothing more to it.”
It took Chick some little time, however, to noiselessly force a rear
basement window.
The scene in the front parlor was in rapid progress all the while.
Chick got in unheard and was stealing up to the adjoining room, just as
Guelpa rushed out of the house.
It was impossible to stop him, but Chick had heard enough to show him
the way.
The four men in the front parlor then were in animated discussion of what
had been said. Thy had no thought of another intruder. The portière masking
the door of the rear room had fallen back into place.
Chick crept into the room from the hall, and he then discovered Patsy
Garvan bound to the chair. He stole nearer and liberated him, then slipped
him one of his revolvers.
Not a word passed between them.
Ten seconds later, however, the portière was flung aside and both
detectives stepped into the room, with revolvers leveled.
“No monkey business, gentlemen!” Chick now said sharply. “The first
man who moves will be a dead one! We’ll shoot to kill!”
The threat was sufficient, or the guns.
Only one of the rascals moved, save to throw up his hands.
Scoville edged nearer the hall door, but stood with his back against it, a
position certainly not inviting suspicion.
“Good work, Chick,” Nick said simply, after the crooks had been
handcuffed and he had been liberated. “It is about what I was expecting.”
“We’ve landed with both feet,” declared Patsy. “All we now want is the
master crook, the rat who jabbed that needle in my neck.”
“We’ll get him, all right,” said Nick. “Get those jewel cases, Patsy, and
we’ll head for the hotel. You remain here, Chick, and hold up the rascal if he
returns. I’ll have policemen here on the quiet in a very few moments. I’ll not
risk losing the rascal by not following him.”
“I’m with you, chief,” said Patsy.
Three minutes later four policemen entered the house and took the crooks
in charge.
Chick continued to wait for Guelpa.
Nick Carter and Patsy entered the Westgate a few minutes later. The first
man they saw was Clayton, in the office inclosure.
“Good God!” he cried excitedly, seeing the jewel cases. “You’ve got
them, Carter, you’ve got them! When and how——”
Nick checked him with a gesture and placed the cases on the counter.
“Put them in the vault, Vernon, and lock it!” he commanded, turning to
the thunderstruck head clerk. “You come with me, Clayton, and be quick
about it.”
Clayton leaped over the counter and Nick ran to the elevator.
“I’ll show you your double, Clayton, unless I am much mistaken,” said
he, as the car sped up to the fourth floor.
“My double?” gasped Clayton.
“That’s what. A fellow who looks like you. There’s nothing more to it.”
“This way, chief,” Patsy whispered, as they left the car. “I know his door.
Gee whiz! I ought to.”
They arrived at it in a moment.
A light was burning in the suite.
Patsy quietly unlocked the door with his picklock, and the three men
rushed through the parlor and into the bedroom.
An unconscious man was lying on the bed.
“Guelpa himself!” cried Patsy. “By thunder, chief, he has committed
suicide.”
“If he has,” replied Nick, “he will have saved himself a prison term. Ring
for Detective Webber. We’ll give the rascal in his charge.”
“I can’t wait—I can’t wait for that,” cried Clayton, in a frenzy of joy. “I
must telephone to my mother. I must telephone to Mademoiselle Falloni.
The joyous news must not be delayed. I’ll return in a couple of minutes,
Carter. My God! how can I ever repay you?”
“Let him go and spread the news,” laughed Nick, as Patsy turned from
the house telephone. “The crooks are booked to get theirs. As for this rascal
and his—ah, here is Webber now. Look after this scoundrel, Webber, and put
him where he belongs. No, no; don’t ask me to discuss the case at present.
We have made good, all right, and that enough for now. As for us, Patsy,
we’ll compare notes in my library, in company with Chick.”
THE END.
You will read more of the mysterious David Margate in “The Blue Veil;
or, Nick Carter’s Torn Trail,” which is the title of the long, complete story
you will find in the next issue, No. 158, of the Nick Carter Stories, out
September 18th. You will also find an installment of the corking serial now
running, together with several other interesting articles.
A BAD BOY.
For precocity, irrepressibility, and too often depravity, “Young America”
in these days can hardly be surpassed. Here is a story told me the other day:
A little chap, not eight years old, whose parents live in one of the
fashionable parts of New York, went last week to pay a visit to his
grandmother. While there, in rummaging through his grandmother’s
secretaire, he came across a half dollar, and shortly afterward he was on his
way downstairs to invest his “find.” He expended the whole amount in
candy, and, upon his return, was enjoying it in the privacy of his room, when
his grandmother put in an appearance.
“Why, Robby,” she exclaimed, taking in the situation, “where on earth
did you get all that candy?”
“Bought it,” was the reply.
“But where did you get the money?”
“A gentleman I met in the street gave it to me.”
“Robby, I don’t believe you are telling me the truth,” said the old lady
slowly, looking her grandson in the eyes. “In fact, I am sure you are telling
me a falsehood. A little bird tells me that you are.”
The boy looked at her with a somewhat incredulous expression.
“Now, come, Robby, tell me where you got that money?”
“Why don’t you ask your dickey bird?” was the ready reply of the bad
boy.
SNAPSHOT ARTILLERY.
By BERTRAM LEBHAR.
(This interesting story was commenced in No. 153 of Nick Carter Stories. Back numbers can
always be obtained from your news dealer or the publishers.)
CHAPTER XVI.
A NIGHT’S WORK.
Patrolman John Hicks, of the Oldham police force, was a fairly vigilant
guardian of the law—in the daytime. But when his turn came to do night
duty, which happened regularly every second week, he always felt drowsy,
no matter how much sleep he took by day to prepare himself for his
nocturnal vigil.
“Which goes to show that night work ain’t the right thing for a man,”
Mr. Hicks was in the habit of complaining to his intimate friend. “It’s
against nature. The daytime was made for man to work in, and the night for
man to sleep in. Even the dumb beasts and the birds close their eyes at
night. When you try to reverse this order of things, Nature rebels—and you
can’t blame her.”
Being anxious to offend Nature as little as possible, Officer Hicks had
cultivated the habit of going to sleep standing up. So proficient had he
become in this difficult art that he could lean against a lamp-post and
slumber as soundly as if he were in his own comfortable bed at home.
The night which Hawley had selected for his photographic exposé of
police conditions in Oldham happened to be one of the nights on which
Patrolman Hicks was on duty.
He had selected the most comfortable lamp-post on his beat, and was
propped against it, enjoying a deep sleep, when a big, black touring car,
containing three men, came along.
The automobile was moving almost noiselessly, but even if the man at
the wheel had honked his horn as it drew near, it wouldn’t have caused any
discomfort to Officer Hicks. He was too sound a sleeper to be bothered by
the ordinary sounds of street traffic.
In his somnolent moments, Mr. Hicks did not present a very picturesque
appearance. Only a slender man can lean against a lamp-post and look
graceful; and Officer Hicks was almost as fat as Chief of Police Hodgins.
Moreover, like the latter, he had the habit of sleeping with his mouth partly
open.
But in spite of its lack of picturesqueness, his appearance caused great
delight to the three men in the black touring car.
That vehicle came to a stop a few feet away from the lamp-post, and one
of the men leaned over the side of the tonneau, and pointed a camera toward
the slumbering bluecoat.
Then there came a vivid flash of light, a dull, booming sound, and a
chuckle of triumph from the man with the camera.
Possibly the dull, booming sound and the chuckle of the man would not
have aroused Patrolman Hicks by themselves, but the vivid flash of light
hitting him squarely on the eyelids brought him to his senses in an instant.
Springing to an erect position, he stared in ludicrous astonishment at the
automobile in front of him.
He was about to step into the roadway and ask the three men what had
happened, but before he could carry out his intention the automobile had
started off at great speed.
“Oh, well,” Officer Hicks muttered to himself, “I guess it was nothing
serious. Probably a fuse blew out, or something of that sort. Them
automobiles is queer things.”
With this reflection, he once more settled himself comfortably against
the lamp-post, and resumed his interrupted slumbers.
“That was a cinch!” said the Camera Chap to his two companions, as the
touring car sped through the quiet street. “Didn’t I tell you, Fred, that there
wouldn’t be much danger?”
“Well, we can’t expect that they’ll all be as easy as that one,” Carroll
replied. “Ye gods! Just imagine the lives and property of the people of
Oldham being intrusted to the care of a lazy, good-for-nothing shirker like
that! I hope you got a good picture of him, Frank. It certainly ought to make
the taxpayers of Oldham sit up and take notice.”
“At all events, it ought to make ’em buy Bulletins,” the Camera Chap
chuckled. “I bet you a new hat, Fred, that your paper’s circulation will be
more than doubled as a result of this crusade.
“But, say,” he exclaimed, as the touring car swung around a corner,
“aren’t we on another cop’s beat now? If so, hadn’t we better slow down,
and hunt for him?”
This remark was addressed to Parsons, the Bulletin’s police reporter, who
was running the car. Parsons had been “covering police” for some years,
and knew the majority of the members of the force by name, and what beat
they were supposed to patrol. This expert knowledge made him a valuable
member of the expedition. As he was aware also of the habits and
weaknesses of many of the bluecoats, he was able to lead the Camera Chap
to those who were most likely to be caught shirking their duty.
The reporter glanced quickly up and down both sides of the street, and
reduced the speed of the touring car.
“This is ‘Red’ Horgan’s beat,” he announced. “And I guess I can tell you
where he is right now. Horgan is the most notorious shirker in the
department, and when he’s on night duty he generally spends most of the
time in ‘Dutch Louie’s’ place on Allendale Street. I have no doubt that
you’ll find him there now playing pinochle in the back room.”
The Camera Chap’s face lighted up at this information. “Playing
pinochle, eh?” he exclaimed eagerly. “That ought to make a bully snapshot.
Is it possible for a stranger to get into this Dutch Louie’s place at this
hour?”
“Sure!” Parsons answered, with a laugh. “He runs his place wide open
all night. Anybody can walk in and order a drink right at the bar, no matter
what the hour. Dutch Louie is a politician, as well as a liquor dealer, and he
doesn’t have to worry about his joint being pulled for violation of the excise
laws.”
“Good!” exclaimed Hawley joyously. “I was afraid I might have
difficulty in getting into the place. Is this Allendale Street we’re on now?”
“No; it’s the next corner. Louie’s place is halfway down the block,” the
reporter informed him.
“Then I think it would be a good idea to stop the car right here,” said the
Camera Chap. “I hardly think it would be a wise plan to ride right up to the
door. The sound of our motor might scare Officer Horgan into dropping his
pinochle hand.”
“No need to be afraid of that,” declared Parsons, with a laugh. “It would
take more than an automobile to faze Red Horgan. He’s a son-in-law of one
of the biggest politicians in the county, and has such a strong pull that I
guess he wouldn’t care if Chief Hodgins himself came into the back room
of the café and caught him playing cards when he ought to be patrolling his
beat. I’ve often heard him boast that there isn’t a superior officer in the
department that isn’t afraid to call him down, no matter what he does—that
if any of them dared to get gay with him, he’d mighty soon show them
where they got off at.”
“Must be a pleasant sort of chap,” said Hawley, with an ironical smile.
“It’ll be a genuine pleasure to publish his picture, eh, Fred?”
“But surely you’ve no intention of going into Dutch Louie’s place to get
it?” Carroll protested anxiously. “That’s out of the question.”
The Camera Chap looked astonished. “Why out of the question? Didn’t
you just hear Parsons say that anybody can get into the place?”
“Oh, yes, I haven’t any doubt that you could get in, all right; but if you
were rash enough to try to take a flash-light picture inside I rather guess
you’d have some difficulty in getting out. Dutch Louie’s few patrons are a
pretty tough bunch. They’d probably kick in a few of your ribs before
Officer Horgan placed you under arrest for taking photographs without a
license. Better pass this one up, old man, and look for something a trifle
easier.”
But Hawley had no intention of foregoing this opportunity to procure a
snapshot of Mr. Red Horgan in the rôle of a pinochle player. He realized
that there were difficulties in the way of his getting the picture, but he was
determined to make the attempt.
“It’ll be a gem!” he declared enthusiastically. “If I can get it and it turns
out all right, Fred, just imagine what a hit it will make with the readers of
the Bulletin. Stop the car, please, Parsons. Here we are at the corner. I’m
going to get out.”
Carroll clutched at his coat to restrain him, but the Camera Chap
laughingly shook off his hold, and got out of the automobile.
“You fellows wait here for me,” he said. “Keep the power turned on,
Parsons, and have the car all ready to start as soon as I come out. It’s
possible that we may have to make a hurried get-away, in which case it
would be inconvenient to have to wait until you cranked up.”
He was stepping to the sidewalk, when Carroll called to him:
“Hold on, there! If you’re such a stubborn idiot that you can’t be
dissuaded from doing this crazy thing, I’m going with you. Do you think
I’m going to stay quietly in this car while you’re inside that joint, being
killed? I guess not! The chances are a hundred to one that there’ll be a
rough-house as soon as you fire the flash,” he said. “I don’t suppose that
even with me to help you we’ll stand much chance against that crowd; but,
at all events, two’ll be better than one.”
“Three, you mean, Mr. Carroll,” exclaimed Parsons. “If there’s any
fighting to be done, I’m in on it, too, of course. I guess nobody’ll steal the
machine while we’re away.”
The Bulletin’s police reporter was such a frail-looking chap that Hawley
could scarcely repress a smile at these words, although he greatly
appreciated the spirit which prompted them.
“Much obliged to both of you,” the Camera Chap said; “but, really, I
prefer to go alone. I think I can easily convince you that it will be a much
better plan for you fellows to wait here in the machine.”
“I won’t hear of any such arrangement,” Carroll declared firmly. “If you
go, I’m going, too; and if Parsons wants to come along, he’s welcome. The
more the merrier. You may have your faults, Frank, old man, but I like you
too well to be willing to sit passively here while you’re being beaten to a
pulp around the corner.”
“I’m not going to be beaten to a pulp,” the Camera Chap protested, with
a laugh. “I intend to use strategy. If I go alone, I feel confident I’ll be able to
get away with it; but if you fellows insist upon butting in, you’ll surely
queer me. I’m a stranger to that bunch at Dutch Louie’s, but you fellows are
not. Both of you would be recognized as soon as you entered the place, and
I’d have no chance to take the picture.”
Carroll had to admit that there was a lot in this argument, and, after a
little more demurring, he grudgingly consented to let Hawley have his way
in the matter.
“But I’m not going to stay here in the car,” he declared. “I’m going to
hang around outside that joint, and keep my ears wide open. As soon as I
hear the sound of a rough-house I’m coming in, for I’ll know then that, in
spite of all your resourcefulness and ingenuity, strategy has failed.”
“All right,” assented Hawley, with a laugh. “If strategy fails, I’ll be glad
to have the help of those big fists of yours. But I feel confident there isn’t
going to be any violence.”
CHAPTER XVII.
A BIT OF STRATEGY.
There was no mistaking Dutch Louie’s place, for it was the only
restaurant on the block; moreover, the name of the proprietor was
emblazoned in white letters on a flaring red glass sign.
As Parsons had predicted, the place was wide open. Although it was
nearly two a. m., and the State excise law forbids business of the kind after
one o’clock, the two waiters were very busy serving drinks.
The Camera Chap walked through the front room, and entered the room
beyond. He pretended to be under the influence of liquor—walked like a
fellow who has all the sail he can carry. It had occurred to him that this
pretense might help his game along, although he had not as yet hit upon any
definite plan for the taking of the picture.
In a corner of this rear room several men were seated at a round table,
playing cards. One of these players wore a blue coat with brass buttons, and
his hair was the color of carrots. By these tokens, Hawley knew that he was
in the presence of Patrolman Red Horgan.
The card players were not the only occupants of the room. A dozen men
were scattered among the small round tables, sipping their beverages or
gulping them down, and paying but scant attention to the pinochle game in
progress in the corner.
They were, as Carroll had said, a rough-looking crowd. One had only to
glance at their faces to realize that anybody who came into the place
looking for trouble would not have to go out unsatisfied.
Hawley, spying an unoccupied table some yards away from the group of
pinochle players, made his way toward it, still keeping up the pretense of
being tipsy. He seated himself so that he faced the policeman and his
cronies, and, summoning a waiter, ordered something. Nobody paid much
attention to him. Patrolman Horgan’s gaze happened to wander in his
direction, but the glance was merely a cursory one. The policeman was too
busy “melding a hundred aces” to have much interest in the harmless-
looking, apparently very “tired” young man who had just come in.
In another corner of the room was an automatic piano which was
operated on a nickel-in-the-slot basis. Somebody dropped a coin into this
machine, and it started to thrum a lively waltz strain.
This music—or near music—appeared to have a peculiar effect upon the
Camera Chap. Although the tune was a rousing one, it evidently served as a
lullaby in his case, for his eyelids began to droop, and his head rolled from
side to side in a ludicrous manner. When the waiter came with what he had
ordered, he was sprawled across the table, apparently fast asleep.
The waiter shook him roughly by the shoulder. “Here, young feller,” he
growled, “here’s your drink. Wake up! This ain’t no lodging house. If you
want to sleep, you’d better hire a room upstairs.”
The Camera Chap roused himself as though by a great effort, and stared
stupidly at the glass which had been set before him. As soon as the waiter
had gone, he lapsed once more into slumber.
“That fellow over there seems to be dead to the world,” remarked
Patrolman Horgan, with a chuckle. “Must be worse than he looked when he
came in. Whose deal is it now?”
Needless to say, Hawley was by no means as “dead to the world” as his
appearance seemed to indicate. Seldom, in fact, had his brain been more
active than it was at this minute. As he sprawled across the table, with his
eyes closed, and his head resting on his outstretched arms, he was
summoning all his ingenuity in an effort to solve the perplexing problem
which confronted him.
“Everything is dead easy except the firing of the flash-light powder,” he
mused. “I can get a dandy focus from here without moving an inch, and,
with my camera held beneath the table, Red Horgan wouldn’t even suspect
that his picture had been taken—if it weren’t for that telltale flash. That’s
the great difficulty. How the deuce am I going to fire the flash and get away
with it?”
And then an inspiration came to him, and he began to groan. Usually he
was not in the habit of groaning when he had an inspiration, but he had a
good reason for doing so now. It was part of the plan which had just
suggested itself to his resourceful mind. So he proceeded to groan loud
enough to be heard by the group of pinochle players in the corner.
The waiter, hearing these sounds of anguish, once more stepped up to
him, and shook him roughly by the shoulder. “Hey, young feller, brace up!”
he growled. “What’s the matter with you, anyway? Are you sick, or is it just
an ordinary jag?”
Hawley sat up, and clapped both hands to his head, one to each temple.
The waiter and the others whose attention had been attracted by his groans
could see that his face was distorted as though with great pain.
“Oh, my poor head!” groaned the Camera Chap. “It feels as though it
would split in two. For the love of Pete, friend, if there’s any bromo seltzer
in the house, bring me some in a hurry.”
“Sure, we keep it,” said the man. “Just keep quiet a minute, young feller,
and I’ll fix up a dose.”
The Camera Chap was not surprised to hear that the drug was procurable
in Dutch Louie’s place, for he had noticed a sign on the wall as he came in,
announcing that it was on sale.
“Never mind about fixing it up,” he said to the waiter. “Just bring me the
bottle, a glass, and some water. I’ll do the mixing myself.”
Patrolman Horgan beckoned to the waiter as the latter was going out to
fill the order.
“What’s the matter with that guy over there, Harry?” he inquired.
“Oh, nothin’ serious; just a headache.”
“Is that all?” said the patrolman, in a disgusted tone. “From the way he
was groaning just now, I thought he was dyin’. Come on, fellers; it’s my
meld.”
When the waiter returned with a tray containing a small blue bottle, an
empty glass, and a second glass filled with water, Hawley had an unlighted
cigar between his teeth, but no one seemed to think it odd for a sick man to
indulge in tobacco.
The Camera Chap was not in the habit of smoking cigars, but he always
carried a couple in his vest pocket, and he had reasons of his own for
transferring this one from his pocket to his mouth.
He took the bottle of bromo seltzer, and emptied some of the white
powder into the empty glass. Then he turned to the waiter.
“On second thought, I guess I’ll mix it with vichy instead of plain
water,” he said; “I like it better that way.”
The waiter shrugged his shoulders, and went out to get a siphon of vichy.
As soon as he had gone, the Camera Chap became very busy, but
unobtrusively so.
His left hand stole into the side pocket of his coat, and when it came out
again the closed fist held a quantity of silvery powder. He poised this hand
over the glass containing the bromo seltzer, and the silvery powder fell on
top of the white powder.
Then his right hand went into his coat pocket, and he stealthily drew out
a small pocket camera, which he held beneath the table.
When he had done these things, he gazed anxiously around the room,
apprehensive that his actions might have been observed; but, to his great
relief, he found that nobody was paying any attention to him.
Then, as he saw the waiter approaching with the siphon of vichy in his
hand, Hawley struck a match, held the flame for a moment to the cigar in
his mouth, then threw the match away.
Apparently he was careless, for the match, still alight, instead of falling
to the floor, dropped into the glass of bromo seltzer in front of him.
Instantly there was a blinding flash which momentarily illuminated the
entire room, and a dull explosion. The siphon of seltzer fell from the
startled bartender’s hand; several men gave vent to shouts of alarm; chairs
and tables went crashing to the floor.
Patrolman Horgan jumped excitedly to his feet, and advanced toward the
Camera Chap, who still sat at the table, surrounded by a haze of smoke
which was slowly lifting toward the ceiling.
“Great guns! What was that?” the policeman demanded.
Hawley, his face a picture of bewilderment, pointed to the bartender.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” he said indignantly. “What was it?
Maybe this man can tell us. I asked for bromo seltzer.”
“It was marked bromo seltzer on the bottle,” the astonished waiter
declared. “And I took it from the regular stock.”
He turned to the Camera Chap with sudden suspicion. “But what did you
throw that lighted match into it for, anyway, young feller? That was a queer
thing to do.”
“The match dropped in,” Hawley explained. “Didn’t you see that I was
lighting my cigar? But this is the first time I’ve ever heard of bromo seltzer
being an explosive. Mighty queer it should go off like that. It’s a mercy
somebody wasn’t killed.”
“Oh, I guess the stuff ain’t dangerous,” remarked Patrolman Horgan,
glancing around the room. “Nobody is even hurted, so there’s nothing to get
excited about. Let this be a lesson to you, young feller, to be more careful in
future where you throw lighted matches.”
“I certainly shall,” the Camera Chap assured him meekly.
“I thought at first it was somebody takin’ one of them flash-light
pictures,” said Patrolman Horgan. “It looked something like the kind of
light them camera people use.”
Hawley nodded. “Yes, it did look a little like that, didn’t it?” he agreed.
“I once saw a man take a flash-light picture, and, now that you speak of it,
there was some resemblance.”
A few minutes later Fred Carroll, pacing nervously up and down the
sidewalk outside Dutch Louie’s place, was astonished and much relieved to
see the Camera Chap step out of the doorway, a smile on his face, and with
no signs of having sustained bodily injuries.
“Thank goodness, you’ve come at last!” the proprietor of the Bulletin
exclaimed. “I was just thinking of coming in for you. I heard the flash go
off a few minutes ago, and things were so uncannily quiet afterward that I
was beginning to be afraid they had killed you. What on earth happened?”
“I’ll tell you all about it when we’re in the car,” chuckled Hawley,
hurrying toward the corner where the automobile waited. “I don’t think
there’s any danger now, but just the same we might as well get away from
here as soon as possible. I don’t believe in taking any unnecessary
chances.”
Parsons, who was seated at the wheel of the motor car, uttered an
ejaculation of joy when he caught sight of the Camera Chap.
“You don’t mean to say that you actually got the picture?” he exclaimed
incredulously, as the latter climbed aboard.
Hawley grinned. “I got something,” he said; “but I can’t guarantee that
the result will be good. I had to manipulate my camera with one hand, and I
had to guess the focus. Under those conditions, the chances are against the
negative turning out all right. But it was the best I could do under the
circumstances.”
“How on earth did you do it?” Carroll inquired. “I can’t imagine how
you got off so easily. Do you mean to say that bunch didn’t jump on you
when you set off the flash?”
“Not at all,” replied the Camera Chap, with a laugh. “They were very
nice about it. There wasn’t any rough-house at all, Fred. The last I saw of
those fellows they were making a scientific experiment.”
“A scientific experiment?” Carroll repeated, with a puzzled frown.
“Exactly,” Hawley chuckled. “They were all gathered around the waiter
like students in a chemistry class. And what do you suppose that waiter was
doing, Fred?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea.”
“He had several bottles of bromo seltzer on the table before him, and he
was uncorking each one, and dropping a lighted match into it to see if he
couldn’t make it go off like a flash-light powder.”

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Social Problems: A Canadian

Perspective 5th Edition Lorne

Close Relations: An Introduction to the Sociology of

Understanding the Social Economy A Canadian Perspective

Understanding Social Problems Linda A. Mooney

Primary Mathematics 3A Hoerst

Geotechnical Problems and Solutions A Practical

Diversity Culture and Counselling A Canadian

Legal Aspects of International Business: A Canadian

Understanding Human Resources Management A Canadian

Copyright © Oxford University Press Canada 2020

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First Edition published in 2004

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Cover image: kamisoka/Getty Images

Oxford University Press is committed to our environment.

Printed and bound in Canada

PART ONE Introduction 1

PART TWO Inequalities 27

Race and Ethnic Relations 61

Health Consequences of Homophobia 141

PART 3 Outcomes 151

Health Issues, Addictions,

Questions for Critical Thought 220

Global Inequality, War,

PART 4 Domains 253

Aging and the Life Course 288

The Idea of a “Life Course” 291

Exploring Social Problems 379

Populations and the Natural

PART 5 The Future 411

To summarize, we are particularly interested in both potential and actual social

How This Book Is Organized

Instructors should contact their Oxford University Press representative regarding

What Are Social Problems?

What Is a “Social Problem”?

Sociology and the Study

Social Problems in a Global Context

BOX 1.1 Global Inequality

by expert researchers. This book is an introductory collection and explanation of the

Objective and Subjective Elements

an empirically observed situation that threatens the well-being of a significant part of

Social Problems and the Sociological

The Canaian Press/Francis Vachon

Social Problems Research

BOX 1.2 How Much Weight Is Too Much?

Warnings, Panics, and Claims

Social Problems: Then and Now

Theoretical Perspectives on Social Problems

TABLE 1 .1 The Main Sociological Approaches

Structural Functionalism Structural

BOX 1.3 The Study of Overlapping Disadvantages

Post-Modernism and Post-Structuralism

Population Health Perspective

FIGURE 1 .1 Prevalence of Lifetime Suicidal Thoughts,

Solutions to Social Problems