Elizabeth B. Pearce

Just as social welfare affects all of us in ways we may not realize, so do social problems. A social problem is any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed.

Multiple factors contribute to the complexity of social problems. A social problem emerges when a social change group successfully calls attention to a condition or behavior that it considers serious (figure 4.X).Typically the solution to the problem needs to be systemic in nature; in other words it cannot be solved by any one individual. This definition has both an objective component and a subjective component.

Figure 4 3. Protests like the one depicted here have raised the environmental consciousness of Americans and helped put pressure on businesses to be environmentally responsible.

4.4.1 Objectivity and Social Problems

The objective component of a social problem is this: for any condition or behavior to be considered a social problem, it must have negative consequences for large numbers of people. How do we know if a social problem has negative consequences? Reasonable people can disagree on whether such consequences exist and, if so, on their extent and seriousness, but ordinarily a body of data accumulates—from work by academic researchers, government agencies, and other sources—that strongly points to extensive and serious consequences. The reasons for these consequences are sometimes debated.

Let’s look at two examples of trends that could be considered social problems: climate change and sexual assault. In the case of climate change, although the overwhelming majority of climate scientists say that climate change (changes in the earth’s climate due to the buildup of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere) is real and serious, the percentage of Americans who agree with scientists is lower. In a 2011 poll 64 percent said they “think that global warming is happening” (Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., & Smith, N.,2011).While the majority of Americans in 2020 believed that climate change is a social problem there is still a discrepancy between the scientific community and the public’s view (Tyson, A. and Kennedy, B., 2020). Social identity and location influence viewpoints, according to Gallup polls that have found that people in the West and Northeast, as well as younger adults,  are more likely to believe that climate change is at least partially caused by human behavior and needs to be addressed (Ing, 2018; Ing, 2019).

4.4.2 Subjectivity and Social Problems

The dispute over climate change points to the subjective component of social problems: there must be a perception that the condition or behavior needs to be addressed for it to be considered a social problem; this viewpoint can change over time and location. This component lies at the heart of viewing social problems as a social construction, something that can change over time and location (Rubington, E., & Weinberg, M. S. (2010). In the social constructivist view, society must agree and develop a shared understanding that the problem, in this case climate change, actually needs intervention. We can see that multiple factors contribute to climate change and that if indeed it is to be solved, it will need a systemic solution.

An example of how perceptions of social problems can change over time can be seen in the history of attention given to rape and sexual assault in the United States before and after the 1970s . Acts of sexual violence against women have occurred from the beginning of humanity and certainly were common in the United States before the 1970s. Although men were sometimes arrested and prosecuted for rape and sexual assault, sexual violence was otherwise ignored by legal policymakers. It was perceived as an individual problem. It received little attention in college textbooks and the news media, and many people thought that rape and sexual assault were just something that happened (Allison & Wrightsman, 1993). Thus although sexual violence existed, it was not considered a social problem.

When the contemporary women’s movement began in the late 1970s, it soon focused on rape and sexual assault as serious crimes and as manifestations of women’s inequality (figure 4.4). Thanks to this focus, rape and sexual assault eventually entered the public consciousness, views of these crimes began to change, and legal policymakers began to give them more attention. In short, sexual violence against women became a social problem.

Figure 4.4. Before the 1970s, rape and sexual assault certainly existed and were very common, but they were generally ignored and not considered a social problem. When the contemporary women’s movement arose during the 1970s, it focused on sexual violence against women and turned this behavior into a social problem.

The social constructionist view raises an interesting question: When is a social problem a social problem? According to some sociologists who adopt this view, negative conditions and behaviors are not a social problem unless they are recognized as such by policymakers, large numbers of lay citizens, or other segments of our society. These sociologists would thus say that rape and sexual assault before the 1970s were not social problems because our society as a whole paid them little attention. Of course we must consider that men have more power in society than do women, and that this may affect the perception of rape as a social problem. The power differential is one of the multiple factors that affects this problem. Other sociologists say that negative conditions and behaviors should be considered a social problem even if they receive little or no attention. These sociologists would thus say that rape and sexual assault before the 1970s were in factsocial problems.

This type of debate is akin to the age-old question: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? This thought experiment reinforces one of the key beliefs of the social constructionist view: Perception matters at least as much as reality, and sometimes more so. In line with this belief, social constructionism emphasizes that citizens, interest groups, policymakers, and other parties often compete to influence popular perceptions of many types of conditions and behaviors. They try to influence news media coverage and popular views of the nature and extent of any negative consequences that may be occurring, the reasons underlying the condition or behavior in question, and possible solutions to the problem.

4.4.3 Social Problems and Human Services

You may be wondering what these large problems have to do with the field of Human Services. There are several answers to this question. Remember the attention paid to the macro, mezzo, and micro levels of human services work in Chapter One? Well, working on these social problems would certainly be macro work. Helping to change the country’s dynamics related to climate change or to rape and sexual assault would contribute to the well-being of many people. But social problems also impact humans on the mezzo and the micro scale and many human services professionals will work with individuals who are experiencing these social problems along with overlapping personal troubles.

A sociological approach stresses that individual problems are often rooted in problems stemming from aspects of society itself. This key insight informed C. Wright Mills’s (1959) classic distinction between personal troubles and public issues. Personal troubles refer to a problem affecting individuals that the affected individual, as well as other members of society, typically blame on the individual’s own personal and moral failings. Examples include such different problems as eating disorders, divorce, and unemployment. Public issues, whose source lies in the social structure and culture of a society, refer to social problems affecting many individuals. Problems in society thus help account for problems that individuals experience. Mills felt that many problems ordinarily considered private troubles are best understood as public issues, and he coined the term sociological imagination to refer to the ability to the ability to understand individual experience within the context of social structures.

As a human services professional, you must be able to see the structural aspects of any problem that an individual is experiencing, and avoid blaming the person as if there were a personal failing. Reviewing the criteria for what makes something a social problem can help workers understand the overarching nature of the problem: it affects large numbers of people, it is perceived to be a problem by many, there are multiple factors that contribute to it, and it needs a systemic solution.

4.4.4 References

Allison, J. A., & Wrightsman, L. S. (1993). Rape: The misunderstood crime. Sage Publications.

Ehrenreich, B., & English, D. (2005). For her own good: Two centuries of the experts’ advice to women (2nd ed.). Anchor Books.

Inc, G. (2019, April 22). Climate change concerns higher in the northeast, west u. S. Gallup.Com.https://news.gallup.com/poll/248963/climate-change-concerns-higher-northeast-west.aspx

Inc, G. (2018, May 11). Global warming age gap: Younger Americans are most worried. Gallup.Com.https://news.gallup.com/poll/234314/global-warming-age-gap-younger-americans-worried.aspx

Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press.

Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., & Smith, N. (2011). Climate change in the American mind: Americans’ global warming beliefs and attitudes in May 2011. Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

Robinson, M. B. (2011). Media coverage of crime and criminal justice. Carolina Academic Press.

Rubington, E., & Weinberg, M. S. (2010). The study of social problems: Seven perspectives (7th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Spector, M., & Kitsuse, J. I. (2001). Constructing social problems. Transaction.

Surette, R. (2011). Media, crime, and criminal justice: Images, realities, and policies (4th ed.). Wadsworth.

Tyson, A. and Kennedy, B. (2020, June 23). Two-thirds of Americans think government should do more on climate. Pew Research Center Science & Society. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/06/23/two-thirds-of-americans-think-government-should-do-more-on-climate