Is bullying an innocent part of growing up ... or a serious problem requiring large-scale policy remedies? What is behind our rapidly changing perceptions of "acceptable" behavior? And when is the remedy worse than the problem? In their in-depth view of school bullying, Jeffrey Cohen and Robert Brooks navigate between empirical evidence and breathless media accounts to make sense of ongoing debates and provide insights into the failure of punitive antibullying policies.

Internet addiction. Cell-phone-distracted drivers. Teen suicide. Economic recession. The health risks of trans fats. The carefully selected collection of case studies in Making Sense of Social Problems is designed to help students understand and critically evaluate a wide range of contemporary social issues. The cases are organized to highlight a series of key elements: why "objective" claims deserve critical attention; how advocates bring attention to issues; why expert interpretations may change over time; the role of the media in shaping or distorting concerns; and the consequences of public policy. The introduction, conclusion, and section notes provide a coherent framework for the text. Reflecting the promise of the constructionist approach, the result is a powerful set of tools for systematically investigating social problems. It can be used to advantage as a "stand-alone," as well as with such texts as Joel Best's Social Problems.

Is a teenage violent offender a dangerous predator—or a vulnerable innocent that we should rescue from a life of crime? J. William Spencer probes our ambivalent response to youth violence to show how deeply entwined issues of crime, age, race, and class distort our understanding of an important social problem. Spencer's pointed yet nuanced analysis traces how misconceptions about youth violence—whether in the form of gangs, school violence, "superpredators," or cyberbullying—take root in our national consciousness and undercut our attempts to remedy the problem. Equally, it offers a new understanding both of the nature of juvenile delinquency and of the role of cultural politics in shaping criminal justice and social services policy.

“Why didn’t she resist?” “Why is he telling us only now?” “Why can’t she move on?” Unpacking the questions that cast victims as deviants, Jennifer Dunn critically examines why we stigmatize survivors of rape, battering, incest, and clergy abuse—and how they reclaim their identities. Dunn explores the shifting perceptions over time of victims as blameworthy, blameless, pathetic, or heroic figures. She also links those images to their real-world consequences, demonstrating that they dominate the ways in which people think about intimate violence and individual responsibility. Her analysis cuts to the core of fundamental issues at the center of debates about crime and deviance, victimization, and social problems.

Harris clarifies and assesses the power of differing constructionist approaches for understanding a range of critical social issues.