Abstract
“It’s social problems; there are no safe topics.” This is what the department chair said to me as we discussed students’ reluctance to speak the first few weeks of class, no matter which chapter was being covered. This is a very true statement for a class using a book called Social Problems. Getting students to acknowledge that there are problems in society that society has created, or contributed to, can be a very difficult task. Some students will spend the entire semester arguing that those problems are created by individuals or do not exist at all, which leaves the instructor dragging them kicking and screaming through some of the chapters. I currently use Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action in a 200-level community college class that does not require an Introduction to Sociology course as a prerequisite. This lack of a sociology background is largely why some students are so resistant to what is being presented to them.
The author’s organization of the book makes perfect sense to a sociologist, starting with the “holy trinity,” as one of my colleagues calls references to race, class, and gender. These are the foundations for how sociologists view the world. The book is broken into four sections: “The Bases of Inequality,” “Our Social Institutions,” “Our Social and Physical World,” and “Individual Action and Social Change.” There are 17 chapters, each roughly 30 pages, with a chapter review at the end of each chapter. However, when dealing with students who have taken only an introductory sociology course, if that, starting with those topics makes for a very quiet first few weeks. Yet somehow by the end of the semester, most students are ready to acknowledge that social problems have roots in social structures. The final chapter of Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action gives students hope that these problems have solutions. Like any problem, social problems cannot be solved until we acknowledge that they exist.
Leon-Guerrero does an excellent job of explaining issues, such as class, race, gender, education, family, the media, health, and crime, at length and breaking down how each of the main theories (conflict, interactionist, functionalism, and feminist) views these problems. For example, she explains how the feminist perspective of race and ethnicity often focuses on intersectionality and multiculturalism, which is unique to that perspective. Leon-Guerrero also does a very good job in the first chapter, “Sociology and the Study of Social Problems,” defining basic sociological terms and concepts that students may be familiar with from prior sociology classes. Some of the terms that are defined for students are the sociological imagination, social problem, objective and subjective realities, and social construction. In my experience, this is important because some students vaguely remember these terms or concepts and others have never been exposed to them, as many have never taken a sociology class.
I found that the pie charts, data maps, and bar graphs presented in each chapter help to highlight the points that Leon-Guerrero wants readers to take home, such as the “Exploring Social Problems” graphs and maps that provide a visual representation for all of the numbers students are reading. The maps, charts, and graphs illustrate points such as who the poor are, what gender pay disparity looks like around the United States, and who has access to the Internet. The material presented in the graphs, maps, and charts are relevant to the chapter topics and do not overwhelm the reader by being too complicated or plentiful. I was surprised (and disappointed) that the book does not have a graph illustrating the distribution of individuals receiving minimum wage in chapter 9. In my experience using this book, students repeated the rhetoric that only teenagers and high school dropouts are on minimum wage and that those on minimum wage deserve their circumstances and clearly do not desire a different life trajectory. With minimum wage increases being such a hot topic the past couple of years, I was looking forward to seeing more of these myths addressed in chapter 9, “Work and the Economy.” Unfortunately, coverage of the difference between minimum wage and a living wage is limited. I encourage instructors who adopt this book to incorporate outside resources, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (http://www.bls.gov/) and the Fight for $15 website (http://fightfor15.org/).
The information being presented in the text is current, which helped students to see that issues they thought were no longer an issue were still being found to continue to affect people’s lives. For example, Leon-Guerrero explains that race and gender still affect the medical treatment a person will receive as well as how race, gender, and class will influence a person’s level of education and college majors. In addition, Leon-Guerrero’s ability to tie the first section of the book, “The Bases of Inequality,” to all of the subsequent chapters helped students see that race, class, and gender still have an effect on multiple dimensions of people’s lives. Chapter 10, “Health and Medicine”; chapter 11, “The Media”; chapter 12, “Alcohol and Drug Abuse”; chapter 13, “Crime and Criminal Justice”; and the other chapters in sections 2 and 3 show how race, class, and/or gender is affected differently, which helps to dispel the ideas that we live in a postracial, gender-neutral, classless society. By referring back to race, gender, and class in each chapter, Leon-Guerrero reinforces the fact that these statuses do matter and continue to have an effect on the lives of individuals.
While students largely enjoyed the book and felt that the author attempted to be as broad and inclusive as possible, two major and two minor concerns emerged regarding the book content. The first concern was that the coverage of sexual violence and rape culture in chapter 4 could have been expanded. Since nearly one in six women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and women 18 to 24 are three times more likely to be sexually assaulted (Rape and Incest National Network n.d.), I believe that sexual violence deserved more attention as a relevant social problem. Another concern includes the discussion of sexuality in chapter 5. While the book does address homosexuality, heterosexuality, and bisexuality, Leon-Guerrero does not explicitly cover asexuality in the text. By not including asexuality in the discussion of sexualities, the book further marginalizes and ignores an already underrepresented group. The final concern I have about the book after analyzing the feedback from students focuses on an issue presented in chapter 12, “Alcohol and Drug Abuse.” The book covers THC, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, in marijuana, for both its medicinal and mind-altering properties but fails to explain or discuss the health benefits of cannabidiol. In addition, Leon-Guerrero discusses topics such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and “club drugs” but fails to include a discussion of opiates. According to the democratic debate in December 2015, heroin use is on the rise (Grim 2015), which makes it a drug that should be covered when discussing abuse and addiction.
Overall, the book is very well written and organized, and is easy to follow and understand for students. I used this book last semester and am using it again this semester in a Social Problems course at a junior college at the 200 level. I think the book is very beneficial for students who have taken a basic Introduction to Sociology class and possibly other sociology classes. However, since previous sociology classes are frequently not a prerequisite for a Social Problems class, many students using this text may not have grasped the concept of the sociological imagination or may not have a solid sociological foundation when they begin the class. This makes the order of chapters and issues presented in Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action difficult to use at the 200 level as students are very uncomfortable initially talking about or acknowledging the effects of race, class, and gender. I believe that the final chapter on social action is well done and gives students hope that these problems can be solved. It explains that while students may not be able to make radical changes overnight, they can work within their communities, volunteer, and talk to others around them to make small changes that will lead to larger changes. The book points out that change starts with individual actions and encourages the reader to find a cause and go do something about it. It also reminds the reader that social action has been effective in the past, with the civil rights movement. Leon-Guerrero describes how racial issues, gender disparity, and income inequality have changed and are continuing to change by touching on current social movements, such as the story in chapter 17 about Camila Vallejo, who was a part of a student movement for affordable education in Chile.
As stated in the beginning of this review, students are often reluctant to admit that an individual’s problems may not have been caused solely by the individual and that society may have played a role in that individual’s situation, especially those without a sociological imagination, but then want to talk at length about race, class, and gender in the final weeks of class. While I understand why Leon-Guerrero starts with race, class, and gender, I feel that students at the 200 level are not quite ready or comfortable talking about these issues. Instructors using this text may want to complete activities to build trust in the classroom so that students will feel able to express themselves or ask questions. I believe this book would be appropriate for a 300-level-or-higher course, with a prerequisite of Introduction to Sociology. The information presented in the book is vast and can be used in a course at a lower level if the instructor is willing to provide additional explanation and background for students who are not familiar with sociology. One word of caution since I have used the book at the 200 level: providing additional explanation and resources has limited the number of chapters that I was able to cover in one semester.