First chapter summary ( Sociology)

According to sociologist, a social problem is a condition( Such as poverty) or a pattern of behavior( Such as substance abuse) that people believe warrants public concern and collective action to bring about change

Sociologist view violence as a social problem that involves both a subjective awareness and objective reality. we have a subjective awareness that violence can occur in such public settings as schools, day care centers, businesses and churches our subjective awareness become an objective reality when we can measure and experience the effects of violent criminal behavior.

They use both microlevel and microlevel analyses to examine social life. Microlevel analysis focuses on small group relations and social interaction among individuals, microlevel analysis focuses on social processes occurring at the societal level, especially in large scale organizations and major social institutions.

They view society as a stable, orderly system composed of interrelated parts , each of which performs a function that contributes to the overall stability of society. According to functionalists, social problems such as violence arise when social institutions do not fulfill the functions that the are supposed to perform or when dysfunction occur.

It asserts perspective that groups in society are engages in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources. This perspective views violence as a response to inequalities based on race, class, gender and other power differentials in society.

According to value conflict theorists, social problems are conditions that are incompatible with group values. From this perspective, value clashes are ordinary occurrences in families, communities and the larger society, in which people commonly hold many divergent values. In contrast, critical conflict theorists suggest that social problems arise out of major contradictions inherent in the way societies are organized.

Different conflict theorists focus on different aspects of power relations and inequality in society. Perspectives based on the works of Karl Marx emphasize class-based inequalities arising from the capitalist system. Feminist perspectives focus on patriarchy- a system of male dominance in which males are privileged and women are oppressed. Other perspectives emphasize that race, class and gender are interlocking systems of privilege and oppression that result in social problems. However, all of those perspectives are based on the assumption that inequality and exploitation, rather than social harmony and stability, characterize contemporary societies.

Unlike the functionalist and conflict perspectives, which focus on society at the macrolevel, the symbolic interactionist perspective views society as the sum of interactions of individuals and groups. For symbolic interactionist, social problems occur when social interaction is disrupted and people are dehumanized, when people are labeled deviant, or when the individual's definition of a situation causes him or her to act in a way that produces a determined outcome.

In field research, sociologists observe and interview people where they live, work and play. In survey research, sociologists use written questionnaires or structured interviews to ask respondents a series of questions about a specific topic. In secondary analysis of existing data, sociologist analyze data that originally were collected for some other purpose.