Yung-Teh Chow - Social Policy and Public Policy

First published 1974 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Copyright 1974 by Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2008055029

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rainwater, Lee.

[Social problems and public policy]

Social policy and public policy : inequality and justice / Lee Rainwater.

p. cm.

Reprint. First published in 1974 by Aldine under title: Social problems and

public policy : inequality and justice.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-202-36253-3 (alk. paper)

1. United States-Social conditions-1960-1980. 2. Equality. I. Title

HN65.R35 2009
361.973-dc22

2008055029

ISBN 13: 978-0-202-36253-3 (pbk)

THIS BOOK is designed as an introduction to social science perspectives on a broad range of social issues in American society. It is one of two companion volumes, dealing respectively with problems of inequality and justice and with problems of deviance and liberty; the volumes have been organized so that each can stand independently of the other.

Any one of the problems dealt with here is complex enough to merit the attention of a cadre of specialists. A book that seeks to survey contemporary social issues, therefore, cannot hope to provide an exhaustive or definitive analysis of each one. But there is a role for a survey that deals with the many different kinds of social problems of concern to American citizens and with the many different policy initiatives that are used to cope with these issues. From such a survey one can learn something about the common themes, predilections and quandaries that characterize this nations response to its complexities, its patterns of inequality and injustice.

Given the tremendous variety of social problems of concern in our society, each selection in these volumes has to do several different kinds of duty. They have been chosen to cover as fully as possible the range of substantive problematic issues, the range of social science perspectives that can be brought to bear on issues of all kinds, and the range of social science methodologies used in studying modern society. Finally, the selections have been chosen to emphasize the contributions that can be made to understanding social problems by intensive and rigorous social science research.

Because these problems are of concern to so many in our society and because we all have available a good deal of information about many if not all of them, informal and impressionistic approaches often tell us a good deal about them. In this sense, every man is his own social scientist. Journalists and popular writers using this common sense approach to social problems may present in the mass media essays that are imaginative and incisive. As interpreters of social reality, they are formidable competitors to the social scientist, whose ivory tower and plodding approach often seems to yield less illumination than a good police reporters work. Increasingly, however, the tools of social scientists are enabling them to produce information and analyses that contribute far more to our understanding than even the most insightful journalist can achieve. The selection in these volumes are designed to highlight the deeper and more fundamental understanding of social issues that can come from the rigorous analysis of government statistics, or from special sample surveys, or from in-depth ethnographic studies.

My editorial introductions to each selection appear in sans serif type (as here) and are set off from the text of the selections themselves by squares like those preceding and ending this paragraph. To assist the reader who wants to explore more fully the topics that are covered in this book, I have included suggestions for further reading at the end of each introduction.

The perspective on social problems that guided me in preparing this book was developed while working with a number of valued colleagues, in particular Irving Louis Horowitz and David J. Pittman during my years at Washington University, and Phillips Cutright, Herbert J. Gans, and Martin Rein during our time together at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of M.I.T, and Harvard. My wife, Carol Rainwater, has been an important contributor to this work, both in discussions over the years of most of the social issues covered here and more concretely through her assistance in selecting and assembling the articles included.

As on other occasions, I have benefited greatly from discussions with Aldines publisher, Alexander J. Morin. Janet Braeunig of Aldine has responded magnificently to my not-so-orderly approach to editing this collection. And I thank Sally Nash for her competent handling of the complex process of manuscript preparation involved in preparing this book.

LEE RAINWATER

A social problem is a condition which is defined by a considerable number of persons as a deviation from some social norm which they cherish. This definition offered by Richard C. Fuller and Richard R. Myers some 30 years ago characterizes with considerable economy the kinds of issues sociologists typically study under the rubic of social problems. As will quickly become apparent below, the field of social problems has a very different character from most of the substantive areas of sociology, such as social stratification or interaction processes or the family.

In their efforts to define what social problems as traditionally studied have in common, Fuller and Myers noted that there is always a dual reference in the assertion that something is a social problem: (a) a reference to an objective condition, and (b) a reference to a subjective evaluation which defines that condition as in some way undesirable, destructive, or immoral. They note further that the objective condition is verifiable, in the sense that impartial or trained observers can describe its nature and extent. But in order for a particular objective condition to be reasonably characterized as a social problem, it is necessary that members of the society see it as an undesirable departure from the ordinary course of things.

One could relax this latter condition somewhat and broaden the definition to include objective conditions that have or are believed to have consequences which, if understood, would be regarded as deviating from some social norm. These might be called hidden social problems. I raise this issue not simply to make a pedantic point but to observe that one important consequence of living in a complex society like ours is that new undesirable consequences are constantly being discovered. Before these situations are fully communicated, the existence of the problem may be known only to a few specialists; after they have been fully communicated, these situations are recognized as social problems by many people, Some aspects of environmental issues present particularly dramatic examples of thisfor example, the dangers of nuclear fall-out.