Table of Contents

Introduction; 1: Typification and Social Problems Construction; I: Claims; 2: Horror Stories and the Construction of Child Abuse; 3: Stalking Strangers and Lovers: Changing Media Typifications of a New Crime Problem; 4: Rethinking Medicalization: Alcoholism and Anomalies; 5: The Moral Drama of Multicultural Education; II: Claimsmakers; 6: Clergy Sexual Abuse: The Symbolic Politics of a Social Problem; 7: The Social Construction of Infertility: From Private Matter to Social Concern; 8: The Crack Attack: America’s Latest Drug Scare, 1986-1992; III: Connections; 9: “All We Want Is Equality”: Rhetorical Framing in the Fathers’ Rights Movement; 10: Hate Crimes in the United States: The Transformation of Injured Persons into Victims and the Extension of Victim Status to Multiple Constituencies; 11: Down on the Farm: Rationale Expansion in the Construction of Factory Farming as a Social Problem; IV: Policies; 12: Writing Rights: The “Homeless Mentally III and Involuntary Hospitalization; 13: Creativity, Conflict, and Control: Film Industry Campaigns to Shape Video Policy; 14: Cold Wars, Evil Empires, Treacherous Japanese: Effects of International Context on Problem Construction; Afterword; 15: Constructionism in Context

About the Author

Joel Best

Reviews

-A collection of articles about a wide range of contemporary social problems all very much in current public discussion: spousal, elder, and child abuse; AIDS; dyslexia and other learning disabilities; concern about infertility; substance abuse; concern about rock lyrics; and the supposed threat of illegal immigration... The articles are all competent, well written, and adequately documented... [T]he authors cast light on an interesting collection of social problems, in a style that is constantly readable and frequently interesting. Readers at all levels.- --S. M. Soiffer, Choice

"A collection of articles about a wide range of contemporary social problems all very much in current public discussion: spousal, elder, and child abuse; AIDS; dyslexia and other learning disabilities; concern about infertility; substance abuse; concern about rock lyrics; and the supposed threat of illegal immigration... The articles are all competent, well written, and adequately documented... [T]he authors cast light on an interesting collection of social problems, in a style that is constantly readable and frequently interesting. Readers at all levels." --S. M. Soiffer, Choice

"A collection of articles about a wide range of contemporary social problems all very much in current public discussion: spousal, elder, and child abuse; AIDS; dyslexia and other learning disabilities; concern about infertility; substance abuse; concern about rock lyrics; and the supposed threat of illegal immigration... The articles are all competent, well written, and adequately documented... [T]he authors cast light on an interesting collection of social problems, in a style that is constantly readable and frequently interesting. Readers at all levels." --S. M. Soiffer, Choice