What is a social problem?

a history of its definition

S. Mary

Peter R. Senn

pp. 211-246

in: Carsten Klingemann, Michael Neumann, Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Ilja Srubar (eds), Jahrbuch für Soziologiegeschichte 1993, Wiesbaden, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 1995

Abstract

For more than a century all the major countries in the Western World have been concerned with social problems. During this time many sociologists and other scholars have attempted to develop a sound definition of a social problem. They recognized that appropriate treatment requires understanding of what they are. The issue has received only sporadic attention throughout the last century. Consensus has never been achieved. All definitions contain one or more of the eight components of the minimum requirements of modern scholarship that takes into account the existing literature. This paper is the chronological story of how scholars arrived at the eight components and now define a social problem. It is restricted to the study of sociologists writing in English. The paper concludes that many difficulties remain and that our understanding of this important subject needs more attention.