Social Problems (8th Edition)

This best-selling introduction to social problems opens with an overview of the sociological tools and perspectives that are used in the study of social problems. The book provides a solid foundation by discussing fundamental changes and problems in the four basic social institutions — economy, government, education, and family — before examining more specific topics, such as health care or poverty. The volume addresses the sociological aspects of sociology and social problems, troubled institutions, the problems of inequality, conformity and deviance and the problems of a changing world. For those interested in the social problems and solutions that face society today.

James W. Coleman is a professor of sociology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and past chair of the Social Sciences Department. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a student of Donald R. Cressey who, until his death, was America's leading criminologist and the coauthor of this text.

Professor Coleman is an internationally recognized authority on white collar crime. In addition to numerous articles on the subject, he is the author of The Criminal Elite: Understanding White Collar Crime. He is also interested in the sociology of religion and has just published a new book on Western Buddhism called The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition.

Harold R. Kerbo is a professor of sociology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Professor Kerbo has been promoting international education in the United States and abroad since the early 1980s with extensive teaching and research experience in Asia and Europe. In addition to other teaching experience in Tokyo, Professor Kerbo was a Fulbright Professor during 1988-1989 at Hiroshima University, as well as a visiting professor in the Law Faculty at Hiroshima Shudo University. During 1991, Professor Kerbo was a visiting professor at the University of Duisburg, Germany, and returned to the Dusseldorf area during 1992 and 1993 as a research professor conducting research on employee relations in Japanese corporations located in Germany. In 1990, Professor Kerbo received a Fulbright-Hays grant to study at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and for several months during 1994-1996 directed a research project on employee relations in American and Japanese corporations with operations in Thailand. During 1996, he was also a visiting professor in the MBA Program at the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand. From 1995, Professor Kerbo has been in charge of annual study programs he helped establish for American students in Thailand, with study trips also to Laos and Vietnam. From 1998, Professor Kerbo has also been involved in establishing annual study programs in Japan. During the winter term of 1999, Professor Kerbo was a visiting professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and was a visiting professor at the University of Wales, Great Britain, during the fall term of 1999.

Professor Kerbo has published six books and numerous articles on the subjects of social stratification, comparative societies, corporate structure, and modern Japan. He is the author of the leading textbook on social stratification titled Social Stratification and Inequality, 4/E, and, along with John A. McKinstry, the author of Who Rules Japan?: The Inner-Circles of Economic and Political Power.