Images of Issues

Constructionist theory describes and analyzes social problems as emerging through the efforts of claimsmakers who bring issues to public attention

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