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This paper draws on 79 in-depth interviews with police chiefs in Arizona, California, and Michigan to advance sociological understandings of race, masculinity, and policing. While the bulk of scholarship on public law enforcement focuses on urban settings, this paper juxtaposes police's perceptions of urban, suburban, and rural gun violence. It details how police chiefs construct criminal gun violence according to two overarching tropes: (1) gang- and drug-related gun violence involving black and brown perpetrators and victims in urban spaces and (2) active shooting-related gun violence involving white perpetrators and victims in suburban and rural spaces. The analysis shows that police understand their own guns in part through reference to these tropes, embracing two racially distinct styles of police masculinity: the "warrior" and the "guardian." Whereas the "warrior" brand of police masculinity emphasizes aggressive enforcement against (black and brown) perpetrators, the "guardian" brand of police masculinity emphasizes assertive protection on behalf of (white) victims. Detailing masculinity as a bifurcated axis along which racialized policing is enacted and amplified, this study broadens scholarly understandings of public law enforcement as a race-making institution and suggests the limitations of police reforms that fail to address whiteness as shaping public law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact the paper "The Missing Feminist Revolution in Sociology," written by Judith Stacey and Barrie Thorne in 1985, had on the study and teaching of sociology. The paper argued that sociology, in contrast to other social sciences, had warded off attempts by feminist scholars to transform the field's theoretical and conceptual frameworks. A discussion of a study of the paper, which took place at the 2005 meeting of the American Sociological Association is presented.

Understanding the processes that lead to change in institutions and meanings is a central concern of sociology. This paper examines the tactics used by "plural-marriage" activists to cast members of such marriages as an oppressed minority and portray polygamy as empowering to women. In-depth interviews with Mormon fundamentalist polygamist women (N=30) and men (N=4) involved in the plural-marriage-rights movement suggest that, to achieve these goals, our respondents distance themselves from Mormon fundamentalist groups known to force underage girls into marriage while rhetorically likening themselves to a population with whom they have moral objections: gays and lesbians. Movement leaders reinforce the analogy with gay men and lesbians by strategically and self-consciously employing a language of "coming out of the closet" to talk about revealing and affirming their polygamist status. We argue that they are drawn to this particular language not merely because it is culturally ubiquitous but also because of how same-sex marriage and polygamy have been connected via what we call discursive networks. As feminist scholars, we consider our respondents' claims that polygyny offers women advantages over monogamy, while also examining how post-feminist discourse about choice can reinforce patriarchal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two main objectives. One is to consider the central place of human rights in today's global order and the other is to articulate a theoretical framework that will make sociological sense out of current human rights discourse and practice. Human rights emerged from, but need to be distinguished from, societal rights, and they are to be viewed as social claims upon social power arrangements. In advancing our perspective, special attention is given to the place of organizations in human rights theorizing; at the same time, we delineate some of the highly contested aspects of the endeavor to institutionalize a set of human rights principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper-reconsiders the political constraints and organizational dynamics which limit standard-setting by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Past research is dominated by class analytic perspectives which trace the failure of regulatory agencies to either direct "capture" by regulated industries or widespread concern about business confidence. This paper synthesizes the insights of critical legal studies and recent work in political sociology to further specify the social bases of corporate power in the regulatory arena. Critical legal scholars emphasize the ways in which "class neutral" legal statutes create opportunities for capital at the expense of subordinate groups. Recent work in political sociology clarifies the complex organizational and institutional dynamics that shape the mobilization of strategic resources in the context of political opportunities. Using a sample that covers 25 years. we examine the extent to which due process in standard-setting favors capital at the expense of labor due to disparities in resource mobilization. Due process provides capital several opportunities to challenge regulatory initiatives. Capital, led by trade associations and Fortune 500 companies, has consistently mobilized the resources necessary to exploit these opportunities. In contrast, organizational constraints have seriously limited the mobilization of labor and its potential allies, including state technocrats, to defend regulatory initiatives. We identify two far-reaching gains secured by capital given these disparities. On the one hand, the mobilization of a corporate counter movement in any one case may have precluded the effective defense of other regulatory initiatives, since the resources of labor and regulatory agencies are easily exhausted. On the other hand, the mobilization of capital has served to safeguard its right to due process and the opportunities this right affords. We conclude that due process in standard-setting in the context of resource disparities necessarily favors capital because It inevitably results in "opportunity costs," reflected in the hundreds of regulatory initiatives that remain dormant indefinitely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon participant-observation in a research project that conducted AIDS prevention among street- based drug injectors, this paper analyzes the challenges presented in the application of an underdog sociological perspective in a quasi-human service agency. The directors of the AIDS Project incorporated the principles of Becker's labeling theory (1963) and the epistemological foundations of naturalist ethnography into the agency's outreach and research design. As such, this paper explores the bounds of the promoted "underdog sympathy." In addition, since the agency hired mostly former "underdogs" to conduct street outreach, the author examines conflicts in theoretical knowledge claims between the administration and staff. Whereas the outreach staff members embraced more lay-oriented psychological and therapeutic concepts, their experiential authority was dismissed by the sociologist administrators, belying formal claims to privileging underdog perspectives. Inasmuch as the directors dismissed the outreach workers' experiential knowledge, the directors were engaged in "ontological gerrymandering" (Woolgar and Pawluch 1985): selectively distinguishing objective reality from subjective claims. This paper focuses on two issues that represent the difficulty in applying an underdog sociology: 1) the dynamic construction of drugs, addiction, and recovery; and 2) collective representations of drug using clients. Employing Gouldner's (1967) critique of labeling theory, this paper deconstructs empirically the role of interests in the production of knowledge and contradictory sociological sentiments toward "deviants" in an applied setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is addressed to a neglected aspect of that social psychology, namely, the "meaning" for individuals and groups of the nature of the stratification system and of their particular place in it. More specifically, in this paper researchers intend to explore ways in which groups perceive the dynamics of their social class system as measured by their opinions about interests of the participating classes and ways in which those interests lead to social harmony or conflict. This is, then, a study which in the classical literature of sociology would be called an investigation into "class consciousness" but which, because of the ambiguity in the meaning of that term, prefer to speak of as a study of "images of class relations." The setting to which this data relates is the Soviet Union. Although official dogma holds that class relations in the U.S.S.R. are profoundly different from those in "capitalist" countries and that the nation is approaching a classless society, there is ample evidence that Soviet social structure includes a fully elaborated social class system.

Earl Wright II 1 and Aldon D. Morris 2 1 Rhodes College, 2 Northwestern University In the late 1990s an upstart and insurgent push arose in the discipline of sociology to expand the literature on the contributions of William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois beyond cursory acknowledgments of his 1899 book Philadelphia Negro and his theories including "double consciousness" and the talented tenth. Stated simply, Morris demonstrated that Du Bois' scholarly activities constituted the methodological and analytical blueprint that dominates the current discipline and that should have made Du Bois' name synonymous with the discipline for many decades prior to this moment. Extending beyond previous scholarship, Morris argued that Du Bois should be credited as the founder of American scientific sociology because the methodological sophistication of his works was much more scientific than those of his contemporaries at well-resourced and more highly rated institutions. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents a critical commentary on the form of sociological explanation of the defintional perspective. Recent explanation of social problems have increasingly adopted the definitional perspective. In this paper the authors examine a body recent contributions to the study of social problems which adopted a social construtionist perspective. Objective of this study is to provide a critical commentary on the character of sociological argument common to this school of thoughts. The authors call their approach an ethnography of argument, where ethnography denotes attempt to distanced view of activities being observed and where argument is a generic term for activities such as reasoning, explaining, persuading and understanding. A number of recent articles have analyzed changing definitions of behaviors and conditions and have attempted to account for these changes in terms of claims-making activities of individuals and groups involved. some others have been more successful than others in remaining impartial to the truth value of their claims. But in fundamental sense all these works make claims of their own, the truth value of which is never questioned. It is this common feature of social problems that the authors of this article analyze.

This article discusses a proposal of a natural history framework for analyzing interactional processes through which personal difficulties or troubles are identified, reacted to and perhaps transformed into a specific sort of deviance. Situations chosen are ones in which troubles begin and are remedied intra-personally. Of particular sociological interest, however, are troubles that are inextricably interpersonal matters. Important variations arise with such relational troubles--that is, those in which remedial efforts are addressed to another in a recognized relationship with the troubled person. Corrective actions can be termed intrinsic remedies, since they can draw upon the interpersonal resources inherent in that relationship. In moving through a circuit of troubleshooters, an initially ambiguous trouble tends to crystallize, as new ways and means of dealing with the problem are sought out and implemented and prior ways are determined to be ineffective and rejected. Although the paper has focused on the micro-political, interactional processes, it is imperative that a fully developed sociology of trouble would also consider macro-politics.

The article presents information on the sociology of criminal law. Legal sociology or the sociology of law has emerged, since the early 1960s, as an important area of criminological and, more generally, sociological interest. In view of the criminological source of much of the contemporary interest in the sociology of law, it is not surprising that one of the theoretical issues receiving most attention is the nature of the criminal law. In sharp contrast to the value-consensus viewpoint is the conflict model, which sees law as an expression of the interests of the powerful. To conclude that a dispute is terminological is not necessarily to conclude that it is trivial. It is obviously a matter of some interest that certain offenses punishable by the state are not regarded as criminal by consensus theorists, nor indeed by the society at large. The thrust of this paper has been that research aimed at testing or adjudicating between conflict and consensus models of the legal order is likely to be unproductive.

This paper reports on a participant observation study carried out at Stateville Penitentiary, a maximum security prison, during the summer of 1972. The social organization of the prison has been a topic of frequent sociological attention. Efforts have been made to explain "inmate culture" and the often referred to "inmate code." Contrary to the traditional structural-functional explanation for inmate organization which focuses upon situational variables, this analysis supports the Irwin-Cressey (1964) position that much of what has been termed inmate culture is actually imported from outside the prison. The most significant reality behind Stateville's walls is the existence of four lower class Chicago street gangs which have brought into the prison their street activities, hierarchies, rivalries, and ideologies. The purpose here is to describe the social organization which has emerged as a result of this phenomenon and to relate this development to the traditional literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with two questions: 1) under what conditions will people intervene to help someone else and 2) what community characteristics promote or hinder these conditions? Small group laboratory studies suggest that the presence of others hindered rather than promoted a willingness to intervene. Other research shows that factors which encourage communication are related to the willingness to help someone or respond to an act of deviance. This study attempts to apply some of these ideas to 12 areas in the city of Edmonton, Alberta. Generally, increased interaction within a community was related to a willingness to intervene and to other predicted variables. However, the pattern differed in "stable" and in "unstable" communities, While the predicted model may be appropriate for stable neighborhoods, the dynamics in communities with greater mobility may call for an alternate explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical scientists have predicted that parents will soon be able to pre-select the sex of their children (sex control). Social scientists have in turn projected some its potential soda! consequences in terms of the sex ratio, the birth rate, the proportion of first-born males, and family relationships. This paper will critically assess some of those projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explain the wide-spread declines in arrest-levels reported by police departments in the Northeast after the 1870's, using Dahrs thesis that this was the period when businessmen began to dominate politic in many American cities and Wilson's thesis that intense political conflict tends to draw the police into politics and to undermine their effectiveness. The data of this research were drawn from Salem, Massachusetts, and take two forms: statistical accounts of the structure and activities of the Salem police; and historical accounts of the political organization of the town. The results Lend strong support to the conclusion that both Dahi's and Wilson's theses are valid explanations of the decline of the Salem department after the 1870's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper speaks to the problem of designing income maintenance programs from the perspective of sociological theory. First, the underlying logic of situational and cultural theories of poverty is delineated, and some of their general implications are explored. Afterwards, the predictions of these theories with respect to the response by poor persons to an income maintenance program are examined. It is argued that, in place of seeking whether one or the other type of explanation is valid in general, we ascertain for which groups in poverty and for what types of response a particular theory is likely to be more useful. The discussion is illustrated by a consideration of how an individuals response to income maintenance is likely to vary with ethnicity and neighborhood organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sutherland theory has been supported by various studies showing a co-variance between delinquent association and delinquent involvement. However, since this support is cross-sectional, it can also be used in support of other competing formulations. In this paper we suggest three modes of solution for deciding between the Sutherland and the Glueck interpretations of this data: an empirical solution, a theoretical solution, and a theoretical compromise. Concerning an empirical solution we pay particular attention to techniques recently developed which allow causal interpretations to be inferred from cross-sectional data. Concerning a theoretical solution we discuss the possibility of conceptualizing one or the other theories as special cases of a more general and empirically supported theory. And as a theoretical com- promise we suggest restricting the application of each theory to certain mutually exclusive psychological and sociological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the distribution of privileged communication statutes in the United States, both across professions and across geographical regions of the country. Even though no statistically significant covariations could be discovered, this topic is deemed worthy of sociological attention, and several interesting findings are elaborated. It is noted, for instance, that prestige rankings are not a totally adequate predictor of those professionals who can protect the confidences of clients or patients in the courts. Two important questions that remain are whether laymen take & sufficient interest in the lack of privileged communication statutes to bring pressure to bear on legislators, and how important the lobbying activities of professional associations may be in influencing the prevalence of these statutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper illustrates the difference between absolute and social conceptions of responsibility, by employing the perspective of the sociology of knowledge. Comparing the degree of shared awareness and the organization of the format of the transaction in initial psychiatric and legal interviews, propositions showing the relationship between the power and authority of the interactants, and the resultant shared definition of the client's responsibility, are suggested. The use of interrogation to reconstruct parts of an individual's past history is a common occurrence in human affairs. The most dramatic use of interrogation to determine responsibility is in criminal trials. The social worker determining a client's eligibility for unemployment compensation seeks to establish that he himself is not responsible for being out of work. This article makes a contrast between two perspectives on the process of reconstructing past events for the purpose of fixing responsibility. The basic premise of the doctrine of absolute responsibility is that both actions and intentions, on the one hand, and the criteria of responsibility, on the other, are absolute, in that they can be assessed independently of social context.

This paper provides a sociological analysis and explanation for the causes and course of the Los Angeles riot. Among causes, special emphasis is placed on the state of police-Negro relations in the years preceding the riot. The widespread belief in police brutality structured the perceptions and reactions of the crowd present at the precipitating incident. Both the conspiracy and criminal-hoodlum theory of riot participation are discarded in view of the evidence. The riot is seen as a massive, violent, lower-class, Negro outburst which stopped short of being an insurrection. The magnitude and duration of the riot are explained with reference to ecology, communications, and the law-enforcement tactics used. The view that riot behavior and motivation were an irrational, unfocused, and destructive orgy against authority carried out by an amorphous mass is questioned. Rational and normative components of riot behavior and group activity during the rioting are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, inmate social roles and social organization in a women's prison will be described in some detail, comparisons of this is informal social structure will be made with relevant literature on the social roles assumed by male prisoners and the social structure inside the prison setting will be viewed in relation to the external environment. The study of deviance in the prison setting has typically been concerned with male forms of deviation. Indeed, with the exception of analysis of the "fringer" role and the recently reported study of a women's prison which describes the homosexual adaptation of female inmates, scientific description and analysis of the informal organization of the adult female prison have been overlooked. This formulation derives from case studies of single institutions and therefore, it is extremely difficult to ascertain the validity of conclusions drawn as previous writers have not explored systematically the interaction of the external culture with the conditions for survival faced by the prison aggregate.

It is general practice in sociology to regard deviant behavior as an alien element in society. Deviance is considered a vagrant form of human activity, moving outside the more orderly currents of social life. Deviation, can often be understood as a normal product of stable institutions, a vital resource which is guarded and preserved by forces found in all human organizations. From a sociological standpoint, deviance can be defined as conduct which is generally thought to require the attention of social control agencies that is, conduct about which "something should be done." Deviance is not a property inherent in certain forms of behavior; it is a property conferred upon these forms by the audiences which directly or indirectly witness them. Sociologically, then, the critical variable in the study of deviance is the social audience rather than the individual person, since it is the audience which eventually decides whether or not any given action or actions will become a visible case of deviation. This research paper attempts to focus the attention on the sociological question: how does a social structure communicate its "needs" or impose its "patterns" on human actors?

This article presents a list of events scheduled to take place at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. The venue is The Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. The meeting will take place from August 26-29, 1957. The registration of the delegates will start in the morning on August 26. The meeting of the executive committee and the meeting of chairmen of special problems committees will also be held. The other committees which are scheduled to meet on the first day of the meeting are New Projects Committee, Occupational Problems Committee, Committee on Crime and Delinquency, Committee on Sociology of Physical Health, Committee on Alcoholism, Committee on Mental Health, Committee on Invidious Inter-group Relations, Committee on war and Peace, Committee on Organizational Dynamics, Committee on Community Research and Development. The article also lists the topics to be discussed and the papers to be presented in the meeting. Some of the topics are medicine and sociology, race and ethnic relations and social disorganization and deviant behavior.

The article presents an annual report for 1962-63 of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) representative to the American Sociological Association Inc. (ASA), council. According to the author, several years ago sociologist Everett C. Hughes gave a paper before the SSSP in which he spoke with disapproval of the bureaucratization of sociology field's principal society, the American Sociological Association Inc. and of the related diversion of energies of sociologists from scientific to short-run commercial goals. During the past year, Hughes has served as President of the ASA. During that same year, the ASA has taken large strides toward bureaucratization, strides he sanctioned and justified. The author points out that Hughes was not the architect of steps taken during the past year. The long-time architect has been sociologist John W. Riley, appointed by Hughes as successor to Donald Young as Chairman of the ASA Organization and Plans Committee. Though Riley's position with the ASA has been all or largely appointive, he and Young have wielded great power in the organization for many years.

The article presents the author's comments presented at the 2016 American Sociological Association annual meetings in Seattle, Washington within the disciplines of sociological hypnagogia, negligence, and denial. It presents the author's response to the questions addressed by Professor Aldon Morris pertaining to sociology's ability and commitment to social problems and inequalities in the house. It also discusses the sociological concept of racial apathy and the particulars of white sociology.

The article presents the author's response to the questions of Professor Aldon Morris regarding how sociologists and sociology examine matters of inequality inside and outside sociological house. It focuses on the salience of race in American sociology since the discipline was established. Other topics noted include prehistory of the modern post-racial moment in sociology, sociological integration and the contemporary post-racial moment in sociology, emancipatory sociology.

The article presents an examination into the sociology of racial segregation and inclusion within white sororities and fraternities in the United States. Introductory details are provided highlighting the legal measures which technically prevent outright racial segregation in such college groups but also pointing out the continued prevalence of exclusionary policies and practices within them. Discussion is then given exploring the social dynamics of non-whites who do participate in such groups and the framing of their actions through paradigms of conformity.

How do animals become problems? Drawing on interactionist theories of social problems and cultural geography, I argue that the construction of animals as problems relies upon cultural understandings of nature/ culture relationships, which in turn entail "imaginative geographies." Specifically, modernity posits a firm boundary between nature and culture. Animals have their place, but are experienced as "out of place"--and often problematic--when they are perceived to transgress spaces designated far human habitation. Relying on New York Times articles from 1851 to 2006, and articles from 51 other newspapers from 1980 to 2006, this article focuses on the process by which pigeons as a species were problematized. I contend that pigeons have come to represent the antithesis of the ideal metropolis, which is orderly and sanitized, with nature subdued and compartmentalized. While typified as a health issue, the pigeon's primary "offense" is that it "pollutes" habitats dedicated for human use. The catch phrase "rats with wings" neatly summarizes society's evaluations of, and anxieties about, this bird. This metaphor reflects a framing of pigeons by claims-makers that renders them out of place in the cityscape. This study expands social problems theorizing to more thoroughly account for animals and the role of space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses engagements and contradictions of Society for the Study of Social Problems. A primary challenge is transcending the notion of an applied social science. That term implies that social science outlooks and findings are translated into ideas and language that could be used by action organizations. The clear implication is that social science teaches activists and that it does not learn from action and activists. A second contradiction, challenge or tension, lies in the thin, but crucial, line between commitment and partisanship. Commitment is to an issue or a class or identity group. A third contradiction is between knowing the world one analyze and not knowing it. Gaining deep knowledge is no easy matter. One can learn about the past and present. It is important to operate on the principle that concrete knowledge about concrete things is basic. It doesn't substitute for knowing theories, but then, theories don't substitute for specific knowledge, even as one recognizes the uncertainties embedded in what passes for knowledge. One should not rely on what similarly minded people say is knowledge. Knowing what the critically minded say may be useful to know and evaluate.

The article discusses author's preference for the journal "Social Problems" (SP). In the author's view SP has been as useful in his teaching as it has been for his research. The author finds selections front SP to be ideally suited for them for two primary reasons. First, the journal consistently disseminates research relevant to the subjects he teaches on a regular basis like deviance, juvenile delinquency, interpersonal and collective violence, capital punishment and drug policy. Second and more important, his students seem to find many of the articles in SP to be far more interesting and accessible than those in others major journals of our discipline. While SP material is complex, it is less often written in the highly technical, jargon-laden style of the others. The sociological substance shines brightly, rather than getting lost in the shadows of methodological detail. It is the sort of literature that motivated undergraduates can learn something from and can actually enjoy, rather than experience as a torturous rite of passage.

The article compares the journal "Social Problems" (SP) with "American Journal of Sociology" (AJS) and "American Sociological Review" (ASR) to determine whether these top-tier journals fairly represent the sub-fields of sociology, as well as both women and men authors. In addition, the article examines the gender of authors in these journals, updating and contributing to the literature that addresses sub-field representation, gender, and publishing in sociology journals. All three journals SP, AJS, and ASR, are expected, not only to publish the best work in the discipline, but also to reflect the broad scope of sociology. As the discipline continues to expand and the definition of sociological research continues to diversify, these mainstream and national journals may serve to clarify and unify the field. The content of leading journals is important, not only because they can unite the discipline by communicating scholarly developments, but also because publishing in top-tier mainstream Journals continues to serve as an important indicator of academic reputation. The relatively large number of articles published in the of race and ethnicity and sex and gender, particularly in AJS and SP, indicates that these journals are willing to accept some articles from these once-marginalized sub-fields.

The article examines the context within which the Ohio State University conflict in sociology department arose, the process by which the dispute became defined as a moral or ethical one for those who disagreed with the actions of the chairman and the impact on those involved applicants, each of whom had strengths and weaknesses. In the spring of 1967, professor Hans Zetterberg was named Chairman of the sociology department. Later that year, Zetterberg announced through the department newsletter, called the Weekly Message. The main criterion for salary increases and promotions is creative development of knowledge, demonstrated in writing and orally in teaching and related scholarly activities. In addition to the elitist perspective and the clumsy manner in which the new salary structure was created, some other disturbing factors were involved. Zetterberg had few conversations with faculty he placed in invited or frozen categories about their work, their plans for research and publication, or their teaching before he sent their letters. Also, the lack of congruence between his decisions and the earlier statement, concerning salary decisions and promotion developed in the document, especially the statement regarding the importance of teaching, became a major issue.

The article examines relationship between sociology and the human rights discourse with reference to observations from Africa. At first glance, sociology appears to be in a strategic position to grapple with human rights issues given its focus on the maintenance of social order, social change and the construction of new institutions. All these can be brought to bear on the problem of human right's. Beneath the present tensions over African or Western perspectives on human rights lies a long established history of interaction between the two regions in which the beliefs and interests of the West have shaped programs that are expected to develop Africa. Although individual rights can be said to exist in Africa, there is no doubt that great emphasis is placed on the collectivity, with groups perceived as important fad for rights. African perspectives are often referred to as collectivistic, implying that many rights accrue to one by virtue of one's membership in specific groups. Furthermore, politicians frequently manipulate ethnic or religious loyalties to stay in power. When this fails and pressures for democracy erupt from below, leaders have generally thrown all ideas of human rights overboard and dealt devastating blows on students, trade unions, academics, social activists and civil society.

The article focuses on social problem as an enterprise. It explores what constitutes a social problem and moreover, how to confidently define the contours of legitimacy for ameliorative activity. The article is, with varying degrees of explicitness, guided by the author's vision of how to apply the cui bono criterion to social science as a moral enterprise. It also explores how social problems might be discovered and addressed responsibly by asking to whom the social scientist owes loyalty. While there may be other ways to resolve the objectivist-subjectivist controversy, the author propose to do so by using seven culturally universal value preferences to guide disciplinary and professional behavior in the study, and ameliorative pursuit of what constitutes a social problem. It also frames the means to evaluate both social scientists' conceptualizations, as well as their personal and professional initiatives toward socially responsible ameliorative activities in addressing social problems.