NCJ Number
74217
Date Published
1976
Length
206 pages
Annotation
In dealing with societal reactions to social problems such as poverty, crime, mental illness, war, racism, pollution, and social deviance, this book focuses on their interrelations and on society's organized and conscious efforts to solve social problems by intervention.
Abstract
Written from a Canadian perspective, but with frequent references to American research, this book attempts to answer basic questions regarding strategies of intervention and their possible alternatives. In a departure from the content limitations of comparable introductory-level texts, this book deals with advanced-seminar types of subject matter including evaluation research; latent functions; labeling, fatalistic, and determinist philosophies; the problem of technologism; historical development of institutions; and conflicting intervention strategies. The author examines from an historical perspective the reasons why people of earlier eras did not intervene in certain problems and how today's intervention institutions came into existence and developed into their present form. The book also describes some of the hidden pitfalls and unanticipated consequences of intervention, questions the certainty of producing any results, and asks how one chooses among competing strategies. The book describes the unintended consequences of intervention as exemplified by labeling theory and describes how this theory causes secondary deviance and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The promise and difficulties -- practical and political -- of intervention and the emergence of expertise in this field are also explored in depth. The table of contents has been expanded beyond the usual chapter and subchapter headings to offer a synopsis of each chapter, and is intended as a teaching aid. A 420-entry bibliography, along with an index, is appended.