This introductory text is theoretically-balanced, incorporating the three major theoretical perspectives: functionalist, conflict, and interactionist. The text focuses on the individual, with a chapter on The Individual in a Complex Society: Alienation, Anomie and Postmodernism. Every chapter includes alternative scenarios, with a pessimistic scenario and an optimistic scenario, to show students how action taken today can affect the future. Topics new to the third edition include gun control, AIDS, abortion, domestic, school and street violence, and reactions to immigrants and illegal aliens. Every chapter includes an international section on how other societies face similar social problems.
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