Gun Control as a Social Problem
Michael A. Judge
3064051
SOCI212 – Social Problems
Professor Gardner
The sociological approach to addressing social problem provides a different perspective of those social problems than other disciplines. Sociology demands a look at the self created structures of a society that result in the creation of social problems (Gurrero, 2011). This perspective allows sociologists to examine the relationships between the macro view of society and the micro view of society (Gurrero, 2011). The study of the individuals and institutions that compose a society through objective and systematic analysis allow for sociologists to understand the root causes of social problems (Gurrero, 2011). Individuals may not relate their problems to problems that the entire society has, likewise the solutions to individual problems are not necessarily the best solution to social problems. For instance if a young family does not earn enough money to support their family, they must ask for help. The individual problem in this case is the same as a social problem. The individual’s solutions to this problem may be to ask family for money or assistance. Society as a whole is responsible for taking care of its member’s welfare, thusly; government creates institutions in order to deal with the social problem of welfare. While social problems have both subjective and objective realities, the significance of a social problem is dependent upon its subjective reality (Gurrero, 2011). Objective realities are the hard and fast numbers associated with a social problem; these are the confirmed statistical data points that are not subjected to individual perspective (Gurrerro, 2011). The subjective reality of a social problem is what brings the social problem to the entirety of society and determines its significance. While the numbers of crimes committed with guns was stable from 1998 to 2006, the last year data was
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