Title: What Is a Social Problem?
Headings: 1.1
What Is a Social Problem?

1.1 What Is a Social Problem?
Learning Objectives
The Natural History of a Social Problem
Stage 1: Emergence and Claims Making
Stage 2: Legitimacy
Stage 3: Renewed Claims Making
Stage 4: Development of Alternative Strategies
Key Takeaways

Content: Thus although sexual violence existed, it was not considered a social problem. When the contemporary women’s movement began in the late 1970s, it soon focused on rape and sexual assault as serious crimes and as manifestations of women’s inequality. Thanks to this focus, rape and sexual assault eventually entered the public consciousness, views of these crimes began to change, and legal policymakers began to give them more attention. In short, sexual violence against women became a social problem. Before the 1970s, rape and sexual assault certainly existed and were very common, but they were generally ignored and not considered a social problem. When the contemporary women’s movement arose during the 1970s, it focused on sexual violence against women and turned this behavior into a social problem. Image courtesy of Women’s eNews, http://www.flickr.com/photos/wenews/5167303294/.
The social constructionist view raises an interesting question: When is a social problem a social problem? According to some sociologists who adopt this view, negative conditions and behaviors are not a social problem unless they are recognized as such by policymakers, large numbers of lay citizens, or other segments of our society; these sociologists would thus say that rape and sexual assault before the 1970s were not a social problem because our society as a whole paid them little attention.