This text focuses on the significance of race, class, and gender; uses personal narratives to convey how problems are experienced by individuals and groups; and applies sociological perspectives throughout to examine social issues. Social Problems in a Diverse Society focuses on the significance of race, class, and gender as key factors in our understanding of social problems in the United Stated and around the globe.

Throughout the text, all people - but particularly people of color and white women - are shown not merely as "victims" of social problems, but as individuals who resist discrimination and inequality and seek to bring about changes in families, schools, workplaces, and the larger society.

Chapter 1 Study social problems in the twenty-first century
Chapter 2 Wealth and Poverty: U.S. and global Economic Inequalities
Chapter 3 Racial and Ethnic Inequality
Chapter 4 Gender Inequality
Chapter 5 Inequality Based on Age
Chapter 6 Inequality Based on Sexual Orientation
Chapter 7 Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry
Chapter 8 Alcohol and other Drugs
Chapter 9 Crime and Criminal Justice
Chapter 10 Health care: Problems of Physical and mental Illness
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