Social Movement Organizationsocial Problems You H

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

• Life expectancy, mortality rates in low-income vs. middle-income vs. high-income countries
• Life expectancy in the U.S. compared to other high-income, industrialized countries
• High rate of mental illness in the United States
• Mental illness among college students in the United States
• Higher incidence and prevalence of health problems and lower life expectancy among people of low socioeconomic status in the United States
• Higher rates of obesity among people of low socioeconomic status in the U.S.
• High obesity rates in general in the U.S.
• Domestic violence against girls/women
• Sexual exploitation of girls/women
• Lower life expectancy for U.S. men
• Higher rates of mental illness among U.S. women
• Health disparities in the U.S. (such as in life expectancy) between whites and African Americans and/or Native Americans
• Access to health care in the U.S. compared with other industrialized countries
• High cost of health care in the U.S. (compared with other industrialized countries)
• Inadequate mental health care in the U.S.

ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS

• The War on Drugs in the U.S.
• High rates of alcohol abuse in the United States
• Binge drinking among college students in the U.S.
• High rates of tobacco use (e.g., smoking cigarettes) in the U.S.
• Tobacco advertisers targeting minority communities
• Tobacco advertisers targeting women
• The use and/or trafficking of marijuana
• Cocaine and crack use and abuse in the U.S.
• Methamphetamine use and abuse in the U.S.
• Heroin use and abuse in the U.S.
• Abuse of prescription drugs in the U.S.

CRIME AND SOCIAL CONTROL

• Human trafficking
• Guns (gun control) in the U.S.
• Rape
• Gambling
• Prostitution
• Corporate crime
• Corporate violence
• Computer crime and/or identity theft (you can focus on computer crime more generally, more focus on identity theft specifically)
• Gangs
• The subordinate position of women in society and how this affects their criminal behavior and victimization
• Racial profiling
• Relatively high incarceration rates of people of color
• Sexual violence against women
• High incarceration rates in the U.S. (i.e., emphasis on incapacitation in the U.S.)
• Capital punishment

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, WEALTH AND POVERTY

• Global wealth inequality
• U.S. rate of poverty (it is the highest rate of poverty among all industrialized nations)
• U.S. degree of economic (income and wealth) inequality
• Economic (income, wealth, poverty rate) disparities along racial/ethnic lines in the U.S.
• Childhood poverty in the U.S.
• Feminization of poverty
• Income levels of the working poor (i.e., minimum wage)
• Global hunger
• Hunger in the U.S.
• Substandard housing (e.g., slums) globally
• Homelessness in the U.S.
• Access to clean water and/or sanitation facilities
• Legal inequality (disparities in access to legal representation) in the U.S.
• Political inequality in the U.S.
• Vulnerability to and recovery from natural disasters in impoverished regions
• Childhood poverty and education (note: this also overlaps with the Problems in Education category)

WORK AND UNEMPLOYMENT

• Predatory and subprime lending
• Free trade agreements (Note: this would mean looking at claims—and counterclaims—that free trade agreements are themselves troubling conditions. Also, if you prefer, you can focus on one free trade agreement, such as NAFTA or other more recent FTAs)
• Transnational corporations (note: this would mean looking at claims—and counterclaims—that transnational corporations are themselves troubling conditions)
• Unemployment rate in the U.S.
• Job exportation (aka offshoring) and outsourcing by U.S.
• Automation of jobs in the U.S.
• Employment opportunities/concerns of recent college graduates in the U.S.
• Forced labor (aka slavery) (Note: if you prefer, you can focus on forced labor in general, or focus on forced labor in a particular industry such as agriculture, mining, sex etc)
• Sweatshops
• Child labor in U.S. agriculture OR child labor in general
• Health and safety issues in the U.S. workplace (note: If you prefer, you can choose one issue to focus on, such as job stress)
• U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not provide paid family (e.g., maternity) leave

PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION

• Correlation of socioeconomic background and educational success/attainment
• Lower likelihood of academic success among Hispanic/Latino and/or African American students (a consideration of SES would also be important for this). Please note that you can narrow this even further, by looking specifically at, for example, access to education for English-language-learner (ELL) students, biased assessment and/or standardized tests, racism & discrimination in schooling, etc.
• The continued high degree of racial segregation in U.S. public schools
• High rate of illiterate girls and women globally (or you could choose a particular region or nation)
• Choose a specific issue with regards to gender and education in the U.S.
• Lack of financial support for public schools in U.S.
• Low performance of U.S. students compared to students of other industrialized nations
• School dropouts
• School-to-prison pipeline
• Bullying
• Inadequate school facilities
• Recruitment and retention of quality teachers
• Rising costs of higher education in U.S.

RACE, ETHNICITY, AND IMMIGRATION

• Undocumented immigration in the U.S.
• Institutional racism (you can look at it more broadly, or focus on a specific area of the U.S.—such as employment, housing, education, criminal justice system—in which institutional racism occurs)
• Racism in the media
• Hate crimes

GENDER INEQUALITY

• Structural sexism in education in the U.S. or globally: select a specific form of structural sexism in education, such as the lower rates of women in STEM subjects
• Structural sexism in work in the U.S. or globally in general: select a specific form of structural sexism in employment, such higher rates of women in vulnerable employment, lower rates of women in positions of authority, or occupational sex segregation
• Structural sexism and income: select a specific form of structural sexism and income, such as the pay gap between men and women, below-poverty wages for jobs that are predominantly women, devaluation of women’s work
• Structural sexism and politics: select a specific form of structural sexism and politics, such as the low representation of women in powerful political office positions, low representation of women in congress
• Gender discrimination in wages and/or employment
• Cultural sexism in general, or cultural sexism in schools or cultural sexism in the media
• Unequal household division of labor in the U.S. or globally
• The feminization of poverty
• High rates of depression among boys/men, high rates of depression among girls/women, or high rates of depression among transgender individuals
• The “cult of thinness”
• Poorer health rates and higher risk of mortality among men
• Gendered violence in general, or select a specific form of gendered violence such as high rates of violence among men, high rates of violence against transgender and gay youth, high rates of male violence (e.g., rape, domestic violence) against women

SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY

• Issues of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and intersex people around the world. For this, you can choose a region or nation to look at specifically, or focus on the issue more globally.
• Heterosexism in the U.S. You can specify a particular type of heterosexism, such as heterosexism in the media or in education, or look at heterosexism more generally.
• Homophobia and/or biphobia. Specify a particular aspect of homophobia, such as in religion, with regards to gender roles, myths and negative stereotypes perpetuated in the media or in education, etc
• Workplace discrimination and harassment of LGBTQ
• Marriage inequality/same-sex marriage in the U.S. This will require you be clear in what you looking at as the “troubling condition” – either opposition to same sex marriage as the troubling condition, or the legality of same-sex marriage as the troubling condition.
• Parental rights of LGBTQ parents
• Anti-LGBTQ hate crimes
• Police mistreatment of LGBTQ individuals

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

• Free trade agreements that allow transnational corporations to avoid local environmental policies
• High energy use and the reliance on fossil fuels. You can look at this either globally or specifically in the U.S.
• The destruction of natural habitats by hydroelectric power (this is also connected to high energy use)
• High energy use and nuclear power
• Depletion of natural resources by humans. If you like, you can focus on a specific natural resource that is being depleted
• Deforestation
• Air pollution. You can focus on a specific type of air pollution or a specific location (e.g., region of the world or nation).
• Destruction of the ozone layer (this is related to air pollution)
• Global warming and climate change
• Land pollution. Focus on a specific type, such as nuclear waste, solid waste, pesticides
• Water pollution
• Fracking
• Release of toxic chemicals and carcinogens into the environment
• Threats to biodiversity. You can focus on a particular species that is threatened to go extinct
• Population growth
• Effects of industrialization and economic development on the environment

CONCEPTS INCLUDE:Agenda-setting function of media