# Social Problems Glossary

> Definitions are drawn from the textbook glossary. “Used in” references are mapped automatically by matching each term to the text of the corresponding chapter section.

## A

- **activity theory** — The view by social gerontologists that older people will benefit both themselves and their society if they remain active and try to continue to perform the roles they had before they aged.
  - **Used in:** 6.2, 6.7

- **Affirmative action** — Special consideration for minorities and women in employment and education to compensate for the discrimination and lack of opportunities they experience in the larger society.
  - **Used in:** 3.7, 3.8, 11.4

- **ageism** — Negative views about and prejudice and discrimination against older people.
  - **Used in:** 6.2, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7

- **androgynous** — Containing aspects of both femaleness and maleness, or of both femininity and masculinity.
  - **Used in:** 4.1

- **anomie theory** — Robert Merton’s view that deviance is caused by a failure to achieve the American goal of financial success through the conventional means of working.
  - **Used in:** 8.4

- **authoritarian personality** — A personality emphasizing such things as obedience to authority, a rigid adherence to rules, and low acceptance of people not like oneself and said to help account for racial and ethnic prejudice.
  - **Used in:** 3.3

## B

- **bar or casino workers** — Prostitutes who work in bars, casinos, or similar establishments.
  - **Used in:** 9.4

- **blaming the system** — The belief that personal difficulties stem from problems in society.
  - **Used in:** 1.2

## C

- **capital flight** — The moving of manufacturing companies from US cities to sites in the developing world in Asia and elsewhere.
  - **Used in:** 12.3

- **Capitalism** — An economic system in which the means of production are privately owned.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 4.2, 6.2, 8.4, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5

- **charter schools** — Public schools built and operated by for-profit companies and to which students normally apply for admission.
  - **Used in:** 11.3

- **Child abuse** — Maltreatment of children in the form of physical or sexual assault, emotional trauma, or neglect.
  - **Used in:** 9.4, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 12.3

- **civil war** — War within nations.
  - **Used in:** 3.1, 4.2, 7.1, 9.4, 12.3, 14.1, 15.2, 15.3, 16.2, 16.3

- **civilian labor force** — All noninstitutionalized civilians 16 years old or older who work for pay or are looking for work.
  - **Used in:** 12.1

- **claims-making process** — The use of arguments to try to influence public perceptions of a social problem, the reasons for it, and possible solutions to it.
  - **Used in:** 1.1

- **class consciousness** — Awareness of one’s placement in the social structure and the interests arising from this placement.
  - **Used in:** 1.2

- **cohabit** — To live together in a romantic, sexual relationship without being married.
  - **Used in:** 10.1, 10.3

- **comparable worth** — The idea that women’s and men’s jobs may be of roughly equal value and thus deserve the same pay, even though women’s jobs typically pay less than men’s jobs.
  - **Used in:** 4.3

- **conflict theory** — The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 1.5, 2.3, 2.7, 3.6, 6.2, 6.7, 7.4, 8.4, 9.4, 10.2, 10.5, 11.2, 11.6, 12.2, 12.5, 13.1, 14.2, 14.6, 15.1, 15.5, 16.1, 16.5

- **Consensual crime** — Illegal behavior in which people participate voluntarily, including drug use, prostitution, and gambling.
  - **Used in:** 8.2, 8.7

- **control group** — In an experiment, the group that does not experience the experimental condition.
  - **Used in:** 1.4

- **corporate violence** — Actions by corporations that cause death, injury, or illness.
  - **Used in:** 8.2, 8.7

- **corporation** — An organization that has a legal existence apart from that of its members.
  - **Used in:** 8.2, 10.5, 11.3, 12.3, 13.5, 14.3

- **credential society** — A society in which higher education is seen as evidence of the attainment of the needed knowledge and skills for various kinds of jobs.
  - **Used in:** 11.1

- **crime** — Behavior considered so harmful or offensive that it is banned by the criminal law.
  - **Used in:** 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 2.4, 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.3, 4.4, 5.3, 7.2, 7.3, 7.5, 7.6, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 10.3, 11.1, 11.3, 11.5, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 15.2, 15.3, 15.5, 16.1, 16.2, 16.3

- **crude birth rate** — The number of live births for every 1,000 people in a population in a given year.
  - **Used in:** 15.2

- **crude death rate** — The number of deaths for every 1,000 people in a population in a given year.
  - **Used in:** 15.2

- **cyberbullying** — The use of the Internet, cell phones and smartphones, and other digital technologies to bully others.
  - **Used in:** 11.3

## D

- **dark figure of crime** — The large number of crimes that do not come to the attention of the police and thus also not to the public.
  - **Used in:** 8.1

- **de facto segregation** — School segregation stemming from neighborhood residential patterns.
  - **Used in:** 11.3

- **de jure segregation** — School segregation stemming from legal requirements.
  - **Used in:** 11.3

- **democratic socialism** — An economic system in which the government owns several important industries, but much property remains in private hands, and political freedom is widespread.
  - **Used in:** 12.1, 12.5

- **demographic transition theory** — A theory that links population growth to the level of technological development across three stages of social evolution.
  - **Used in:** 15.2, 15.5

- **demography** — The study of population growth and changes in population composition.
  - **Used in:** 15.2, 15.5

- **dependency theory** — The view that global poverty results from colonialization and exploitation of the poorest nations by the richest nations and by multinational corporations.
  - **Used in:** 2.5, 2.6, 2.7

- **Depressants** — Drugs that slow down the activity of the central nervous system; depending on the specific drug, they help induce drowsiness and relaxation, and they can reduce anxiety and pain.
  - **Used in:** 7.2

- **Deviance** — Behavior that violates norms and arouses negative social reactions.
  - **Used in:** 4.4, 7.1, 7.3, 8.1, 8.4, 12.3

- **deviant places** — Sociologist Rodney Stark’s term for neighborhoods that have severe crowding and other features that promote high crime rates.
  - **Used in:** 8.3, 14.3

- **differential association theory** — Edwin Sutherland’s view that deviance stems from interacting with primary group members who commit deviance and have values conducive to deviance.
  - **Used in:** 8.4, 11.3

- **direct-fee system** — A system of medicine in which patients pay for health care, prescriptions, and other medical costs themselves.
  - **Used in:** 13.4

- **Discrimination** — With regard to racial and ethnic inequality, the arbitrary denial of rights, privileges, and opportunities to members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups.
  - **Used in:** 2.3, 2.7, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 6.2, 6.5, 6.7, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 11.1, 11.3, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 13.1, 13.3, 13.5, 13.6, 14.3, 14.5, 15.2

- **disengagement theory** — The view, now largely abandoned, by some past social gerontologists that a society needs to encourage its elderly to disengage from their previous roles and to take on roles more appropriate to their declining physical and mental abilities.
  - **Used in:** 6.2, 6.7

- **drug** — Any substance other than food that, when taken into the body, affects the structure and/or functioning of the body.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 2.2, 2.4, 4.7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 8.2, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 9.2, 9.3, 11.3, 11.5, 12.3, 13.1, 13.4, 14.2, 14.4, 16.2

- **drug courts** — Courts in which drug offenders who have been arrested and found guilty are sentenced to drug treatment and counseling rather than to jail or prison.
  - **Used in:** 7.5, 7.6

## E

- **early childhood intervention (ECI) programs** — Programs that typically involve visits by social workers, nurses, and other professionals to the homes of children who are at risk for neurological, emotional, and/or behavioral problems during their childhood and adolescence.
  - **Used in:** 8.6, 9.2

- **economic inequality** — The extent of the economic difference between the rich and the poor.
  - **Used in:** 9.4, 10.2, 10.3, 12.1, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5

- **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 4.3, 6.4, 7.2, 7.4, 8.2, 9.3, 10.1, 10.3, 11.1, 11.2, 11.4, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 13.1, 13.4, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, 16.1, 16.2

- **educational attainment** — How far one gets in school, which has been shown to depend heavily on family income and race/ethnicity.
  - **Used in:** 2.4, 3.5, 3.6, 4.3, 11.1, 11.3, 11.6, 13.3, 16.4

- **elder abuse** — Physical violence, mental and emotional abuse, neglect of care, and financial exploitation committed against the elderly, most often by their relatives who are caring for them.
  - **Used in:** 6.5, 6.7

- **embezzlement** — The stealing of money in its various dimensions (cash, electronic transactions, etc.) by employees from their workplaces.
  - **Used in:** 12.3

- **environmental justice** — Scholarship on environmental inequality and racism, and public policy efforts and activism aimed at reducing these forms of inequality and racism.
  - **Used in:** 15.3

- **environmental sociology** — The study of the interaction between human behavior and the natural and physical environment.
  - **Used in:** 15.3, 15.4, 15.5

- **episodic poverty** — As defined by the Census Bureau, being poor for at least two consecutive months in some time period.
  - **Used in:** 2.1, 6.5

- **Escorts** — Prostitutes who work for escort agencies and may operate out of an apartment rented by their agency or come to a client’s hotel room or other location.
  - **Used in:** 9.4

- **ethnic group** — A subgroup of a population with a set of shared social, cultural, and historical experiences; with relatively distinctive beliefs, values, and behaviors; and with some sense of identity of belonging to the subgroup.
  - **Used in:** 3.2, 8.4

- **extended family** — A family in which parents, children, and other relatives live in the same household.
  - **Used in:** 10.1

## F

- **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 3.5, 3.6, 3.8, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.6, 5.1, 5.3, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 7.1, 7.2, 7.4, 7.5, 8.1, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.5, 9.6, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 11.1, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 12.1, 12.3, 13.1, 13.3, 13.4, 14.2, 14.3, 15.2, 16.2

- **Feminist theory** — The view that society is filled with gender inequality characterized by women being the subordinate sex in the social, political, and economic dimensions of society.
  - **Used in:** 1.2

- **frustration theory (or scapegoat theory)** — As an explanation of racial and ethnic prejudice, the view that individuals blame the problems they experience on racial and ethnic minorities and thus scapegoat them instead of recognizing the real sources of their own misfortunes.
  - **Used in:** 3.3

- **Functionalism** — The view that social institutions are important for their contributions to social stability.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 1.5, 2.3, 7.4, 9.4, 10.2, 11.2, 12.2, 12.5, 13.1, 14.2, 14.6, 15.1, 15.5, 16.1

## G

- **gender identity** — Individuals’ beliefs about themselves as either females or males. Also: The personal conception of oneself as female, male, both, or neither.
  - **Used in:** 4.1, 5.1, 5.3, 5.5

- **general fertility rate** — The number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years.
  - **Used in:** 15.2

- **generational equity** — The argument by critics of political activism on behalf of older Americans that programs for the elderly threaten to take money from programs to help younger Americans either now or as they age.
  - **Used in:** 6.5

- **gerontology** — The study of aging.
  - **Used in:** 6.1, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 13.3

- **Gesellschaft** — According to Ferdinand Tönnies, the weakening of social ties and personal relationships as societies grow and become industrialized.
  - **Used in:** 14.2

- **get-tough approach** — The use of longer prison terms and other law enforcement measures to reduce crime.
  - **Used in:** 8.6

- **glass escalator** — The smooth path afforded men in promotion in the workplace, especially in occupations primarily filled by women.
  - **Used in:** 4.3

- **group conflict theory** — The assumption that criminal law is shaped by the conflict among the various social groups in society that exist because of differences in race and ethnicity, social class, religion, and other factors.
  - **Used in:** 8.4

## H

- **Hallucinogens** — Mind-altering drugs that cause delusions or hallucinations.
  - **Used in:** 7.2

- **harm reduction** — A strategy that attempts to minimize the harm caused by drugs; an example includes the provision of sterile needles to heroin users.
  - **Used in:** 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4

- **health care** — The provision of medical services to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems.
  - **Used in:** 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 6.3, 6.5, 6.6, 8.5, 9.2, 10.2, 11.1, 12.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, 14.1, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 15.3, 16.2

- **health disparities** — Differences in health and illness according to social class, race and ethnicity, and gender.
  - **Used in:** 13.3, 14.4

- **health maintenance organizations** — Prepaid health plans with designated providers that typically enroll their subscribers through their workplaces.
  - **Used in:** 13.4

- **heavy drinking** — Binge drinking on at least five days in the past month.
  - **Used in:** 7.2, 7.3

- **Heterosexism** — Negative views about, and discriminatory practices toward, LGBT individuals and their sexual behavior.
  - **Used in:** 5.2, 5.5

- **heterosexual privilege** — The many advantages that heterosexuals (or people perceived as heterosexuals) enjoy simply because their sexual orientation is not LGBT.
  - **Used in:** 5.3

- **hidden curriculum** — A set of values and beliefs learned in school that support the status quo, including the existing social hierarchy.
  - **Used in:** 11.2

## I

- **imperialism** — The use of military power and other means to extend a nation’s influence and control over other nations.
  - **Used in:** 16.1, 16.2

- **individual discrimination** — Discrimination that individuals practice in their daily lives.
  - **Used in:** 3.4, 3.6

- **individualistic explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because they lack the motivation to work and have other failings.
  - **Used in:** 2.3, 2.5, 2.7

- **Informal education** — Learning that occurs outside the schools, traditionally in the home.
  - **Used in:** 11.1, 11.6

- **institutional discrimination** — Discrimination that pervades the practices of whole institutions, such as housing, medical care, law enforcement, employment, and education, even if such discrimination is not intended.
  - **Used in:** 3.4, 3.5, 3.7, 3.8, 4.3

- **Insurgent terrorism** — Terrorism committed by private citizens against their own government or against businesses and institutions seen as representing the “establishment.”
  - **Used in:** 16.3

- **intimate violence** — Violence between spouses, ex-spouses, and current and former sexual partners.
  - **Used in:** 10.3, 10.5

- **intraracial** — In criminology, the commission of crime by offenders against members of their own race or ethnicity.
  - **Used in:** 8.2, 8.7

## L

- **Labeling theory** — The view that being labeled deviant increases the chances of future deviance.
  - **Used in:** 8.4, 8.5

- **legacy admissions** — A college admissions policy that gives preference to applicants who are children or other relatives of graduates of the institution.
  - **Used in:** 11.4

- **life expectancy** — The average age to which people can be expected to live.
  - **Used in:** 2.5, 6.3, 6.5, 6.7, 10.1, 12.3, 13.2, 13.3, 13.6, 14.1, 15.3, 16.2

## M

- **male privilege** — The advantages a male enjoys in a patriarchal society just because he is a male.
  - **Used in:** 3.5, 4.5, 5.3

- **masculinity** — Cultural expectations of boys and men, including toughness and bravery.
  - **Used in:** 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 7.3, 10.4

- **megacities** — Cities with populations over 10 million.
  - **Used in:** 14.1

- **migration** — The movement of people into or out of specific regions.
  - **Used in:** 14.1, 14.4, 15.1, 15.2, 15.5

- **militarism** — An overemphasis on military policy and spending.
  - **Used in:** 16.1, 16.2, 16.4, 16.5

- **military-industrial complex** — The close relationships among military leaders, government officials, and defense contractors.
  - **Used in:** 16.1, 16.2, 16.5

- **modernization theory** — The view that global poverty results from a failure of poor nations to have the beliefs, values, and practices necessary for industrialization and rapid economic growth.
  - **Used in:** 2.5, 2.7

- **multinational corporation** — A corporation with headquarters in one nation but with factories and other operations in many other nations.
  - **Used in:** 12.3

## N

- **Narcotics** — Drugs derived from opium that slow down the central nervous system, relieve pain, and induce drowsiness, euphoria, and relaxation.
  - **Used in:** 7.1, 7.2

- **National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)** — An annual survey conducted by the US Department of Justice that asks a representative sample of the American public about crimes they have suffered.
  - **Used in:** 4.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.7, 10.3

- **national health insurance** — A system of medicine in which the government pays all or most of the costs of health care, prescriptions, and other items for the entire population.
  - **Used in:** 2.4, 13.2, 13.5, 13.6

- **natural growth rate** — The difference between the crude birth rate and the crude death rate.
  - **Used in:** 15.2

- **nonparticipant observation** — Field research in which the researcher merely observes a group or setting
  - **Used in:** 1.4

## O

- **organic solidarity** — According to Émile Durkheim, the social ties that still exist in larger, urban societies, which stem from the division of labor.
  - **Used in:** 14.2

- **Organized crime** — Criminal activity by groups or organizations whose major purpose for existing is to commit such crime.
  - **Used in:** 7.2, 7.5, 7.6, 8.2

- **outsourcing** — The hiring by US companies of overseas workers for customer care, billing services, and other jobs that Americans used to do.
  - **Used in:** 12.3

## P

- **Part I Crimes** — The FBI’s term for the major crimes included in the Uniform Crime Reports, including homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
  - **Used in:** 8.1

- **patriarchy** — Male domination.
  - **Used in:** 4.2, 4.5, 10.2

- **plea bargaining** — An agreement between the prosecution and defense that a criminal defendant will plead guilty, usually in return for a reduced sentence.
  - **Used in:** 8.5

- **political economy** — The interaction of political and economic institutions and processes.
  - **Used in:** 3.4, 14.2, 16.2

- **Pornography** — Printed or visual materials that are sexually explicit and that are intended to arouse sexual excitement rather than artistic appreciation.
  - **Used in:** 4.4, 4.6, 8.2, 9.5, 9.6

- **poverty line** — The government’s measure of official poverty, based on the cost of a minimal diet for a family that is then multiplied by three.
  - **Used in:** 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 10.3, 13.3

- **power elite** — C. Wright Mills’s term for the government, big business, and the military, which he said collaborate to advance their own interests.
  - **Used in:** 16.1

- **professional fraud** — Stealing by physicians, attorneys, and other professionals from their patients/clients or from the government.
  - **Used in:** 8.2, 12.3

- **pronatalist** — Referring to policies that encourage women to have children.
  - **Used in:** 15.2

- **Prostitution** — The selling of sexual services.
  - **Used in:** 5.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.7, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 16.2

- **psychological aging** — The psychological changes, including those involving mental functioning and personality, that occur as we age.
  - **Used in:** 6.1, 6.4

- **public health approach** — A strategy that highlights the need to prevent illness or disease; in criminology, a strategy that highlights the need to address the factors that lead to criminal behavior.
  - **Used in:** 8.6

## R

- **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.5, 4.7, 5.3, 5.4, 6.2, 6.3, 6.5, 6.6, 7.2, 7.3, 7.7, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 9.2, 9.4, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.5, 11.1, 11.2, 11.4, 11.6, 12.3, 12.4, 13.1, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, 14.2, 14.3, 14.5, 15.2, 15.3, 16.2, 16.4

- **radical theory** — A view that highlights the importance of (economic) social classes more than the importance of religion, ethnicity, and other social group characteristics in shaping the creation and operation of criminal law.
  - **Used in:** 8.4

- **random sample** — A subset drawn from the larger population in which every unit in the population has the same chance of being included in the subset.
  - **Used in:** 1.4, 3.3, 4.4, 5.1, 10.3, 12.3

- **religiosity** — How religious someone is, in terms of how often the person attends religious service, prays, and reads scripture.
  - **Used in:** 3.3, 7.3, 8.4, 9.1, 9.3, 9.5

- **response rate** — The percentage of a sample that agrees to be included in a study, usually a survey.
  - **Used in:** 1.4

## S

- **second-chance homes** — Maternity group homes for unmarried teen mothers.
  - **Used in:** 9.2

- **secondary data analysis** — The analysis of data from existing records.
  - **Used in:** 1.4

- **secondary sex characteristics** — Biological differences between females and males that emerge during puberty.
  - **Used in:** 4.1

- **self-report survey** — A survey given to individuals, usually adolescents, that asks them about offenses they have committed and usually about their families and other aspects of their lives.
  - **Used in:** 8.1

- **sex segregation** — In the workplace, the concentration of women in a relatively few low-paying clerical and service jobs.
  - **Used in:** 4.3, 4.7

- **sexism** — The belief that women are inferior to men.
  - **Used in:** 4.2, 4.6, 5.2, 6.6, 13.3

- **sexual harassment** — Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is used as a condition of employment or promotion or that interferes with an individual’s job performance and creates an intimidating or hostile environment.
  - **Used in:** 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.0, 6.5, 12.2, 16.2

- **sexual revolution** — A substantial change during the 1960s and 1970s in many aspects of Americans’ sexual behavior and in how they thought about sex.
  - **Used in:** 9.1, 9.2, 9.6

- **sick role** — Expectations of how people are supposed to think and act when they are ill.
  - **Used in:** 13.1

- **single-payer system** — A program of health insurance for all citizens that is funded and operated by the federal government.
  - **Used in:** 13.5

- **Social aging** — The changes in roles and relationships that occur as people age.
  - **Used in:** 6.1, 6.2, 6.7

- **social bonding theory** — Travis Hirschi’s view that deviance results from weak bonds to conventional social institutions such as the family and schools.
  - **Used in:** 8.4

- **social construction** — A concept that has no objective reality but rather is what people decide it is.
  - **Used in:** 3.2, 3.8, 4.1, 5.1, 13.1, 13.3

- **social constructionist view** — The belief that negative social conditions or behaviors do not become social problems unless citizens, policymakers, and other parties call attention to the condition or behavior and define it as a social problem.
  - **Used in:** 1.1, 1.2, 1.5

- **social disorganization theory** — The view that the weakening of social bonds and conventional social institutions in a community raises its crime rates.
  - **Used in:** 8.4

- **social problem** — Any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed.
  - **Used in:** 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 7.4, 7.6, 9.4, 15.3

- **social stratification** — Rankings of people based on wealth and other resources a society values.
  - **Used in:** 2.3, 2.7

- **Socialism** — An economic system in which the means of production are collectively owned, usually by the government.
  - **Used in:** 12.1, 12.2, 12.5

- **Socialization** — The process whereby individuals learn the culture of their society.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 3.3, 3.8, 4.1, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 5.1, 8.3, 8.4, 8.6, 8.7, 10.2, 10.4, 10.5, 11.1, 11.2, 11.6, 13.1, 13.3

- **sociological imagination** — From C. Wright Mills, the realization that personal troubles are rooted in public issues.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 1.5, 12.3

- **State terrorism** — Violence by a government that is meant to frighten its own citizens and thereby stifle their dissent.
  - **Used in:** 16.3

- **stereotypes** — Simplified, mistaken generalizations about people because of their race and/or ethnicity.
  - **Used in:** 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.8, 4.1, 4.2, 4.6, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 11.1, 11.3

- **Stimulants** — Drugs that speed up the central nervous system and increase alertness and energy and possibly produce euphoria or anxiety.
  - **Used in:** 7.2

- **streetwalkers** — Prostitutes who typically find their customers, or are found by their customers, on a street and who then have a quick act of sex in the customer’s car, in an alleyway or other secluded spot, or in a cheap hotel.
  - **Used in:** 9.4, 9.6

- **structural explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because of various kinds of discrimination and lack of jobs and opportunity.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 2.3, 2.5

- **Symbolic interactionism** — A perspective in sociology that focuses on the meanings people gain from social interaction.
  - **Used in:** 1.2, 1.5, 2.3, 7.4, 9.4, 11.2, 11.6, 12.2, 12.5, 14.2, 14.6, 15.1, 15.5, 16.1, 16.5

## T

- **terrorism** — The use of unexpected violence to intimidate or coerce people in the pursuit of political or social objectives.
  - **Used in:** 16.1, 16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5

- **tertiary sector** — The part of the economy that provides services rather than products.
  - **Used in:** 12.1

- **total fertility rate** — The number of children an average woman is expected to have in her lifetime, sometimes expressed as the number of children an average 1,000 women are expected to have in their lifetimes.
  - **Used in:** 15.2

- **Transnational terrorism** — Terrorism committed by the citizens of one nation against targets in another nation.
  - **Used in:** 16.3, 16.4

## U

- **Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)** — The FBI’s regular compilation of crime statistics, most of them on Part I crimes.
  - **Used in:** 4.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.7

- **urban area** — Defined generally as an incorporated territory with a population of at least 2,500.
  - **Used in:** 14.1, 14.3, 14.4

- **urbanization** — The rise and growth of cities.
  - **Used in:** 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.6

## V

- **Vigilante terrorism** — Terrorism committed by private citizens against other private citizens.
  - **Used in:** 16.3

- **vulnerability to poverty** — A significant probability that people who are not officially poor will become poor within the next year.
  - **Used in:** 2.5

## W

- **white privilege** — The advantages that US whites enjoy in their daily lives simply because they are white, whether or not they are aware of these advantages.
  - **Used in:** 3.5, 4.5, 5.3

- **white-collar crime** — Crime committed by people in the course of their occupations; Edwin Sutherland’s definition emphasized crime by people of high social status.
  - **Used in:** 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.6, 8.7, 12.3