The Nature and Construction of Social Problems

A social problem is a condition felt to damage society or its members, which is recognised as warranting collective corrective action. Problems exist objectively (harm) but are also socially constructed — who names a problem and how it is framed shapes the response.

Criteria of a Social Problem

1. Objective condition/evidence of harm or deprivation.
2. Subjective definition — public concern and normative judgement.
3. A context of conflict — over causation, blame, and remedy.
4. Scope and severity across a population.

Structural vs Individual Explanations

• Individual/deficit framing: locates problems in persons/family (blaming).
• Structural framing: locates problems in economics, institutions and inequality (poverty, unemployment, discrimination).

Values and Social Work

Social work's value base (justice, dignity) requires practitioners to interrogate the structural roots of social problems and to resist victim-blaming.

Study Points

1. Explain why a condition becomes a "problem".
2. Contrast individual-deficit and structural explanations of poverty.

Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion

Poverty

• Absolute poverty: below a minimum threshold of basic needs.
• Relative poverty: below the standard of one's society (inequality's shadow).
• Multidimensional poverty: deprivation confined beyond income — in education, health, housing, participation.

Worklessness and Low Pay

Unemployment, under-employment, precarious/informal and gig work entrench precarity.

Social Exclusion

• Processes: exclusion from employment, income, services, social networks, participation.
• Stigma and shame compound material deprivation.
• Poverty as both cause and consequence of other social problems (health, crime).

Study Points

1. Contrast absolute, relative and multidimensional poverty.
2. Explain how exclusion produces cumulative disadvantage.

Substance Dependency, Crime and Systemic Inequality

Substance Dependency

• Definitions of dependence (impaired control, tolerance, withdrawal).
• Biopsychosocial framework: biological (neurobiology), psychological (trauma, coping), social (culture, family, markets).
• Harm reduction versus abstinence approaches.

Crime and the Social Work Response

• Crime as a social problem rooted in inequality, marginalisation, and weak opportunity.
• Restorative justice, rehabilitation, and reintegration; probab and community safety.

Systemic Inequality

• Structural racism, class, gender, and disability discrimination baked into institutions (housing, education, justice).
• Intersectionality: how overlapping identities compound disadvantage.

Macro-Level Policy Practice

Addresses policy, legislation, and resource allocation to reduce systemic drivers of substance misuse, crime, and inequality; community prevention and advocacy are central.

Review Points

1. Describe the biopsychosocial pathways into substance dependence.
2. How does intersectionality explain compounded inequality?

Evidence-Based Generalist Intervention and Prevention

The Generalist Approach

Uses the biopsychosocial framework and the person-in-environment lens to intervene at micro, mezzo and macro levels using casework, group work, community organisation and advocacy.

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)

Integrates:

1. Best available research evidence.
2. Client values and preferences.
3. Practitioners' professional judgement.

Prevention

• Primary: universal prevention (reducing risk for all).
• Secondary: early identification of at-risk populations.
• Tertiary: reducing impact for those already affected.

Interventions by Problem

• Poverty: income/support, welfare advocacy, microfinance, community-based employment.
• Substance dependency: harm reduction, counselling, family and community support.
• Inequality/crime: restorative justice, community safety, policy advocacy.

Conclusion

Social work addresses social problems through an integrated, strength-based, and structurally reflexive practice — always keeping prevention, intervention and dignity connected.

Final Review

1. Apply the evidence-based practice cycle to poverty reduction.
2. Distinguish primary, secondary and tertiary prevention for substance misuse.
3. Design a generalist plan for a community beset by inequality and crime.