Social Problem and the State

The basic interpretation of situations as social problems is placed in the growth of the welfare state. A welfare state uses facilities funded with public tax money to directly improve living conditions of citizens as a matter of right rather than as charity. Thus, “welfare” means the commitment of public funds to ameliorate social problems rather than as a handout to individual citizens. The development of the welfare state means a compassionate attitude toward victims of crime and less fortunate persons, and the setting up of a minimum standard of living within the free market. Welfare societies create industries to address social problems.
When social problems are framed within the government structure, then societies seek changes to governments that will reduce the incidence of the problem. Although the problem for carrying out inappropriate behavior lies with the individual, it is within these adjustments that citizens become familiar with that the framework of society that simplifies the processes of inappropriate behavior. A society might, for example, create programs aimed at young person e to inform them of the negative health and legal consequences of using illegal drugs. It might recognize also, that drug abuse occurs more often within segments of the population that experience systematic discrimination in the workplace.

This envisages creating programs aimed at reducing workplace prejudice and unfairness. It is this aspect of the societal definition of the problem, the framing of the problem as related to institutional arrangements that concern the sociologist. Some consist of professions that bestow benevolence upon people defined as in need. Such occupations include counselors, social workers, clinical psychologists, foundation administrators, and others whose task it is to bring people viewed as in trouble to themselves or to others into the stream of “adjusted” citizens. Persons defined as such are subject to criminalization and/or institutionalization within facilities specializing in mental defects.

The key expressions within these industries are “handling.” behavior can be considered within two different types of understanding: that of transgression and that of institutional association. The first one places the burden for the problem on the choice of the “distressed individual.” These disturbed individuals receive treatment in the hope they can be “accepted again in society and perform in an acceptable manner. The drug addict, who behaves in an unsuitable way, might be treated in a variety of ways within or outside confinement facilities with the hope that this person will return to society and behave in an acceptable manner.