In this book, we have sought to provide one complete theoretical framework within which social problems can be analysed. This perspective perceives social problems as social phenomena that emerge in society as a form of threat to the values and interests dominant in that society, and that evoke certain methods of intervention designed to attenuate, control or solve such problems. In the sociological literature concerned with social problems, there has been a division between studies that focus on identification and explanation of social problems, and studies that focus on methods of intervention (the latter studies being more frequent in literature emanating from the helping professions, especially social work). We have attempted to bring these two aspects and two disciplines (theoretical and the applied) together as we consider that studies of social problems are a form of intervention, often the first form of intervention. Also, most sociological theories of social problems that have been formulated over the past century have taken as their main focus various forms of social deviance, with such deviance being perceived as a threat to the social order. While we acknowledge the importance of such perspectives, because a threat to social order is perhaps the most serious threat a society might encounter, we have aimed to focus our attention on the kinds of social problems that occur in society in the course of that society's ‘normal’ activities and pursuits, especially the pursuits of the dominant social strata and social classes.