Category: Essays on Controversial Topics
Browse our collection of essays on controversial topics. Each topic in this category represents a controversial issue and thus is a good choice if you are looking for argumentative or persuasive essay topics. When writing an argumentative essay or a persuasive essay you should focus on picking a topic that is current and relevant to society and can be argued logically.
While a strong interest in a topic is important, it’s not enough to be interested. You have to consider what position you can back up with reasoning and evidence. It’s one thing to have a strong belief, but when shaping an argument you’ll have to explain why your belief is reasonable and logical. As you explore the topics, make a mental list of points you could use as evidence for or against an issue.
The U.S. juvenile justice system is currently designed to address the special needs of minors who engage in criminal acts but might not yet be held fully responsible for their behavior, as they are not yet legal adults recognized by society. However, juvenile justice has not always been …
Labeling theory is a critical theory which argues that the application of a deviant label can have the effect of solidifying a deviant identity for the labeled, thus potentially exacerbating the problem that it purports to address. Labeling theory, therefore, prioritizes the study of social and legal processes …
Child labor occurs along a continuum, with harmful and exploitative work that endangers the welfare and potential of the child at one end of the spectrum and light work and often beneficial training and apprenticeship at the other. National and international labor standard regulations with respect to what …
The division of labor refers to the partitioning of work tasks between social groups, based on demographic characteristics such as race, sex, age, and social class. Responding to economist Adam Smith’s argument that the division of labor would lead to wealth for all, Karl Marx countered that the …
One of the most marginalized communities in the United States is that of the migrant and seasonal farmworkers who pick the crops that feed the most-fed nation on earth. The social problems that migrant laborers face are bound to their socioeconomic disadvantages. Farmworkers occupy the lowest-paid job category …
The labor force participation rate is the proportion of eligible people in the population who are involved in the labor force. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines the labor force as people over age 16 who are either employed or unemployed but looking for a job. …
Whereas economists analyze labor markets in terms of fluctuations in supply and demand for workers in various occupations, sociologists focus on other factors that influence employers’ decisions to hire individuals and workers’ ability to position themselves advantageously. Most sociological research explores how employees’ human capital (i.e., education and …
Unlike a labor union, which is an empirical reality as a bureaucratic organization, a labor movement is a conceptual, rather than a physical, category. While its components are real (labor unions), it is a construct of people’s minds. In common usage it refers to a nation’s labor unions …
Labor racketeering (not a legal or scientific term) is a popular way of referring to organized crime exploitation of unions and union pension and welfare funds. Unions, like most organizations, have their share of corrupt officers and employees. However, unions are unique on account of the extensiveness of …
Social scientists often refer to labor sectors as divisions of the economy. There are several ways to describe labor sectors, but all of them refer to systems of grouping similar labor or broad classifications of industries. One common system of labor sector divisions distinguishes between the primary, secondary, …
Organizations of hourly or salaried employees intent on improving both the at-work and off-work lives of actual and prospective members, labor unions often make up the largest social movement in a country. Able often to successfully bargain for better wages, hours, and working conditions than those afforded their …
Latent functions are unintended and unrecognized consequences of intended, recognized manifest functions. Robert K. Merton contributed the original sociological explication of latent functions in his Social Theory and Social Structure of 1957. Merton, who borrowed the terms manifest and latent from Freud’s theory of dreams, explained that latent …
The term learning disorders refers to the problems or difficulties that some students experience in acquiring the necessary knowledge or skills that lead to academic achievement. Explanations for learning disorders are contested. Early understandings of problems in learning were psychological in nature and based on the medical model. …
German sociologist Max Weber first conceptualized the term life chances in his work on social stratification. Contrary to Karl Marx’s theory of capitalist exploitation, in which social inequality was based on access to the means of production, Weber’s theory of stratification involved three interrelated components: social class, status …
The life course as a field of study is a relatively new paradigm that developed after the 1950s, based on historical demography, research on the sociology of aging, life histories, and panel and longitudinal studies. Life course research is interdisciplinary in nature and combines several models to describe …
Life expectancy is a measurement defined as the number of years a person, at a given age and within a given population, can expect to live. Calculations of life expectancy come from a life table, a demographic measurement tool that describes the pattern and level of mortality for …
Adult literacy is an adult’s ability to read, write, listen, and speak to accomplish daily events in the community, the family, and on the job. The Adult Performance Level program popularized the notion of “functional literacy,” which is defined as reading and writing at a minimal level in …
Economic literacy is the ability to understand choices and make decisions regarding limited resources. Those decisions affect what an individual produces or consumes, saves or invests. In a broader sense, the economic literacy of a nation’s citizenry affects its productive capacity and standard of living. Personal finances, national …
A living wage is a wage that is high enough for full-time workers to provide a decent life for themselves and their families. As such, calls for a living wage date back to at least Deuteronomy 24:14. In the United States, about one fifth of full-time workers live …
The origin of “lynching” as a social phenomenon has several possibilities, but it seems to be primarily related to the practice of vigilante justice dating from colonial days up through the “Wild West.” Regardless of the term’s origins, the lynchings suffered by African Americans were crimes against humanity, …
