ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the provision of human services, those services in which the primary outcome is 'an interaction designed to change the characteristics or condition of the people involved. It refers to the more general terms deviance and social controls rather than social problems and human services. It uses the term deviance non-connotatively, to describe conditions or behaviours that deviate from societal norms; and social controls to refer to the ways individuals, groups, and societies regulate themselves. The chapter also concerns a wide range of social problems that elicit an equally wide range of responses, although two broad categories of response are evident: those providing services, such as education, medication, and protection; and those imposing controls, such as arrest, segregation, and punishment. It presents the major arguments that are necessary to make some rather general remarks about the nature of social problems and the need for social controls.
