Introduction

This chapter presents some of the main research milestones in the sociology of social problems since the nineteenth century. It reviews the landscape of research method in the study of social problems. The chapter outlines the contours of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods with an emphasis on the variations within each paradigm. Social research and methodology are more complicated than this simple deductive–inductive model would imply. For over a century, sociologists and other scholars have endeavored to establish an adequate understanding of the term “social problem.” The phrase “social problems” as generally understood by sociologists has had a long and winding trajectory. Maps on which social data were plotted to reveal patterns were used extensively in the ecological analysis of different natural areas and zones of the city. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.