Joel Best, author of the best-selling Damned Lies and Statistics , and new coauthor Brian Monahan offer a fresh approach to the social problems course. Rather than overloading students with details and data, the book focuses on how and why particular conditions come to be constructed as social problems. Each chapter explores a different stage of the construction process, ending with a rich case study that applies the concepts to a contemporary issue. In this way, the authors equip students with the tools needed to analyze any social problem they encounter in the media.