美国国家概况-Unit-10.ppt

1、Unit 10 social problems in the united states,Go over the following focal points before reading the text:,Racial problems Inequality in American society Discrimination against blacks The black “underclass” Poverty as a social problem,Drug abuse Social costs of drug abuse Crime The profile of a typica

2、l criminal Racial prejudice in the high rate of arrests White-collar crime The abuse of power by government The abuse of power by corporations,Racial problems,Unlike most other peoples, Americans are primarily a nation of immigrants. The citizens or their ancestors immigrated from many parts of the

3、globesome as refugees from religious and political persecution, some as adventurers from the Old World seeking a better life, some as captives brought to America against their own will to be sold into slavery. The United States was founded on the principle of human equality, but in practice the nati

4、on has fallen far short of that ideal.,Emancipation of the blacks,The Northern states had all outlawed slavery by 1830, but the Southern sates, in which slaves had become the backbone of the economy, maintained the institution until it was finally ended by the Civil War, Lincolns emancipation of sal

5、ves in 1863, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.,The current racial problems,“套索事件”,The current status of black Americans presents a mixed picture. The elimination of legal barriers to their advancement had been a major gain, but institutionalized discrimination is still rife, such a

6、s housing, busing as well as school segregation.,Reasons for the current racial problems,One reason for the difference in the perceptions of the two groups may be that blacks are more acutely aware that a great many of their members have failed to share in the more general gains made by blacks since

7、 the 1960s.,The underclass could continue to persist, even in the absence of racial discrimination, in much the same way as other pockets of poverty persistthat is, for reasons of socialclass inequality.,Poverty,By many standards the US is the most fabulously wealthy society in history. Yet accordin

8、g to a survey in 2003, 35.9 million people, about 12.5% of Americans are living at or below the official poverty line, on incomes that the federal government considers insufficient to meet basic requirement of food, clothing, and shelter.,Reasons of poverty in the United States,The problem of povert

9、y in the United States is aggravated because it occurs in a society in which the overall distribution of wealth and income is very unequal. Like all but the most simple societies, the US is characterized by social stratificationthat is, it is divided into social classes that have varying degrees of

10、access to the rewards the society offers.,Unfair distribution of income,The distribution of income in the United States follows a similar pattern. The richest fifth of American families receives over 40% of the national income, whereas the poorest fifth receives only 5.2%. The continued existence of

11、 poverty in a generally affluent American society raises serious moral questionsand inevitably creates fierce conflicts of interest and many political controversies.,Drug Abuse,Drug abuse in the United States has been viewed as one of the most challenging social problems and a major threat to the na

12、tion,particularly to its young citizens. But why does it matter? Drug abuse in the United States is a social problem because it has a wide range of social costs,or dysfunctionssome obvious and measurable,some hidden and difficult to quantify. Heres the famous swimmer who was caught with cannabis A k

13、ind of illegal drug,And the obvious ones are listed below. Crime A strong association between some forms of drug use and crime Examples:1.The use of alcoholhighly correlated with violent crime (more than half of murderers drinks right before committing the crime. 2.Heroin cocaine addiction: indirect

14、 relation Cost a lotaddicts may steal to support it illicit manufacturing and selling of the drugs,Automobile accidents Alcohol use is directly responsible for tens of thousands of highway accidents and injuries;the drug is blamed for half of the annual total of road traffic fatalities. The cost of

15、property damage and medical expenses due to alcohol-related automobile accidents totals about 1 billion each year.,Effects on individuals Drug dependence takes a significant toll in terms of personal health and safety. The heavy user of drugs is much more likely than a member of the general populati

16、n to be killed or to commit suicide, either deliberately or accidentally.,Alcoholics,for example,have a death rate nearly three times higher than that of the general population;they represent a third of all suicides and are seven times more likely than nonalcoholics to suffer fatal accidents. Drug d

17、ependence may also affect other areas of the individuals life,ranging from the home to the work place to personal relationships with friends.,Economic losses The cost of alcohol abuse alone totals over 43 billion a year in accidents,medical bill,lost production,and so on. Many indirect costs society

18、 must pay to support drug-dependent person. By the mid-1970s,federal and state governments were spending over 1 billion per year on the treatment of various drug abusers.Another half billion dollars annually goes into processing drug users through the criminal justice system.,Crime,Crimeone of the m

19、ost serious social problems facing the nation. Former President Nixon remarked on several occassions that crime is the “number one” and that “we must declare war against it.” It is generally agreed that serious,violent crime has reached alarming proportions in the United States. Those arrested for c

20、rimes are disproportionately likely to be male,young,a member of a racial minority,and a city resident.,Young people appear to commit far more than their share of crime,including the crimes that are classified by the FBI as most seriousrape,murder,robbery,arson,burglary,aggravated assault,auto theft

21、,and larceny. Members of racial minority groups have a disproportionately higher rate of arrests,which is three times higher than for whites.(reasons:1.a large part of the population is poor or unemployed; 2.racial prejudice.),The famous case of “Joe Cut” indicated that the different punishments bet

22、ween the black and the white. It must be noted that the Serious Crime Index of UCR focuses on crimes which are more apt to be committed by persons of lower social and economic status. In summary,the Serious Crime Index of the FBI provides an indication of the rates and trends of certain crimes in the United States.,The Abuse of Power by Government and Corporation A crucial problem of government and corporations concerns powerand the abuse of it. American lives are dominated by large public and private organizations.