About the Author

Steven E. Barkan is professor of sociology at the University of Maine and a former president of both the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the Textbook and Academic Authors Association. He is the author of two other FlatWorld texts:  Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, which won a Textbook Excellence Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association, and Fundamentals of Criminal Justice. He is also the author of several other textbooks, including  Criminology: A Sociological Understanding, 7e (Pearson); Health, Illness, and Society: An Introduction to Medical Sociology, 2e (Rowman & Littlefield); Race, Crime, and Justice: The Continuing American Dilemma (Oxford); and Law and Society: An Introduction (Routledge). He has also authored more than thirty journal articles and book chapters in venues such as the American Sociological Review; Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency; Justice Quarterly; Mobilization; Review of Religious Research; Public Opinion Quarterly; Social Forces; Social Problems; Social Science Quarterly; and Sociological Forum.

Professor Barkan serves on the Advisory Panel of the American Sociological Association’s Honors Program and has also served on the Council of Alpha Kappa Delta, the sociology honor society. He has spent more than twenty years (fortunately, not all consecutive) as chair of his department, and he received the Outstanding Faculty Award from his university’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Professor Barkan has lived in Maine since he began his academic career. He received his PhD in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his BA in sociology from Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), where he began to learn how to think like a sociologist and also to appreciate the value of a sociological perspective for understanding and changing society. He sincerely hopes that instructors and students enjoy reading this book in the format of their choice and welcomes their comments at barkan@maine.edu.