Category: Essays on Controversial Topics
Browse our collection of essays on controversial topics. Each topic in this category represents a controversial issue and thus is a good choice if you are looking for argumentative or persuasive essay topics. When writing an argumentative essay or a persuasive essay you should focus on picking a topic that is current and relevant to society and can be argued logically.
While a strong interest in a topic is important, it’s not enough to be interested. You have to consider what position you can back up with reasoning and evidence. It’s one thing to have a strong belief, but when shaping an argument you’ll have to explain why your belief is reasonable and logical. As you explore the topics, make a mental list of points you could use as evidence for or against an issue.
Same-sex marriage challenges the definition of marriage. Conservatives oppose it on moral grounds, claiming it threatens the structure of the Western institution of heterosexual marriage. Others identify the social problem as the institution of marriage itself. Supporters of same-sex marriage identify the social problem as heterosexual hegemony and …
The sanctuary movement was a religious and political movement of approximately 500 churches of different Christian denominations in the United States, during the years of 1982-92, that assisted in the sheltering of hundreds of Central American refugees from Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) authorities. The movement originated along …
The “Sandwich Generation” refers to those people who are simultaneously caring for family members at both ends of the life span—children and elders. The stress associated with being in the sandwich generation can constitute a social problem. Moreover, holding a job in addition to multiple family care responsibilities …
The most detailed definitions of scapegoating are in the literature on intergroup prejudice, family therapy, and group therapy. Simply, scapegoating can refer to a situation in which anger and frustration felt toward one person is displaced onto another, often someone less powerful than the person causing the frustration. …
Since the mid-20th century, concern in the United States has escalated about students who leave the formal education system before completing at least a high school diploma. Recent high school dropout rates are often described as a “crisis,” particularly in big cities, where the figures may be as …
In most jurisdictions, formal schooling does not operate within the market economy. Rather, it is provided, directly or indirectly, by government at negligible direct cost to students and parents. How this service is funded is largely a political decision. Political responsibility for school systems tends to reside primarily …
As a social problem, the term school prayer refers to the controversy surrounding the presence or absence of religious practices in U.S. public schools. The debate over the appropriateness of prayer in public schools stems from the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which …
School segregation occurs when minority or subordinated groups of individuals are separated from majority or dominant groups in formal schooling institutions. The segregation may occur between schools (interschool segregation) or within schools (intraschool segregation). A historically salient example of interschool segregation in the United States occurred during the …
Experts once defined school violence conventionally as a serious crime (i.e., murder, rape, assault, robbery, and theft) that occurred on school grounds. However, as social and political awareness focused more rigorously on investigating the phenomenon of school violence, the definition of school violence expanded. The broadened definition rested …
School vouchers are government-funded tuition certificates that parents can use to fund their children’s attendance at private educational institutions. Considerable debate surrounds the use of public funds for education in private institutions. A key issue of debate involves the effectiveness of school voucher programs for students, primarily students …
Scientific management involves study of the production process in an effort to discover means to eliminate waste of workers’ time and effort. Evolving from research on conservation of production resources, the field surged in 1911, when Frederick Winslow Taylor published The Principles of Scientific Management. Here and elsewhere, …
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, secondhand smoke, also known as “passive smoking” or “environmental tobacco smoke” causes disease and premature death for nonsmoking adults and children, because tobacco smoke contains toxic chemicals that increase health risks. With it widely recognized as harmful to an individual’s personal health, …
The concept of the second shift describes an unequal division of labor prevalent among heterosexual dual-earner couples in which women perform the bulk of unpaid household labor and child care in addition to their paid employment. Also referred to as the “double day,” the second shift marks an …
The term secularization entered formal discourse at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, when territories transferred from religious to secular political authorities. Previously, the Latin word saecularis distinguished profane from sacred. The term secularization subsequently developed wider meaning as philosophers and then sociologists used it to assess social …
Segmented assimilation as a middle-range conceptual perspective emerged in the early 1990s with the publication of “The New Second Generation” by Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. The theory is built on the empirical observations that the …
Segregation is the separation of groups based on social characteristics. These characteristics may be either ascribed, such as race, or achieved, such as economic status. In a segregated society, the separated groups may have little or no contact with each other. It is this lack of contact between …
The term de facto segregation refers to the separation of individuals, typically based on a characteristic over which the individual has little or no control and that exists in fact as customary practice. It differs from de jure segregation, which has a legal basis. De facto segregation is …
The term de jure segregation refers to the separation, imposed by law, of individuals, typically based on a characteristic over which the individual has little or no control. The application of such laws can include employment, education, housing, and public accommodation. Implicit in the notion of de jure …
Gender segregation is the separation of individuals according to their gender or sex. It takes many forms in various social contexts, including schools, workplaces, religious organizations, sporting activities, and health facilities. The physical construction of public spaces, such as single-sex changing rooms and bathrooms, both reflects and reinforces …
Occupational segregation refers to the unequal distribution of positions in the labor force. It is historically associated with exclusionary practices that excluded women from men’s jobs and people of color from whites’ jobs, and with practices that relegated white women and racial ethnic groups to jobs subordinate, if …
