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.
Taylorism is a set of ideas regarding factory management developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States under the name of “scientific management.” The core of Taylorism is a system of task management in which managers and engineers …
In 1976, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported that the rate of pregnancy for 15- to 19-year-olds was 101.4 per 1,000 adolescents. This rate peaked in 1990, at 116.8 pregnancies per 1,000 adolescents. This means that, in 1990, 11.7 percent of U.S. teenagers were pregnant, compared …
Temperance, most notably associated with alcohol use, refers to moderation or restraint in one’s consumption of alcohol. Temperance movements are social movements that attempt to convince others, either through morality or law, to refrain from drinking alcohol or at least moderate their alcohol consumption. These movements, some of …
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is the means-tested income support program that replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in 1996. Unlike AFDC, TANF is behavior rather than benefits oriented, has multiple goals and targets and a dynamic, longitudinal, and complex focus with an emphasis on …
Terrorism is a fluid and adaptable form of political behavior that defies precise definition. It typically involves the illegal use or threatened use of violence against individuals unable or unprepared to defend themselves in order to elicit fear and advance a political, ideological, or religious cause. Attacks can …
Terrorism is a complex phenomenon with many dimensions that vary in intensity and scope across time periods and have varying degrees of impact and significance in different regions of the world. Counterterrorism approaches, in consequence, are likewise multifaceted in kind to offer appropriate responses to the threat and …
Domestic spying is a cultural construct that is used, especially among civil libertarians and the media, to refer to internally directed surveillance programs initiated by a variety of formal agencies of social control and intelligence. In the current U.S. context, domestic spying primarily refers to the debate that …
Theft is the act of taking property (physical or intellectual) from someone (including businesses and corporations) with the intent of keeping the item permanently. various criminal codes throughout the United States subdivide theft into different areas, although the primary theme is identical: taking property, thus depriving the rightful …
Theory has multiple meanings in regard to its context in both field and method. In everyday use, the word theory generally means an assumption or inference, to denote a status less than something that can be certifiably known as a fact. Following this, “theory” is often juxtaposed against …
Although the model of drug misuse treatment called the “therapeutic community” (TC) traces its American roots to Synanon, it has quite an ancient pedigree. At the dawn of the Christian era, Philo Judaeus wrote of communitae therapeutrides, the art of which was to “heal the souls which are …
Think tanks are independent, nonpartisan, non-university-based organizations that conduct policy research. More than 300 think tanks in the United States and thousands of others around the world focus on domestic and foreign policy issues such as the economy, environment, welfare, social security, education, health care, governance, military technology, …
Three strikes laws are statutes that mandate state courts to impose a mandatory extended period of incarceration to individuals convicted of a felony on the third offense. The name originates from baseball, following the model of the “Three strikes, you are out” theory. Its intent is to combat …
Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments Act stipulates that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance” (20 …
The practice of torture is so ancient that its origins are lost in the distant past. However, recorded history shows that all major civilizations practiced it, either as a form of punishment or as a means of obtaining information. The ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Chinese …
Erving Goffman defined total institutions in 1961 as places of residence and work where individuals lead together an enclosed, formally administered life cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time. Total institutions are a departure from basic modern social arrangements where members sleep, play, …
Totalitarianism in its simplest sense designates the all-embracing total state. In its narrowest application it refers exclusively to Nazi Germany and to the Stalinist period of the Soviet Union. As a concept, however, it emerged originally in connection with Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, and its frame of reference historically …
Every year, industrialized nations—via their industries, consumers, and cities—produce millions of tons of toxic waste. These hazards directly and indirectly contribute to high rates of human morbidity and mortality and to ecosystem damage on every continent and ocean system. Since the end of World War II, industrialized nations …
The social problem called traffic congestion results when the number of vehicles using the existing transportation facilities and systems serving a country, city, community, or other area (infrastructure) exceed that infrastructure’s carrying capacity. Characterizing traffic congestion are a decrease in the actual speed a vehicle may travel regardless …
Transsexuality is a term used to describe individuals who desire to change their sex and/or gender presentation. Transsexuals may also self-identify as male-to-female (MTF), female-to-male (FTM), preoperative, postoperative, or nonoperative transsexuals. For example, the experience and visibility level of MTF transsexuals may be dramatically different than FTM transsexuals, …
Young adults with disabilities are less likely than their nondisabled peers to be employed full-time, enroll in postsecondary education, earn a bachelor’s degree, and engage in recreational activities such as going to the movies with their friends. Unlike their nondisabled peers, upon leaving school and entering the real …
