Social Problems examines social structure in order to provide a coherent framework for understanding social problems. Employing a consistently sociological approach, the authors explain how social problems are interrelated and highlight society's role in their creation and perpetuation.

Stanley Eitzen (Ph.D. University of Kansas) is professor emeritus in sociology from Colorado State University, where previously he was the John N. Stern Distinguished Professor. Among his books are Social Problems (with Maxine Baca Zinn and Kelly Eitzen Smith) and Diversity in Families (with Maxine Baca Zinn and Barbara Wells), both of which received McGuffey Awards from the Text and Academic Authors Association for excellence and longevity over multiple editions. He is also the author and co-author of 4 Solutions to Social Problems volumes with Allyn & Bacon; Paths to Homelessness: Extreme Poverty and the Urban Housing Crisis (with Doug A. Timmer and Kathryn Talley); Sociology of North American Sport (with George H. Sage); and Fair and Foul: Rethinking the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport. He has served as the president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport and as editor of The Social Science Journal.

Maxine Baca Zinn (Ph.D. University of Oregon) is Professor Emeritus in sociology at Michigan State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. Her main research interests are racial inequality, gender and family life. She is the author and co-author of many other books, including Diversity in Families (with D. Stanley Eitzen and Barbara Wells), Social Problems (with D. Stanley Eitzen and Kelly Eitzen Smith), Women of Color in U.S. Society, Gender Through the Prism of Difference and Globalization: The Transformation of Social Worlds. In 2000, she received the ASA Jessie Bernard Career Award.

Kelly Eitzen Smith received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona. She is currently the director of the Center for Applied Sociology and a lecturer at the University of Arizona. At the Center for Applied Sociology, she has conducted research in the areas of day labor, homelessness, poverty, urban housing and neighborhood development. Her sociological interests include gender, family, sexuality, stratification and social problems. She is also the co-author of Experiencing Poverty (with D. Stanley Eitzen) and Social Problems (with D. Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Baca Zinn).