Many of you will, at some point in your professional career, need to access credible sources of data and information in regard to a social problem. This is especially true of those of you going into the health/medical field, education, business/marketing, as well as any of the social and behavioral sciences. It is important therefore to know how to find credible sources in the public domain (outside of college libraries) and this exercise will give you practice in doing so.

Suggestions for locating credible academic sources of information/data outside of academic publications:

In general, you should use sites with .edu, .gov, or .org endings in the address line as a measure of credibility. It is best to have a mixture of these types of sites as .org sites tend to be issue-specific and while the sources of info/data they cite may be credible, there is always the possibility their presentation of the facts could be somewhat biased due to their vested interest. You should balance out that possibility with info/data from a .gov or .edu source.

However, the info/data at .org sites are important to include in the study of social problems as the authors are often considered among the experts on that particular social problem. They are the ones "in the trenches", so to speak, and are often involved in policy-making.

Avoid .com sites as a general rule in academic work and NEVER, EVER use online sources such as Wikipedia as a source in academic or professional work.

This assignment requires you to choose 5 of the 10 topical areas listed below. For each of the 5 areas you have chosen, submit 3 credible URL's. (There will be a total of 15 URL's when you are finished.) Search using key words such as poverty, racism or using specific words or phrases from the topic.

1. economic inequality in the United States, global inequality, hunger in the US, global hunger

2. crime in the US, US crime rates, US crime trends, hate crimes in the US, international crime rates

3. criminal justice in the US, US conviction and sentencing rates, US incarceration rates, global incarceration rates, capital punishment in the US , capital punishment in a global context (who practices it and who doesn't and why)

4. inequality in access to health care in the US, , the rising costs of health care in the US, "socialized" health care systems

5. mate selection patterns in the US, US divorce and remarriage rates, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect , US teen pregnancy rates global rates of divorce and remarriage

6. inequality in US system of education, US academic performance in global context, US dropout and illiteracy rates,. school violence, educational achievement rates by race/ethnicity

7. racial discrimination, racism, hate groups, segregation in housing, home ownership rates by race/ethnicity, US immigration policy

8. the wage pay gap, gender inequality in the US work force, gender inequality in US politics, global gender inequality in education, sexism in US media and language

9. homosexuality in a global context, discrimination against sexual orientation minorities in the US, the social and personal costs of sexual orientation discrimination in the US

10. With a focus on the social/behavioral causes of these problems: pollution, global warming, global energy use, natural resource distribution and natural resource depletion