The concept of Social Pathology

Social scientists usually talk about social pathology or social problems. Social pathologies long as people started living in groups. In other words, they like the ancient man himself. The forms of social pathologies that social scientists and moral philosophers today apparently was also the subject of philosophical research for the ancient and medieval philosophers and religious thinkers. However, it may be appropriate to argue that the extent of social problems in the days to match that of the past (Rancher, 1991; Zastrow, 1996) .

The term pathology is a Greek word composed of pathos and logos. Literally means the study of disease and disease processes. The term social pathology refers generally to the pathos of society, ie, the "social disease" that have an impact on society. However, a more explanatory term social problems. Social problems are the social ills affecting the normal operation. A problem that is limited to the level of an individual or a certain group can not be regarded as a social problem. A social pathology affects society or its institutions and organizations in general. However, the very term social problems of any problems that social origin, which means at least two people that goes beyond merely psychological and physiological levels (Kornblum and Julian, 1995) 1.

Sociologists argue that social problems can better understand the social institutional contexts. Although the causes of social problems multiple, sociologists claim that they are common manifestations of the breakdown of social institutions themselves. Where an institution fails to meet the basic needs of the people, social problems arise. It is usually easy for an ordinary person to the cause of a particular social problem due to the failure of the people themselves. For example, if we take the problem of begging or drug addiction, the individual victims blamed for their actions. However, we must look at the broader sociological and cultural context (Indrani, 1998).