Until just a few years ago, gender dysphoria - severe discomfort in one's biological sex - was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than .01 percent of the population, emerged in early childhood, and afflicted males almost exclusively. But today whole groups of female friends in colleges and schools across the world are coming out as 'transgender'. These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans 'influencers'.

Unsuspecting parents now find their daughters in thrall to YouTube stars and 'gender-affirming' educators and therapists, who push life-changing interventions on young girls - including medically unnecessary double mastectomies, and hormone treatments that can cause permanent infertility. Abigail Shrier, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has talked to the girls, their agonised parents, and the therapists and doctors who enable gender transitions, as well as to 'detransitioners' - young women who bitterly regret what they have done to themselves.

Coming out as transgender immediately boosts these girls' social status, Shrier finds, but once they take the first steps of transition, it is not easy to walk back.

Human trafficking is currently regarded as a contemporary form of slavery. However, despite many initiatives undertaken over the last two decades to tackle the problem, there seems to be a disproportionate emphasis on the social phenomenon. Trafficking in persons remains a little-explored area in scholarship with many inconsistencies and ambiguities yet to be attended to. Human trafficking is a multifaceted issue that requires a multidisciplinary approach that must be studied and considered thoroughly and with heavy regard to the many layers of the issue. The Handbook of Research on Present and Future Paradigms in Human Trafficking presents a comprehensible view of what constitutes the underpinning of human trafficking, the means of combating it, its moral implications, and offers possible solutions toward curbing its excesses, inconsistencies, and ambiguities. Covering a range of topics such as social change, human rights, and ethics, this major reference work is ideal for researchers, scholars, practitioners, government officials, policymakers, instructors, academicians, and students.

In 1933 and 1934, Thomas Minehan, a young sociologist at the University of Minnesota, joined the ranks of a roving army of 250,000 boys and girls torn from their homes during the Great Depression. Disguised in old clothes, he hopped freight trains crisscrossing six midwestern states. While undercover, Minehan associated on terms of social equality with several thousand transients, collecting five hundred life histories of the young migrants. The result was a vivid and intimate portrayal of a harrowing existence, one in which young people suffered some of the deadliest blows of the economic disaster. Boy and Girl Tramps of America reveals the poignant experiences of American youth who were sent out on the road by grinding poverty, shattered family relationships, and financially strapped schools that locked their doors. For these young people, danger was a constant companion that could turn deadly in an instant. The book documents the hunger and hardships these youth faced, capturing an appalling spectacle and social problem in America's history before any effort was made to meet the problem on a nationwide basis by the federal government. Boy and Girl Tramps of America is a work unique in its ability to extend beyond statistical analyses to uncover the opinions, ideas, and attitudes of the boxcar boys and girls. Originally published in 1934, it remains highly relevant to the turbulent moments of the twenty-first century. This reprint features an introduction by scholar Susan Honeyman that puts the work into our current context.

The Handbook of Social Policy and Development makes a groundbreaking, coherent case for enhancing collaboration between social policy and development. With wide ranging chapters, it discusses a myriad of ways in which this can be done, exploring both academic and practical activities. As the conventional distinction between 'developed' and 'developing' countries becomes increasingly blurred, this Handbook explores how collaboration between social policy and development is needed to meet global social needs. With contributions from leading experts in both social policy and development studies, this Handbook analyses the complexities of integrating social policy and development studies. Examining a diverse and comprehensive range of countries and case studies that highlight ways to improve this integration, contributors deal with critical debates, covering a wide range of services, programmes, providers and policy sectors. The Handbook of Social Policy and Development is an invaluable introduction to the subject for students of social policy and development studies. Its comprehensive approach also makes it a valuable reference for researchers and specialists in the field. Contributors include: L. Alfers, A. Barrientos, J. Beall, A. Datta, H. Dean, K. Falkenberg, R. Jolkonnen, D. Kiwan, H.-j. Kwon, J. Lee, A. Lombard, F. Lund, P. Mader, J. Midgley, L. Patel, M. Pawar, M. Rogan, R. Surender, M. Terano, M. Urbina-Ferretjans, A. Virk, N. Yeates