Social Construction and Policy Implementation: Inmate Health as a Public Health Issue

This article develops and tests a concise multi-stage approach for assessing the impact of social construction on the implementation of public programs designed to benefit negatively constructed groups. The framework suggests that negative constructions lead to policy choices that create problems in the implementation process. These problems prevent the accomplishment of key subobjectives necessary for ultimate program success. Copyright (c) 2004 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.