Can social workers and police be partners when dealing with bikie-gang related domestic violence and sexual assault?

Welfare and criminal justice systems manifest different goals, cultures, values and working methods. In Australia, the welfare sector has a culture of empowerment and concern for victims’ rights, within which social workers focus on social justice and social change. In contrast, the criminal justice sector (police) is patriarchal and para-military in structure, focusing on enforcing and maintaining community order and safety. These differences can create tension when social workers and police need to work as partners in response to violence against women, in particular violence against women from bikie gangs. This article addresses the issue of partnerships between social workers and police when working with abused bikie-gang women. It presents the findings of recent research into social work practice with such women in South Australia, in conjunction with a brief exploration of the international literature on social work and police cultures, and partnerships. It concludes that whilst there is a great need for genuine collaboration and partnership between social workers and police in the complex context of domestic violence with links to organised crime, the cultures and mandates of these different professions make this difficult.     

Perceptions of suicide and their impact on policy,discourse and welfare

In recent years, there has been an increase in suicide rates throughout the Western world. However, psycho-social responses to the problem are limited, as is public awareness of suicide and its consequences. This article presents findings from a survey on public attitudes toward suicide in Israel. The survey was conducted among a representative sample, and examined the extent to which the problem is a public priority for developing interventions aimed at preventing and reducing the rates of suicide. The findings revealed that despite the prevalence of suicide in Israel, and even though many of the participants had been personally acquainted with the families of suicide victims, suicide still ranks low on the hierarchy of bereavement. The Israeli public is ignorant about suicide, and does not consider it a problem that calls for government intervention and accountability. The study highlights the need for social workers to play an active role as social agents in an attempt to change the social ‘bereavement pyramid’ perception and effect on government policy toward suicide.     

Side-by-side: An evaluation of Connecticut’s police and youth interaction model

This study evaluated a community-based intervention program designed to promote positive youth development and to create positive interactions between police and youth in a non-enforcement environment. A pre–post-design was used to compare the results of the program for participating youth and police officers, particularly changes in each group’s attitudes toward the other. The results showed that participation in the program improved police officers’ and youths’ attitudes toward each other. For youth, the rate of change in attitudes was greatest for minority youth and for youth who had prior negative experience with the police. That is, youth who had negative prior experiences with police and began with negative attitudes toward police developed more positive attitudes toward police as a result of participating in the program. Furthermore, having opportunities for positive interactions between police and youth played an important role in decreasing negative perceptions of police for ethnic minority youth. This study suggests that community-based programs that involve police with youth can improve participants’ attitude toward each other, which might impact future interactions.     

‘This is real now because it’s a piece of paper’: texts,disability, and LGBTQ parents

What role do texts play in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) parents’ experiences of disability service systems? In interviews with 15 LGBTQ parents of disabled children in Toronto, Canada, participants selected documents to be used as a focus for discussion. Parents considered how LGBTQ identity and other intersectional identities influenced their experiences of institutional texts including adoption certificates, intake forms, and assessments. Findings suggest that documentation practices can operate as forms of systemic gatekeeping. LGBTQ identity was sometimes very significant in parents’ accounts, and sometimes less central than other aspects of their families' identities and experiences.     

Inequality and Multiracial Gatekeeping

ABSTRACT

Theoretical propositions linking power and status relations are deeply rooted in classical sociological thought. Building on that tradition, this paper investigates the impact of racial status on a specific power relation, the relation between gatekeepers and their clients. Gatekeepers control access to “benefits” they do not own, benefits that are valued by “clients.” Seeking access to those benefits, clients assume obligations which may be discharged by a fee paid to the gatekeeper. The size of the fee paid is the amount of power exercised by the gatekeeper. Employment agents, car salesmen, real estate agents are gatekeepers because they control access to jobs, cars, and housing, respectively, as well as information about each. When clients are lower status, for example, African American, employment agents may steer them to lower-paid, less desirable jobs, car salesmen may ask for and receive higher prices, and real estate agents may show only segregated housing. Research reported here extends previous work on gatekeeping to multiracial (black-white) gatekeeping relations by jointly applying two theories. Network Exchange Theory (NET) models the gatekeeper–client relation, and Status Characteristics Theory (SCT) models the impact of racial status on that relation. The result is three theoretical predictions that are experimentally tested in the well-understood context of exchange networks. As a first replication of previous work on gatekeeping, a key finding is that gatekeeping does produce power differences, as theoretically predicted. Two new additional findings are that 1) whereas race does indeed undermine the effects of blacks’ gatekeeping of whites, 2) it does not amplify (significantly) the effect of whites’ gatekeeping of blacks. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

‘It's been hell.’ Italian and British practice educators’ narratives of working with struggling or failing social work students in practice learning settings

Periods of assessed learning in practice settings are common requirements for social work students worldwide. The ‘practice learning opportunity’ as it is known in the UK, and ‘tirocinio di servizio sociale’ as it is referred to in Italy, are important sites of gatekeeping in preventing unsuitable people from becoming social workers. The experience of assessing failing students in practice learning settings, however, has been found to be particularly stressful and challenging for practice educators. This article documents findings from two qualitative studies that explored field educators’ experiences of working with struggling or failing social work students in Italy and England. The study finds both similarities and differences in the narratives of the assessors from the two countries. Similarities include, unpleasant emotional experience of working with a failing student, internalisation of the students’ failing as the practice educators’ own failing, perceptions that the universities may hide negative information about students and lack of acknowledgement of the gatekeeping function inherent in the practice educator role. Differences include the level of emotionality experienced by educators, the way students are spoken about and the perceived role and responses of the university. Further comparative European research that focuses on practice education is indicated.     

Racial accountabilities: the legal legibility of racial state violence in the Special State’s Attorney Report on Police Torture in Chicago

Public inquiries command significant political capital for liberal democratic states that premise their authority on being accountable to a generalized public sphere. By attending to the particular relations of visibility that are generated by these investigative state institutions, this article reveals the differentiated forms of legal and political accountability that structure the proceedings and case history of the 2006 Special State’s Attorney Report, which investigated the torture of African American suspects by Chicago police officers under the supervision of former Commander Jon Burge. More specifically, this article documents the racial relations of power that shape how state actors and institutions are made to answer for their conduct, explicating the ‘racial accountabilities’ that mediated this public inquiry as well as the practices of state violence it was tasked with investigating. On the one hand, these forms of accountability focused blame on the individualized actions of particular state actors, abstracting their conduct from the broader systemic conditions that have rendered African American populations vulnerable to racial state violence. On the other hand, this article explains how the forensic gaze deployed throughout the legal investigations into torture reconstituted its victims as objects of law with differential access to its forms of protection and technologies of redress. By detailing the force and dimensions of these racial accountabilities, this article illustrates how public inquiries and other institutions of law can reproduce and extend racial fields of violence while also regenerating public confidence in the efficacy and equality of the state.     

‘Why would I want to be anonymous?’ Questioning ethical principles of anonymity in cross-cultural feminist research

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on anonymity in research, considering it in relation to feminist values. There has been increasing debate in the feminist literature on the universality of ethics, including reflection on principles such as anonymity. However, there has been limited discussion of the specific challenge facing feminist researchers to amplify the voices of women participants, but also to respect their wishes regarding voice and agency. Assuring anonymity can be empowering for women and girls participating in research, allowing individuals to share their experiences freely without concerns about attribution and its consequences. On the other hand, if research ethics require anonymity, this can actually deny research respondents the right to be heard and operate as a form of silencing. This article focuses on research in Bihar, India, where many of the respondents rejected the idea of anonymity. Upholding a feminist ethics of care and delivering on a feminist commitment to giving voice to women requires a focus on women’s agency in the decision-making process around ethics.     

LIFE ON THE LINE: THE THERAPEUTIC POTENTIALS OF COMPUTER MEDIATED CONVERSATION

In what ways are computer networking practices comparable to face-to-face therapy? With the exponential increase in computer-mediated communication and the increasing numbers of people joining topically based computer networks, the potential for grass-roots therapeutic (or antitherapeutic) interchange is greatly augmented. Here we report the results of research into exchanges on an electronic bulletin board devoted to the topic of suicide. Over an 11-month period participants offered each other valuable resources in terms of validation of experience, sympathy, acceptance, and encouragement. They also asked provocative questions and furnished broad-ranging advice. Hostile entires were rare. However, there were few communiqués that parallel the changeinducing practices more frequent within many therapeutic settings. In effect, on-line dialogues seemed more sustaining than transforming. Further limits and potentials of on-line communication are explored.     

Parental Gatekeeping and Child Custody Evaluation: Part III: Protective Gatekeeping and the Overnights “Conundrum”

ABSTRACT

The concept of parental gatekeeping and the forensic evaluation model for child custody disputes is described and applied to the context of considering overnight care by fathers for infants and toddlers. The forensic model is briefly described: facilitative, restrictive, and protective gatekeeping. The gatekeeping continuum is described, ranging from extreme restrictive to very facilitative and inclusive. Gatekeeping is isomorphic with a common best interest statutory factor on support for the other parent–child relationships. The limited research on overnights and child outcomes is briefly reviewed and discussed in the context of attachment theory. The concept of social capital is introduced as an explanatory concept for research that shows the benefit of joint parental involvement and shared parenting, including overnight care by fathers. Attachment and social capital are presented as complementary, explanatory concepts for understanding the gatekeeping and overnights issues. The conservative school of thought on overnight care by fathers is discussed in terms of a justification analysis as part of the gatekeeping model. Mothers opposing overnights need to show with behavioral specificity how overnights would be harmful to the child and then how the father can still be afforded substantial involvement in the present and future.     

Racial Resentment and Attitudes Toward the Use of Force by Police: An Over‐Time Trend Analysis

On the heels of recent police shootings of an unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, and the death of Freddy Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, that stoked racial tensions, this article examines how beliefs about race and racial inequality influence whites’ attitudes toward the use of force by the police since the mid‐1980s. Our main dependent measure is a composite index (“Police Force Index”) constructed from four survey items from the 1986–2012 National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey (GSS). Results show that (1) beliefs about race do indeed significantly predict whites’ attitudes toward police use of force, and more importantly, (2) this effect has remained constant since the mid‐1980s. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings and suggestions for future research.     

Troubled Engagement in Ethnicized Conflict

Feminist cross-community initiatives, which emerged in Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine in the 1980s, are frequently lauded in the gender and conflict literature as evidence of the ways in which women can work across ethnonational boundaries. In particular, the theory of ‘transversal dialogue’, developed by Nira Yuval-Davis and adopted by other feminist scholars and activists, suggests that participants have developed a mode of dialogue that enables them to acknowledge differences while developing common goals. In ethicized conflict, transversal politics is understood as an alternative to the essentializing of ‘identity politics’ as well as their undemocratic character. The empirical research, however, suggests that identity politics remains relevant for participants, particularly when cross-community dialogue is limited by external political realities and internal community divisions. In my view, understanding the ways in which identity politics contributes to the development of feminist goals related to women's inclusion in peace processes and post-conflict peace-building is not at odds with transversal politics; rather, women use both modes of politics to build feminist networks and tackle women's marginalization in hyper-masculinized and militarized zones of ethnicized conflict.     

The Norwegian police and victims of elder abuse in close and familial relationships

Over recent decades, domestic violence or family violence, violence against women and child abuse has received much attention in the media, in political discourse and in social research. However, abuse of older adults arouses limited interest. In government action against domestic violence and in police guidance manuals, the elderly receive little attention. The aim of this article is primarily to demonstrate how the police attempt to prevent elder abuse in close relationships, especially in parent-child relationships. This article highlights some contradictions between the need of the police to produce criminal cases (often contrary to the interests of the victims) on the one hand, and the police's duty to prevent further abuse on the other. Research has documented that help and prevention measures in question make the situation even worse for the victims they are meant to help.     

Precarity and structural racism in Black youth encounters with police

Youth experience increased surveillance by and involuntary contact with police officers compared with other age groups. Studies that explore the experiences of youth during these encounters are scant and focus on youth with criminal histories. This research aims to explore the experiences of college-attending youth between 18 and 24 years old in two southern states. The study was designed and conducted according to the tenets of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Twelve Black youth were recruited and interviewed between April 2015 and April 2016. Three superordinate themes (and subthemes) were identified: (1) negative feelings towards the police; (2) precarity of police encounters (subthemes: police as a threat to welfare; it could be me; steps to follow during police encounters; behavior is irrelevant) and; (3) police response is part of structural racism (subthemes: racism is everywhere; media contributes to racism). The importance of these findings for social work practice and research will be discussed.     

How flat organizations filter: organizational gatekeeping in a networked environment

The development of affordable Internet-based tools and platforms has led to major transformations in organizational dynamics. One key change is the shift of agency from center to ends and the consequent emergence of decentralized (networked) organizations. Focusing on the realm of collective action, we suggest that organizational configurations constructed around participants with greater agency induce organizations to promote new filtering tactics to sort out members who are valuable to the group. Drawing on Signaling Theory, we analyze the filtering behavior that organizations develop in their attempt to cope effectively with a type of tension characteristic of the digital era: The impetus to uphold egalitarian ideals on the one hand and the need to sort out desired participants on the other. Previous studies have explained how boundary work actually works in bureaucratic settings with fairly clear boundaries. This study focused instead on how new patterns of collective participation emerge, and how novel practices related to filtering are distributed in decentralized organizations. The study makes two points with theoretical implications. First, it explains an organization's decision to conduct filtering measures – a decision that on the face of it is counterintuitive since organizations operating in a digital environment can tolerate the enclosure of ‘free riders’. The second point relates to filtering practices. It shows that the emergence of new forms of participation, practices and norm, due to the development of networked media, encourages creativity in the development of specific filtering tactics, with activists considering new tactics for achieving their goals.     

Power Relations between Police Force and Civil Guard: An Israeli Case Study

Abstract

This article aims to examine and describe the power relations between the Israeli police force and Civil Guard (CG). The CG, established as an independent organisation adjacent to the police, was intended to fight terrorism. Within a few years of its 1974 establishment, the CG began encroaching upon police duties. This research has revealed that the CG adopted goal displacement as a strategy for survival, that is, for coping with police threats which were leading to its decline as an organisation. To face these threats, and in an attempt to fend them off, the CG adapted its goals to suit the police, but this strategy did not help it to survive. Instead, the similarities between its goal system and that of the police led to the CG becoming absorbed within the police, as an internal department, thereby losing its independence.     

Wie ehrlich berichten männliche Jugendliche über ihr delinquentes Verhalten?

Survey-based studies on the prevalence and causes of deviant behaviour very much depend on the honesty of respondents. However, the validity of self-reports is rarely investigated. We report on a external validation of self-reported delinquency of male juveniles based on two survey samples — face-to-face interviews in households (N=309), and paper and pencil interviews in school (N=337) — which have been done in 1999 and 2000 in Freiburg and are used for record checks of self-reported police contacts both on the individual and aggregate level. Individual-level record checks reveal that a majority of respondents has honestly reported contacts with the police, while there are a considerable number of both ‘false negative’ and ‘false positive’ answers which come predominately from respondents with low educational and social status and of migration background. As these groups show high non-response rates as well, the correlation between delinquency and socio-economic status is likely to be underestimated. The school survey, on the other hand, yields higher and more realistic prevalence rates. However, comparisons between the two survey modes hint at differential effects of social desirability which question the validity of self-reports by respondents with high educational status. Survey results on self-reported delinquency should generally be interpreted with great caution, and more research on the mode effects of class room interviews are deemed necessary.     

Implementation in perfect equilibria

This paper considers implementation when the feasible outcomes are lotteries over a finite set of alternatives. The following weak condition is sufficient for implementation in trembling hand perfect equilibria (with three or more players): if all but one player agree on which alternative is the best, this alternative is (among those that are) chosen by the social choice rule, and if all but one player agree on which alternative is the worst, this alternative is not chosen. Many interesting social choice rules that are not Nash implementable satisfy this condition. On the other hand, there are social choice rules that are implementable in Nash equilibria but not in perfect equilibria.I am grateful to Luis Corchón, Eric Maskin, William Thomson, seminar participants at Harvard and Rochester, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by grants from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.     

Providing alternatives to infant institutionalisation in Bulgaria: How gatekeeping can benefit from a social development orientation

There is extensive research demonstrating the negative effects of institutionalisation on infants. Gatekeeping has been widely promoted as a key strategy to combat unnecessary institutionalisation. Its aim is to provide a range of services and a system of decision making based on assessments of children and families to ensure effective targeting of services. This paper provides details of research into the gatekeeping system in Bulgaria for children under three and examples from recent Bulgarian and international practice. It suggests that gatekeeping could benefit from a social development orientation including activities to combat poverty and promote social inclusion through supporting community and family strengths. The paper proposes changes to the orientation of gatekeeping for effective national strategies to combat institutionalisation.     

Abandoned negatives,Themeless Parks: images of contemporary China in two photographic projects

Abstract

This article juxtaposes two photographic projects to illustrate ways of perceiving everyday space in contemporary China: on the one hand, ‘Silvermine Project’ (2009–2013), by French collector and editor Thomas Sauvin, recycles a vast collection of abandoned film negatives from the 1980s to the early 2000s, and subsequently ‘curates’ these amateur images into the frame of a quasi-ethnographic approach. On the other hand, Hong Kong photographer Dustin Shum’s ‘Themeless Parks’ (2008) presents a series images of public parks in Chinese cities and towns. The two projects propose different readings of the ‘postsocialist’ condition in contemporary China. While the domestic shots curated by Sauvin actively mobilise individual and national identities in private and public spaces, Shum’s compositions of shape, colour and architectural density reveal a highly orchestrated ‘China’ that pre-empts the emergence of an individual identity. This paper analyses the textual articulations of individuality, space, and temporality in the two projects.