Does the age of offenders and victims in crime scenarios affect perceptions of crime seriousness and punitiveness among students?

The extent to which the age of the offender or the victim influences respondents' respective evaluations of crime seriousness and punitiveness has rarely been studied. This study hypothesizes that evaluations of the severity of offenses with intrapersonal and interpersonal social implications and the estimation of their punitiveness will be more serious when the offenses are performed by younger than by older offenders and less serious when they harm younger as opposed to older victims. Results from 129 undergraduate students who were administered the Multidimensional Social Transgressions Scale (MSTS) confirm the hypotheses. The findings are discussed in light of crime theories, social theories, and ageism studies.     

Social Work Students’ Interest in Working with Persons with Serious Mental Illness

Educating and recruiting practitioners to work in community-based settings with persons with serious mental illness has become a national health issue, particularly in underserved rural areas. To inform curriculum development and recruitment efforts, the authors conducted a needs assessment. Graduate and undergraduate social work students in a rural New England state university were surveyed about their interest, perceived competence, and perceived training needs in working with persons with serious mental illness. The findings indicated that almost half of the students expressed an interest in working with this population. The extent and nature of previous work with this population and educational level were shown to be related to students’ responses, in areas including interest in work with persons with serious mental illness and the perceived ability to handle a psychiatric crisis. The findings suggest important implications for the social work curriculum, additional needs assessment, and recruitment activity.     

Popular Hazards and Policy Rhetoric

Popular hazards are common activities that involve some risks of harm, such as driving a car, possessing or shooting a gun, drinking alcohol, or smoking marijuana. In each of these cases, many millions of Americans engage in the activity, but only a small fraction of them harm themselves or other people. Because the activity is so common, the number harmed may be substantial, although more serious harms tend to be much more infrequent than less serious harms. Social policy debates almost always focus on some particular popular hazard, yet we can see rhetorical similarities—parallel arguments—in how advocates frame what are understood to be very different social issues. Thus, discourse about legalizing recreational marijuana use tends to invoke claims that are quite similar to those opposing further gun control. The category of popular hazards allows us to recognize parallels in policy debates about seemingly unrelated social issues. Focusing on the underlying policy issue—balancing popularity and hazardousness—encourages considering alternative ways to construct social policies.     

HIV Risk in Gay and Lesbian Adolescents

Adolescents, regardless of sexual orientations, are not increased risk for HIV infection. Although the number of infected adolescents remains small, the number of adolescent AIDS cases is approximately doubling each year. This suggests that the rate of HIV infection among adolescents is expanding in a similar fashion to that seen among gay men in the early years of the epidemic. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for understanding the problems of HIV infection as it related to the gay and lesbian adolescent. This framework is grounded in developmental theory, though key social, political, economic, and policy factors which are believed to contribute to the infection of HIV among gay and lesbian adolescents will also be presented. It will be argued that social practitioners who are working in the HIV and AIDS arena would do well to reexamine the paradigm, which governs existing practice methodology.     

The screening unit: an experimental approach to child protective service

The Bronx screening unit was established on the assumption that in a populous urban area, a central registry reporting system would receive a sizable number of bogus or malicious reports. The unit tried to identify some of these reports by their characteristics and then to verify these suspicions through the diagnostic skill of experienced and highly motivated workers. The short-term goal was the easing of a workload crisis. The experiences of the screening unit showed that the process was highly successful, and represents an important way to use staff more efficiently in case management. During the 19-month period, an average of 93 regular CPS workers processed 4282 cases, or 46 cases per worker. During that same period, four screening workers averaged 186 cases per worker. The screening process allows the regular CPS worker additional time to focus on serious cases. It also minimizes intrusion into the lives of persons harassed by bogus reporting. The process meets the legally mandated requirements of New York State and the federal government and provides for adequate case recording and record maintenance. One aspect of the Bronx screening unit worthy of special mention is the emphasis on referrals to community services. More than a third of the "unfounded" cases, though not requiring agency intervention, did warrant some type of social service and were referred for assistance. It is important that screening unit workers be familiar with community social service programs in order to serve as resource persons for clients. There exists a tendency to prematurely view cases for screening as easy or unfounded. Determining that a child abuse or neglect report is unfounded is the result of a specific investigative process, and only some cases lend themselves to shortening of this process. Administrative awareness of screening unit limitations will enable these units to function effectively and fulfill their primary responsibility of safeguarding children. Screening units can be a valuable adjunct to a child protective program, but they must not be viewed as a panacea for agency budget and staffing problems.     

阿拉伯国家社会转型中经济发展面临的挑战

能源在阿拉伯世界经济社会发展中具有举足轻重的地位和作用,影响并形成了阿拉伯国家独特的经济社会结构和发展道路。然而,阿拉伯世界以能源为主的社会经济发展模式凸显了资源导向增长的经典困境,阿拉伯产油国经济和社会发展高度依赖石油和天然气,工业和经济结构单一,经济多元化水平低下。石油财富未能从根本上改变阿拉伯国家社会经济发展成就的有限性,社会经济发展滞后,贫困、失业和社会不公三大问题,凸显了阿拉伯世界以能源为主的社会经济发展模式的弊端和深层危机。“阿拉伯之春”对社会经济包容性增长的强烈要求,对以能源为主的阿拉伯国家社会经济发展模式提出了严重挑战。阿拉伯世界的社会稳定将是一个长期和艰难的过程,最终取决于阿拉伯国家的社会经济发展水平。     

A study of a social work agency: the occupational routines and working practices of the education social work service

In this paper we will be examining the way in which the education social work service goes about its routine, everyday work with truants (which, for the purposes of this paper, will be seen as the service's major occupational task to resolve).¹ Such an analysis has, in our view, a twofold importance. Firstly, it adds to the extensive literature² on disaffection amongst school students; secondly, it contributes to juvenile justice studies³ which have highlighted the importance attached to truancy in the formal decision-making process; this in turn has led to the development of a range of administrative and judicial strategies to remedy the problem⁴. In addition, it is our view that the truancy problem is likely to increase in the light of the growing certainty of unemployment on leaving school for large sections of the youth population, coupled with fiscal cuts in the education budget: we have been able to show in our Sheffield-based research (which confirms trends indicated in earlier studies undertaken in this same city⁵ that there has been a statistically significant increase in non-attendance amongst fifth formers between 1976 and 1982 in the local comprehensive schools.⁶ The truancy issue has been perceived as a serious social problem for a number of years now⁷ and, on the same basis, we can expect that this will continue – indeed, as something of the moral panic that exists in the related social sphere of youth unemployment.⁸ Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the reference to the role of the service in the 1983 Conservative party manifesto:⁹‘we shall switch the emphasis in the education welfare service back to school attendance so as to reduce truancy'.     

Caring for Persons with Serious Mental Illness

Abstract

This article places evidenced-based knowledge of practice within the social context of care and proposes five policy objectives and specific policy and program changes to address care needs of people with serious mental illness. In spite of demonstration programs that provide the basis for proposed policy initiatives throughout the United States, treatment provision for this population remains inadequate and their safety and well-being continues to be at risk. The authors suggest that treatment initiatives need to be tied to stable policies protecting the mentally ill from adverse social context changes. The authors conclude that policies are needed that will enhance housing assistance, independent social functioning, personal empowerment, and treatment engagement. In addition, efforts are needed to make better use of inpatient hospital care, to better understand the role of assisted treatment, and to better develop consistent long-term fiscal support for the seriously mentally ill. They offer specific policy recommendations for changes in HUD programs, Medicaid and Medicare funding, and treatment programming that address these needs.     

美国未成年人案件保密性原则及其松动

美国未成年人案件保密性原则在司法实践中比较复杂。基于"双轨制"现实,未成年人身份过错、偏差及轻微犯罪案件通常由少年法院审理;而对于较严重的未成年人刑事案件,则会移送至刑事(成人)法院审理。对于后者,因其刑事性质,被移送受审的未成年人将被视为成年人受审,其案件庭审及记录除特殊情形外原则上不予保密。而对于前者,此类案件大体上适用保密性原则。不过随着对儿童利益最佳原则及防卫社会的双向反思,对在少年司法体系内的较严重犯罪案件与虐待、遗弃及照管不良等案件,少年法院保密性原则亦有较大松动。     

Education and training for social work: A response to Tony Novak

Novak's proposal (1995) that student social workers should be taught on the basis of how social work should be practised rather than how it actually is being practised within the current market economy, is challenged as an unhelpful ‘head in the sand’ approach to current dilemmas in social work education. The revised Diploma in Social Work (CCETSW, 1995a) is defended on the grounds that it prepares social workers for the jobs they will have to do on qualifying; that it retains a user-centred anti-racist and anti-discriminatory value basis and that, in spite of serious political threats, it remains rooted in higher education and emphasises the importance of holistic assessment and critical reflection in practice.     

Learning from mistakes in social work

A growing number of cases of professional errors in the realm of health and social services appear on media and raise significant public debate. This article focuses on mistakes in social work and looks at how their negative impacts might be reduced through the lens and framework of reflective practice. Using conclusions from the most relevant literature on this topic and some of the outcomes of recent research, the author describes errors in social work in terms of causes (e.g. lack of time and training, etc.) and results (e.g. damaged relationship with users, failure of action plans, burnout, etc.). Learning occurs when social workers conduct an in-depth reflection, alone or together with colleagues. Since human beings will always err, paradoxically reflection on mistakes (with the consequent drop in the harm produced) and not the reduction of their number is the most powerful factor to improve the quality of health and social services. The culture of blame and punishment is one of the main obstacles to an effective social work animated by the genuine culture of responsibility and ethically driven by the overriding interest of service users.     

From charity to client-oriented social service production: A social profile of religious welfare associations in Western European comparison

The social profile of Western European religious welfare associations has never been studied in empirical detail. It is the aim of a Mannheim comparative project to systematically collect data on the qualitative and quantitative dimension of church social service provision in Europe. There are huge variations in the organizational structure of religious welfare associations in the European countries, which to a great extent can be accounted for by the historical configurations of the church-state relationships. Starting from these organizational differences it can be suggested that also the range of social activities of religious welfare associations will vary all over Europe. Consequently, special light will be shed on the target groups for which social services are provided as well as on the number, form, and capacity of institutions operating in these fields. These data may provide an interesting insight into the internal structure of the third sector in general and into the national potentials of the churches in the face of a Europeanization of social policy in particular.     

Recreating Social Capital

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the establishment of a pilot neighbourhood-based intergenerational programme and its evaluation in one town in England. It sets this in both the context of English inter-generational programmes involving schools and of English social policy. The latter is currently influenced by Putnam's concept of social capital. It argues that intergenerational programmes of all kinds are likely to be useful contributions to the development of social capital. The paper reports how the evaluation of the pilot has lead to the refinement of the original model. The pilot highlighted the need for more systematic measures of the process and outcomes, including the project's contribution to development of social capital. The revised model is being implemented in a number of contrasting neighbourhoods and will be evaluated in both outcome and process terms. These developments will be reported in further articles.     

Ethnic ties: social capital and the question of mobilisability

This paper reflects on the concept of social capital through a discussion of the differential uses of ethnic ties for minority ethnic groups. It is argued that we should confine the notion of social capital to mobilisable social ties and networks. Resources such as those found in ethnic networks and bonds will only be social capital if they are mobilisable and usable in pursuing social advantage. This will only happen in the presence of a number of factors including the social valuation of the ethnic ties both within and outside the ethnic category, the social location of the actor (for example their gender) and the social context. The paper elaborates a concept of social capital which recognises the need to embed it within social hierarchies.     

Evaluating housing needs with the use of GIS

Rosario (Argentina) has different levels of housing quality and access to physical and social infrastructure. To assess the needs of newly decentralised districts, it is necessary to supply the municipality with new tools to analyse weaknesses and potentialities. The use of GIS can help in this evaluation. It can be implemented at the Public Housing Service to detect problem areas and improve the allocation of resources by efficiently targeting housing needs. Indicators are used to measure different levels of housing needs and provision of basic services. Spatial inequity related to the access to social infrastructure is calculated for the most disadvantaged groups. Expressed demand is also calculated and compared with the demand derived from the indicators. According to the evaluation it can be concluded that the city of Rosario is facing disparities inside the districts. The combined use of derived demand with expressed demand proves to be efficient to detect cases of housing needs where derived demand via indicators is showing lower levels of demand or hiding the situation completely. The growing demand of GIS tools and the availability of census data in digital format will improve and consolidate the evaluation of housing needs and its effect on spatial inequity.     

Herd behavior and the quality of opinions

This paper analyzes a decentralized decision model by adding some inertia in the social leaning process. Before making a decision, an agent can observe the group opinion in a society. Social learning can result in a variety of equilibrium behavioral patterns. For insufficient ranges of quality (precision) of opinions, the chosen stationary state is unique and globally accessible, in which all agents adopt the superior action. Sufficient quality of opinions gives rise to multiple stationary states. One of them will be characterized by inefficient herding. The confidence in the majority opinion then has serious welfare consequences.     

Framing public policy towards a public health paradigm for gambling

This paper examines the public policy value of looking at gambling from a public health perspective. The manner in which social issues are framed will either expand or curtail public policy debates. The existing and traditional frames for gambling (e.g. gambling as a matter of individual freedom, gambling as a form of recreation) fail to consider research on the social and economic impacts of gambling. Because a public health frame offers a broad viewpoint of society, it encompasses a number of social and economic impacts not considered in traditional frames. However, the existing gambling frames enjoy varying degrees of cultural, economic, and political support and, as a result, creating a higher profile for a public health framework will encounter a number of barriers. Research can play a decisive role in overcoming these barriers, as it has in a number of related fields (e.g., tobacco use, addiction and product liability, the epidemiology of AIDS). The paper concludes that research that identifies and quantifies the public health factors of gambling will substantially contribute to a public shift toward a public health frame.     

The Patient Transit Assistance Scheme: A case for social work advocacy!

Abstract

The Patient Transit Assistance Scheme is one of Queensland Health's initiatives designed to facilitate equity of access for Queensland residents to essential health care services. The purpose of the scheme is to help all Queenslanders, irrespective of where they live, to have access to specialist medical services. It provides direct financial assistance to patients and in some cases their carers, to facilitate access to specialist medical services irrespective of geographic location.

The findings of recent research conducted on social worker involvement with PTAS for patients diagnosed with leukaemia and associated haematological disorders will be used to argue that the problems in relation to the administration of this scheme require serious attention at the level of patient care and health policy.     

Teacher Sexual Misconduct: Grooming Patterns and Female Offenders

Educator sexual misconduct has received increasing attention over the past decade. The attention has exposed a number of concerning issues, including a lack of formal research in the area and difficulties in recognizing and prosecuting cases. Public responses to high profile cases of sexual misconduct involving female teachers suggest that gender-biased views on sex offenders remain prominent in society. This article will review the literature on female teacher sexual misconduct in addition to what is known about grooming patterns and warning signs. Finally, current dilemmas in resolving cases of educator sexual misconduct will be discussed, and basic prevention strategies will be recommended.     

Book reviews

This paper addresses a number of issues concerning the future prospects for social work and mental health in England and the implications of these for social work education. In particular the significance of interprofessional practice and education will be examined and these will be located within the wider context of the social work contribution to mental health services. The experience of social work in promoting the interests and involvement of service users and carers and of working within a holistic model will also be recognised. The particular value of the social work contribution to mental health in both mental health and non-mental health settings is emphasised and attention is paid to how this could be strengthened and extended in the light of the opportunities for positive and creative developments offered by the introduction of the new 3-year degree. These will include the development of shared learning with other professional groups and the need to prepare social work students for practice within a rapidly changing world.