Overreporting voting: why it happens and why it matters

The key to understanding why people overreport is that those who are under the most pressure to vote are the ones most likely to misrepresent their behavior when they fail to do so. Among all nonvoters, the most likely to overreport are the more educated, partisan, and religious, and those who have been contacted and asked to vote for a candidate. The greater the concentration of African-American and Latino nonvoters in a district, the greater the probability of overreporting in those districts, both among those in the relevant minority group and among white Anglos. White nonvoters are more likely to overreport in the Deep South than elsewhere. Overreporting matters: using reported votes in place of validated votes substantially distorts standard multivariate explanations of voting, increasing the apparent importance of independent variables that are related in the same direction to both overreporting and voting and sharply decreasing the apparent importance of independent variables related in opposing directions to those two variables.     

Telling it like it is: news websites and online newspapers

This article examines the content and possible uses of four online news providers: , aimed at the potential clients of a major transnational information corporation; , aimed at ‘alternative globalization’ activists; , intended for transnational businesspeople and , directed at both local newspaper readers and members of the Irish diaspora. It suggests that the form, content and multimedia use of each is determined by its target audience and by the use this audience makes of the potential of the Internet for developing cross‐border networks. Furthermore, it suggests that it is not necessarily the size, extensity and power of this audience that determines the degree of sophistication and global engagement of the website, nor is it the power and wealth of the individual website’s developers.     

Reflecting on partdime private practice: Is it worth it?

Abstract

Gradual, but not so subtle, changes in Australia's political and welfare cultures have meant that over the past I0 years social workers have been showing a greater interest in private practice as a legitimate aspect of the profession. This paper presents some of the major practical considerations required for a part-time practice to be successfully initiated and maintained. The author uses her own experience as an example and explores the personal, professional and commercial decisions she has made in such a practice over the past 16 years.     

Just do it?

Referring to the ongoing discussion on quality assessment and evaluative criteria in qualitative methods the article focuses especially on the grounded theory approach in the tradition of Anselm Strauss. It is argued that having its roots in the pragmatist epistemology and philosophy of science the grounded theory approach develops strategies to enhance the quality of processes and results that in some parts differ from traditional quantitative methodologies. Having elaborated on grounded theories’ pragmatist roots, the paper proceeds by presenting major strategies and techniques dedicated to quality enhancement (like dimensionalization and theoretical sampling). Subsequently, both research logic and rhetorics of evaluation criteria in grounded theory (e.g. theoretical saturation, density and groundedness) are being discussed. This leads to concluding remarks on the need for special evaluation criteria in grounded theory-based research.     

Does it or Doesn't it? Geographic Differences and the Costs of Living

Abstract The relative cost of living in rural areas has long been of interest to rural sociologists. Today, the popular perception is that rural prices are lower. This study examines geographic differences in the costs of living in Kentucky. The results indicate that, contrary to the popular perception, when prices of the same products and services were compared, there was no consistent pattern of lower prices in the rural counties. Furthermore, differences in the material conditions of rural living meant that there were additional costs that price comparisons alone did not capture.     

Colonial criminology: A survey of what it means and why it is important

As the United States is experiencing unprecedented high rates of incarceration, especially of minorities and marginalized communities, racialized punishment has been addressed by many scholars (Alexander 2010; Wacquant 2001; Cole 1999, Tonry 2011; Stevenson 2014). Studies have shown the connection between racialized structures of inequality, punishment, and colonization (Agozino 2000, 2003; Irwin and Umemoto 2016; Bosworth and Flavin 2007). However, scholars have recognized a void in the discussion of colonial theory in the field of criminology (Agozino 2003; Cunneen and Tauri 2016; Bosworth and Flavin 2007). In this paper, I identify several ways in which criminology is closely tied to colonialism. I argue that a colonial criminology perspective assists in identifying power distinctions that construct notions of difference, thus providing a more nuanced understanding of crime, violence, and criminalization as a response to oppression and alienation. I focus primarily on colonialism in Hawai'i because of its fairly recent colonization and continuing indigenous struggle for Hawaiian sovereignty. Furthermore, Hawai'i is representative of racial and ethnic inequality and disparity within the United States criminal justice system, as the majority of both the adult and juvenile incarcerated populations in Hawai'i are of Native Hawaiian and/or Pacific Islander decent.     

All it takes is leadership

The authors, as leaders in a public child welfare system, have teamed together and reached out to their private sector partners in a large, rural county in western Colorado. This effort was part of a comprehensive, communitywide effort to redesign and fundamentally improve the entire child welfare service delivery system. Across the country in many areas where collaboration and integration have been the focus, we often hear voices in the private and public sector declaring the importance of integration. Why, then, does it not happen as a general course of action? The authors believe the answer lies in leadership, both public and private. They hold the Mesa County model up as witness to that fact.