Neighborhood participation in community development: A comparison of strategic approaches

This study compares the ability of community development corporations to mobilize residents of low income neighborhoods to participate in redevelopment efforts. The evidence and argument show that community development corporations have not been more successful than other types of community-based organizations in (1) the degree to which organizational leadership has been recruited from the neighborhood; (2) the type of control exercised by residents over redevelopment policy, and; (3) the degree of fiscal autonomy achieved by the organization. The policy ramifications of the findings are discussed and analyzed.     

Socio-Economic differences in mortality. A life course approach

Differential mortality in Norway has been studied on the basis of a sample of data derived from the linkage of the 1960, 1970, and 1980 censuses to vital registration records. Based on the hypothesis that the determinants of survival act in interaction, two models are proposed. The first is based on states defined at each observation period by the conjunction of attributes characterizing each individual. The second model considers the chronological order of the states. Logistic regression applied to the latter shows that the most favourable male and female life trajectories are those for married people belonging to rather privileged categories. There are however some differences by sex, as favourable trajectories concern both economically inactive females and employees.     

Excision: Practices,discourses and feminist commitment

Starting with the emotional impact the discovery of the practice of female genital mutilation has had on her life, Evelyne Accad gives us some information on the studies that have researched and analyzed the various practices. She describes and defines some of the terms used, takes us on her journey to some of the countries she visited in the last ten years interviewing women about their lives, specifically the practice of excision. She gives voices to some of these women through excerpts from some of her interviews. She raises the debates, discourses, and conflicts surrounding the practice, ending with her assessment of the situation and her own feminist commitment and vision for a better world and hopes for an end of the practice. Evelyne Accad was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. She has been a professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana since 1974 in French, comparative literature, African studies, women studies, Southwest Asian studies, and the Honors Program. Publications include:Sexuality and War: Literary Masks of the Middle East; New York: New York University Press, 1990; andContemporary Arab Women Writers and Poets. Beirut: Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, 1986.     

Responding to child sexual abuse: an evaluation of social work by children and their carers

This paper presents the views and perceptions of 35 children and their current carers regarding the social work response to child sexual abuse. Interviews with the children and carers, including foster carers and residential carers, were carried out 2–4 years following disclosure, thus the nature of social work support in the longer term, as well as the initial response, is assessed and described. Three evaluations of social work support are presented: the child-ren's evaluations of social workers known since disclosure, and two evaluations from the carers, one focusing on the child's needs, and one focusing on their own as carers. All three evaluations perceived the majority of social workers as having helped. Aspects of social work considered essential included providing emotional support and reassurance, providing information and explanation and arrang-ing and coordinating services, including counselling or therapy.
  Carers of children who were abused by someone outside the family were less likely to receive social work support. The frustra-tion and disappointment expressed by some of these carers reaffirms the importance of assessing needs even when the child is considered protected from further abuse. The findings of this study support the need to refocus responses to abused children and their families.     

Modeling of interventions for reducing external Enterobacteriaceae contamination of broiler carcasses during processing

This article presents a mathematical model for the Enterobacteriaceae count on the surface of broiler chicken during slaughter and how it may be affected by different processing technologies. The model is based on a model originally developed for Campylobacter and has been adapted for Enterobacteriaceae using a Bayesian updating approach and hitherto unpublished data gathered from German abattoirs. The slaughter process in the model consists of five stages: input, scalding, defeathering, evisceration, washing, and chilling. The impact of various processing technologies along the broiler processing line on the Enterobacteriaceae count on the carcasses’ surface has been determined from literature data. The model is implemented in the software R and equipped with a graphical user interface which allows interactively to choose among different processing technologies for each stage along the processing line. Based on the choice of processing technologies the model estimates the Enterobacteriaceae count on the surface of each broiler chicken at each stage of processing. This result is then compared to a so-called baseline model which simulates a processing line with a fixed set of processing technologies. The model calculations showed how even very effective removal of bacteria on the exterior of the carcass in a previous step will be undone by the cross-contamination with leaked feces, if feces contain high concentrations of bacteria.     

Responding to Child Sexual Abuse: The Criminal Justice System

Children who disclose sexual abuse, and the professionals working with them, continue to face a series of difficulties and dilemmas if the alleged abuser is to be brought before the criminal court. As part of a major study of 202 children who had been sexually abused, 35 were interviewed about their post-abuse experiences. The majority were positive about their contact with police. What the children wanted to happen to the abuser suggests that they did not always want imprisonment but that they required some form of redress, and above all that the abuser should be held accountable. However, accounts by the six children who were prosecution witnesses were all unequivocally negative about their experience of giving evidence and being cross-examined. The issues raised by the children's qualitative evaluations provide increased support for the view that further reform is still needed if the interests of children, as well as justice, are to be truly protected within the criminal legal system. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Factors preventing the social reintegration of homeless persons: A comparison between residents of long-stay hostels and individuals living on the street

Homelessness is a major social issue in all Western countries. In France, many homeless persons do not have access to the accommodation and help with social reintegration provided in long-stay hostels, and remain on the streets or in other forms of emergency shelter. The objective of the present study is to identify the variables preventing access to these hostels and, more generally, to a process of social reintegration. We compared a group of 10 individuals housed in long-stay hostels with a group of 16 who were still living in the streets. All participants were assessed on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and underwent a semi-structured interview. Results showed that individuals who had not been admitted to a hostel were characterized by high levels of depression and anxiety, the attribution of responsibility to external factors, a vagrant lifestyle, a lack of social support, a negative approach to reintegration, and an inability to look to the future. This study highlights various factors explaining the reintegration difficulties encountered by a proportion of the homeless population. It suggests new ways of improving support for the homeless.