Policy-practice in social work and social work education in Israel

Policy-practice is a form of social work intervention that is intended to influence social policy. It is linked to an understanding of the role of social workers which places the struggle for social justice at the forefront of social work activity. However, this form of social work intervention has remained on the sidelines of social work practice and education in most welfare states. This paper seeks to understand the role that policy-practice and social policy play, and have played, in social work and social work education in Israel. The findings indicate that, despite a growth in interest in the political role of social workers in Israel during the 1970s, policy-practice has remained a mode of practice adopted by a minority of members of the profession in Israel. An empirical study of the curriculums of the schools of social work in Israel indicates that this is the case for the study program in most of the schools. The reasons for this can be linked primarily to the overwhelming influence of American social work upon the development of the Israeli profession and to the process of liberalization and privatization of the Israeli welfare state in the last two decades.     

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION,EMOTIONAL COPING,AND CRIMINAL DESISTANCE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF MEN UNDERGOING CHANGE

Retrospective narratives of change consistently emphasize the importance of religious devotion and spirituality in initiating sustained behavioral change, but little is known about the process by which religion and spirituality promote desistance from crime. The current project is designed to add to the knowledge of the relationship between religion/spirituality and behavioral change by systematically investigating the ways that men residing in a halfway house define the role of religion/spirituality as an emotion-coping mechanism in their desistance efforts. The qualitative data reveal that religion/spirituality is primarily used by these men currently undergoing behavioral change as a form of emotional comfort, a distraction from current stressors, and as factor demarcating the transition from deviance to a more conventional life. Suggestions for religious programming designed to stimulate behavioral changes are discussed.     

THE IMPACT OF RACE ON DENOMINATIONAL VARIATIONS IN SOCIAL ATTITUDES: THE ISSUE AND ITS DIMENSIONS

Although the impact of religious affiliation on social attitudes is a popular research topic in the sociology of religion, few scholars have examined the role that race plays in this relationship. Moreover, studies that do explore the interplay of race and religious affiliation seldom move beyond the general categories of conservative, moderate, and liberal denominational families. Our research uses recent data from the General Social Surveys to compare the social attitudes of African Americans and their white counterparts within established designations of religious affiliation. Along with control variables, we include attitude measures for political tolerance, legalized abortion, gender equality, premarital sex, homosexual lifestyles, and extramarital sexual relations. Our analysis isolates levels of support for these attitudes within categories of race and religious affiliation to determine whether variations emerge and whether they are nested within specific issues, religious denominations, or reflect more general patterns of race differences.     

FEMALE TACTICS AND STRATEGIES OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: A STUDY OF INCIDENT REPORTS

Researchers have debated the extent to which females pursue violence against their male partners for purposes of enforcing or resisting control. In an effort to shed light on this important topic, we examined 43 incident reports of women who were court-referred to a batterer intervention program to explore how and why they engaged in intimate partner violence. Our analysis of the reports revealed that the most common tactic of physical violence was pushing and the most common tactic of psychological violence was intimidation. The motive to enforce was observed in the majority of the incident reports, while attempts to resist, retaliate, and punish occurred in about one third of the reports. We also found that female violence typically occurred in the contexts of anger and fear. The implications of our research for violence intervention programs are discussed.     

Medicaid Funding for Assisted Living Care: A Five-State Examination

Medicaid waiver programs financing assisted living care are examined in five states to gain insights about program implementation, accomplishments, and challenges. Documents, augmented with stakeholder interviews, are used to describe income eligibility, options for supplementing payments to facilities, risk adjustment payment levels, and participation. Needs determination and waiver-based payments are in place. Eligibility and funding levels are complicated by room and board allocations that are linked to the federal benefit rate for Supplemental Security Income. Provider participation may be diminishing. Many recipients have to accept shared occupancy as program payments are insufficient for single units.     

Whatever happened to “bureaucracy”: Empirical studies of the 1970s

Problems with defining the structure of the organization are the topic of this research. At the beginning of the seventies Hage and Aiken wrote: “Characteristics of organizations do not occur randomly; they are found together in definite patterns.” The purpose of this paper is to begin to make these non‐random patterns explicit. Such a task involves three steps: (1) defining “the” characteristics of organizations, (2) examining the empirical relationships of these characteristics, and (3) summarizing the findings. This paper focuses on step one. The structural elements of organizations as they appeared in the empirical studies of the 1970s as published in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Pacific Sociological Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and The Academy of Management Journal are presented. Based upon these findings implications for steps two and three above are suggested.     

A routine activities approach to suburban arson rates

Cohen and Felson's theory of “routine activities” is evaluated using 1980 arson rate data for 676 American suburbs. Influences of criminal motivation (percent poor, percent unemployed, percent black and percent youth), criminal opportunities (percent old housing, percent multiple housing and the number of commercial/industrial establishments), guardianship (police employment, police expenditure and female labor force participation) and ecological niche (employment concentration and median house value) on suburban arson rates for 1980 are estimated using maximum likelihood (LISREL) techniques. Consistent with the routine activities model, a multiplicative effect of the pre‐conditions for crime on crime rates are also estimated. Motivation, opportunities and guardianship were found to have direct and/or indirect additive effects on arson rates, thus supporting the “routine activities” model. A multiplicative effect of the preconditions of crime was also found.     

Contestability and social justice: The limits of competitive tendering of welfare services

Abstract

This paper critically analyses competitive tendering as a model for the provision of welfare services. Competitive tendering, driven by National Competition Policy and other imperatives for greater efficiency and a smaller public sector, is now used extensively by governments to fund welfare services. However, the suitability of this funding model to welfare services generally, and specifically welfare services in non-metropolitan areas, can be criticised on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Competitive tendering is grounded in economic rationalist, urbo-centric assumptions that are largely inappropriate for welfare provision, and have limited validity in rural areas. There is little rigorous empirical evidence of improved efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery under this model. Conversely, there is mounting evidence about the negative impacts. In rural areas this includes the erosion of community service obligations, less collaboration and greater secrecy between agencies, the reduction of choice, limited opportunities for local planning, cost shifting, and threats to continuity of care. This paper concludes with a call for greater application of the ‘public benefit’ test under the provisions of the National Competition Policy, and the development of more sophisticated frameworks for assessing the contestability of welfare services. Social workers have a leading role to play in challenging the dominant ideology of competition-orientated welfare reforms.     

Social Work and Social Justice: What Are We Fighting For?

Abstract

A cardinal value of social work practice is social justice. Social justice ranks as the second of five values that underpin the Code of Ethics of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW. However, although social work's commitment to promoting social justice is laudable and, indeed, may even be a distinguishing feature of the profession, precisely what kind of social justice does social work espouse? The answer to this question remains unclear. Views about the nature and scope of social justice stem from broader conceptions of justice that not only differ from, but may also conflict with, each other. Therefore, it is important not only for social work to be clear about the type of social justice that it currently advocates, but also to ensure that it is one that the profession seeks to defend and maximise. It is argued that the choice must be as egalitarian as possible. Indeed, it must be radically so. Otherwise, what is social work fighting for?