Practice Change in Child Welfare: The Interface of Training and Social Work Education

This article examines perceptions of the relationship between professional education and workplace training among a select group of public child welfare employees who pursued graduate social work education during a period of major practice change at their agency. Focus groups were conducted with representative members of graduating cohorts as students completed their studies to explore the connections and distinctions between their professional education and the workplace training that introduced case practice reform. Experienced caseworkers, supervisors, and management-level staff, study participants were well situated to contemplate the changes in process at their agency. They offered insights into the progress of reform and the challenges of sustaining change as well as their roles as professional social workers in carrying reforms forward.     

Raw materials,shortages and producer power

The problems of 1973 and 1974 stemming from raw material shortages and related price escalation revealed discrepancies in many corporate plans. The diminished economic prospects for 1975 notwithstanding there is a growing awareness of the need to include supply factors as a key element in corporate plans as a result of what happened in 1973 and 1974. This article by G.F. Ray examines aspects of shortages, real and engineered, the potential power of procedures and likely effects and reactions. The author does not indulge in futurology, but rather provides the reader with a useful framework for consideration of specific cases.     

Survival methods of young street mothers

In-depth interviews and attitude questionnaires were completed by 26 young street mothers to determine their survival methods. These young women are proud and devoted mothers who are living at a poverty level. They are feeling economic, social, health, relationships, and emotional stresses.It is recommended that these young mothers be provided an array of services coordinated in a non-traditional manner.     

The impact of density in a juvenile correctional institution: Research,recommendations, and policy implications

In accordance with the goal of bridging research and practice, we (a) review recent literature on correctional crowding, (b) report a recent study on density and the recommendations made to the institution on the basis of the study, and (c) discuss implications for policy involving this type of research.     

A Comparative Study of Two Groups of Sex Offenders Identified as High and Low Risk on the Static-99

The purpose of this study was to identify possible differences between high- and low-risk sex offenders. The subjects included 285 sex offenders on probation. They were evaluated with the Static-99, Abel Assessment, Raven's, and MMPI-2. A criminal history review identified the number of prior offenses and the age/sex category in the index offense. The high- and low-risk groups were compared on 26 variables: intelligence, age, criminal history, denial patterns, measured sexual interest in children, admission of sexual interests, a childhood history of sexual abuse, victim's age, and personality variables. Four variables significantly accounted for 64% of the variance: age, prior number of felonies, the Cognitive Distortion Score, and the MMPI-2 Infrequency scale score.     

Security Assurance: How Online Service Providers Can Influence Security Control Perceptions and Gain Trust

Security researchers agree that security control is a difficult to observe credence quality of online services that Internet users cannot easily assess through research or experience. Yet there is evidence that users form perceptions of security control that strongly determine how much trust they put in online services. This study investigates whether users’ security control perceptions arise solely from their predispositions or whether online service providers can influence them. The study also examines whether these seemingly undependable perceptions of security control lead to trust or whether more traditional factors might offer a better explanation of trust under security risks. To address these issues, this study proposes a new theory of security assurance that integrates the frameworks of trust and quality signals. The results show that rather than being guided by predispositions, users appear to mainly assess security control based on indirect cues controlled by service providers. Importantly, Internet users do not treat the credence quality of security the same way they treat qualities that can be understood through search and experience. Although returning users develop security control perceptions and trust from the usual heuristics of ongoing relationships, they also continue to evaluate market information about service providers like they do in new relationships. The proposed model offers a new perspective of how users respond to the uncertain and technically challenging qualities prevalent in online services.