“Otis”: A Case Study of an Online Attempt to Purchase Children for Sex

ABSTRACT

The researchers analyzed court documents to develop a case study of an individual convicted of buying sexual services from exploited children. Findings indicate that the subject deviates from preexisting victim selection processes and demonstrates characteristics inconsistent with existing sexual offender typologies that likens offender behaviors to the hunting techniques and behaviors of predatory animals. As evidenced in the case study, the individual perceived the victims solely as a means of deviant sexual satiation and did not participate in traditionally established victim acquisition techniques. In addition, the researchers propose adopting terminology that adheres to the term consumer rather than buyer as it better represents some offenders’ disconnect and lack of empathy in the victim acquisition process.     

Dual Impact: Outness and LGB Identity Formation on Mental Health

Conflicting literature exists for the relationship among outness, sexual minority identity formation, and mental health among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. The present study examines the complex relationship among outness, identity, and mental health among 192 lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals collected from an online sample. The findings revealed that outness has a complex, dual impact on mental health. Specifically, outness was found to have both positive and negative consequences for mental health, with identity development accounting for the positive aspects of outness. Directions for future research and implications for clinicians are discussed.     

A Qualitative Assessment of a Parent-developed,Parent-run Program to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy

This paper describes an approach to parent education that includes a parent-developed curriculum and parent-facilitated parent training program. The approach was based upon a model of empowerment and self-determination derived from critical and post-modern theoretical perspectives and asserts that parents, working together collectively, can affect meaningful change in their lives. The results of a qualitative assessment support the notion that peer-led parenting training can increase parents' confidence, reduce feelings of incompetence and reduce reluctance to assume the role of parenting. These results support the contention that parents can self-author their change and improve.     

The Gateshead Millennium Baby Study: A Prospective Study of Feeding and Growth

This is a study investigating feeding and growth in infancy. Its principal aim was to examine the joint influence of infant feeding behaviour and maternal psychological characteristics on weight gain. Infants of mothers resident in Gateshead, UK, born in pre‐specified weeks in 1999–2000 were eligible, and 1029 were recruited. Routine clinic weights were collected, and heights and weights were measured by research nurses at 13 months for 82% of the cohort. Parental postal questionnaire completion rates varied from 81% at 6 weeks to 63% at 12 months and to 49% at 30 months. The strength of the study was that many data were collected at routine clinical contacts. The main difficulties were maintaining up‐to‐date contact details and keeping the families involved, for which direct contact was more successful than postal contact. Support from health professionals, telephone reminders, media involvement, birthday cards and newsletters helped the success of the study. More recently, 83% of the cohort has been traced to local schools. The overall result is a unique longitudinal dataset of early feeding patterns and maternal characteristics from birth which will form the basis of further investigation and analysis of the cohort.     

Writing aboriginal history

you are what you make yourself to be: the story of a Victorian Aboriginal family 1842-1980, by Phillip Pepper. 144pp., 127 photographs. Melbourne: Hyland House. 1980. $11.95 (paper).     

Collateral coverage: media images of Afghan refugees, 2001

The paper is concerned with media coverage of the on-going refugee crisis in Afghanistan. It begins by looking at how the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center of 11 September 2001 had the result of stimulating renewed media interest in Afghan refugees. Paying special regard to the role of visual images in the reporting of disasters, the paper reviews the narrative strategies adopted by television news. It considers the factors that have instigated media response by examining some general issues arising from the media coverage of disasters. While the central focus of the study is BBC Television News Special Reports on the Afghan refugee crisis, selective comparisons are made with other television broadcast channels, Sky News and Euronews.

Based on the Afghan case study, I propose three main constituent factors contributing to the likelihood of effective media coverage of a refugee crisis. Firstly, in order to attract Western press coverage it is necessary for the crisis to be of such a magnitude that it cannot be ignored; or else it is necessary for it to be perceived as having some obvious connection with Western concerns. Secondly, the story will gain airtime if the nature of the crisis is such that it produces dramatic imagery – pictures with impact. Finally, if the style of the media coverage is sufficiently innovative it will stimulate interest in the viewers. The paper concludes with a critical review of media examples that break away from conventional news formulae.     

Alternatives to the Stork Fatherhood Fantasies in Donor Insemination Families

Reproductive technology has presented a challenge to families and clinicians alike in making sense of the psychological experience when a child is born with the use of donated sperm or ova. This article addresses one specific aspect of this challenge: father imagos and fantasies for parents, donors, and children in donor insemination families. Pour psychodynamic issues are explored: denial of reality and denial of the Unconscious, the power of die unconscious and the “unthought known,” reversion and resistance to part-object thinking, and paradoxical psychic construction and destruction of the father. In extension of Winnicott's theory dial there is no infant without a mother, the author concludes dial there is no infant without all the parties who make die child and all the parties who raise die child.     

Trajectories of Parenting During Infancy: The Role of Infant Temperament and Marital Adjustment for Mothers and Fathers

Although it is well accepted that parents greatly impact infant development, it is less clear which factors impact change in quantity and quality of parenting across infancy. This longitudinal study (N = 120 families) investigated how infant temperament and marital adjustment related to trajectories of mother and father involvement and sensitivity across infancy using multilevel models. Parental involvement (caregiving and play), infant temperament (surgency, negative affectivity, regulation), and marital adjustment were assessed from questionnaires when the infant was 3, 5, 7, 12, 14, and 20 months of age; parental sensitivity was coded from two episodes of the Still‐Face Paradigm in early infancy (3, 5, and 7 months). On average, mothers showed higher levels of caregiving, play, and sensitivity than fathers. Mother caregiving, play, and sensitivity increased over time. Father caregiving and play also increased over time, whereas sensitivity did not change with age. Happier marriages were related to increased play for both mothers and fathers. Infant surgency was also significantly related to caregiving, play, and sensitivity trajectories for mothers but not fathers. Findings are discussed in relation to parenting roles and family dynamics.     

Challenges in Rural Social Work Practice: When Support Groups Contain Your Neighbors,Church Members,and the PTA

Rural social work occurs in unique practice environments with challenges and rare opportunities. Strong social ties, commonly found in rural communities and often missing in urban areas, can serve as sources of resilience for group members facing adverse life circumstances. Therapeutic formal and informal support groups, bolstered by this support and led by social workers in rural communities, can face numerous challenges due to locale, lack of transportation, and potential worker burnout. This article highlights ethical considerations rooted in a theme of rural group work while providing helpful hints based on the IASWG Standards for Social Work Practice with Groups.