Child Support Obligations and Low‐Income Fathers

Using the 1994–1998 waves of the Current Population Survey—Child Support Supplement (N =5,387), the aims of this study are to document child support obligation rates of nonresident fathers, to examine the effect of the obligation rate on child support compliance, and to calculate the trade‐off between fathers’ financial responsibility and children's well‐being, paying particular attention to low‐income fathers. The results indicate that low‐income fathers have high child support obligation rates, which significantly reduce their child support compliance. Although lowering the obligation rate for these fathers may improve their compliance, it does not fully offset the lowered obligation amounts and leads to a 30% net payment loss for welfare mothers and a 43% loss for nonwelfare mothers. Policy implications are discussed.     

Women are Victims,Men Make Choices: The Invisibility of Men and Boys in the Global Sex Trade

The invisibility of men and boys in scholarly discussions of the global sex trade was analyzed through a sample of 166 recent articles published in social science journals. Most failed to acknowledge the existence of male sex workers at all. When male sex workers were discussed, they were assigned considerably more agency than female sex workers, the chief danger ascribed to them was HIV rather than violence, and the question of their sexual orientation was always addressed, whereas female sex workers were always assumed heterosexual. The results are discussed in the context of world system theory, Orientalism, and heteronormativity.     

Rate of strong uniform convergence of k-NN density estimates

Let f_n(x) be the univariate k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) density estimate proposed by Loftsgaarden and Quesenberry (1965). By using similar techniques as in Bahadur's representation of sample quantiles (1966), and by the recent results on the oscillation of empirical processes by Stute (1982), we derive the rate of strong uniform convergence of f_n(x) on some suitably chosen interval J_δ. Some comparison with the kernel estimates is given, as well as the choice of the bandwidth sequence relative to the sample size.     

PAUSES: EXPLORATIONS IN SOCIAL RHYTHM

Despite the ubiquity of pauses in the personal and social fabric of everyday life, sociological analysis of this phenomenon has been limited in both scope and concern. In this article it is argued that pausing should not be relegated to the status of a residual category nor should pauses merely be conceptualized as breaks in action or periods of inactivity. Rather, it is suggested that pauses are an essential element of the social rhythm that demonstrates degrees of personal and community well-being and vitality. As well, pausing may be an important, perhaps even necessary, part of the process of commitment and self-esteem. A typology of pauses is offered and the implications of pausing in establishing the rhythm of human behavior are discussed.     

Category Distinguishability and Observer Agreement

It is common in the medical, biological, and social sciences for the categories into which an object is classified not to have a fully objective definition. Theoretically speaking the categories are therefore not completely distinguishable. The practical extent of their distinguishability can be measured when two expert observers classify the same sample of objects. It is shown, under reasonable assumptions, that the matrix of joint classification probabilities is quasi-symmetric, and that the symmetric matrix component is non-negative definite. The degree of distinguishability between two categories is defined and is used to give a measure of overall category distinguishability. It is argued that the kappa measure of observer agreement is unsatisfactory as a measure of overall category distinguishability.