Validation of an inferential approach for the measurement of illegitimacy

An inferential model which utilizes surname comparisons in inferring legitimacy status is developed and validated. Criterion validation is employed to assess the level of agreement between the inferential approach and the conventional reporting procedure. Data for the analysis are based on a sample of birth certificates contained in files of the National Center for Health Statistics for calendar year 1973. Results indicate that despite excessive error within some categories of the control variables, the inferential method is generally adequate to obtain reliable estimates of illegitimacy.     

The theory and practice of equal opportunities policies: liberal and radical approaches

This paper explores the conceptual confusions characteristic of the practice of equal opportunities policies the workplace. The differences between‘liberal’and‘radical’approaches to policy making are identified and described. It is argued that, while these are conceptually distiner from one another, in practice they are routinely confused and conflated. In particular the preferred procedures of the liberal approach are widely assumed to result in the preferred outcomes of the radical approach. It is suggested that these confusions are not merely the product of intellectual error but arise from misunderstandings and deceptions generated in the struggle for power between participants in the work process     

The ideological context of child welfare

This paper examines consequences for child development and well-being of the prevailing institutional order and ideology of the United States and concludes that child development in our country is severely obstructed because of socially structured violence which permeates our way of life. The paper ends with comments on prospects for social transformation which seems necessary to assure the development and well-being of every child.     

The component structure of elderly population growth in the Netherlands: 1950–1980

While there is no doubt about the magnitude of the growth of older age groups in industrialized nations, its structural components are less well understood. This paper examines the roles played by cohort succession and mortality in the process for the Netherlands during the period 1950 to 1980. While the size of population aged 65 and over has increased for both males and females, increases in the size of succeeding cohorts explain all of the growth in the older male population. Reductions in mortality at the older old ages play a much greater role than do reductions at younger old ages; the latter reductions occur among females only.