The Challenge of the Care Workforce: Recent Trends and Emerging problems

This paper examines the paid care workforce in community services in Australia. Focusing on people employed in direct service delivery roles, I use unpublished data from the Censuses of 1996 and 2001 to document some important characteristics of the care workforce in community services, in which a large minority of care workers are employed in this country. International research has established that paid care workers suffer considerable labour market disadvantage. The paper presents evidence of deinstitutionalisation, deprofessionalisation, functional underemployment, and relatively poor pay for care workers in community service industries, which suggests that problems identified in other English‐speaking countries are also evident in Australia. I conclude by discussing the policy implications of these trends, and by raising some questions for workforce planning.     

TESTING FOR MOVING AVERAGE REGRESSION DISTURBANCES

This paper considers a locally optimal procedure for testing for first order moving average disturbances in the linear regression model. For this hypothesis testing problem, the Durbin-Watson test is shown to be approximately locally best invariant while the new test is most powerful invariant in a given neighbourhood of the alternative hypothesis. Two versions of the test procedure are recommended for general use; one for problems involving positively correlated disturbances and one for negatively correlated disturbances. An empirical comparison of powers shows the clear superiority of the recommended tests over the Durbin-Watson test. Selected bounds for the tests' significance points are tabulated.     

As California burns: the psychology of wildfire- and wildfire smoke-related migration intentions

Population and Environment - Climate change impacts and rapid development in the wildland-urban interface are increasing population exposure and vulnerability to the harmful effects of wildfire and...     

Fertility Policy and Employment: Implications from the Former Soviet Union

Using individual-level survey data that were collected in Russia in 1993, we analyze the fertility-employment relationship for a sample of urban women who bore children during the Soviet era. Although some Russian policy makers advocate policies that reduce female employment to stimulate fertility, we find little empirical support to ensure success of these policies. Specifically, we find no connection between employment and fertility for our sample of Russian females, perhaps because of their historic, mandated commitment to the labor market. Instead, we find that demographics and attitudes influence fertility decision making. These results, in combination with the findings that our sample of Russian women hold more traditional attitudes toward family and egalitarian attitudes toward work than similar American women, suggest that policies to stimulate fertility by reducing employment may not be effective for women raised during the Soviet era unless a dramatic shift in attitudes away from a strong work commitment also occurs.     

Youth Justice in New Zealand: Restorative Justice in Practice?

The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 put in place new objects, principles, and procedures for youth justice in New Zealand. Both the philosophy underpinning this system and the use of family group conferences exemplify a restorative justice approach that has now been adopted in many other countries. This article describes these changes and presents some of the results of recently published research that examines the extent to which young offenders have been diverted from courts and custody, held accountable for their actions, and had their wellbeing enhanced. It suggests that the New Zealand youth justice system has achieved many but not all of its goals, and that there are still aspects where improvement is possible.     

Deterrence: Testing the Effects of Perceived Sanction Certainty on Probation Violations

Deterrence theory has been repeatedly used to explain individuals'choices to commit vs. not commit crimes. Its utilitarian premise is that individuals will choose to commit or not commit crimes based on the certainty, swiftness, and severity of punishments. This study examines the perceived certainty of sanctions among offenders mandated into intensive probation and the effects of varying levels of perceived sanction certainty in deterring offenders from violating probation requirements. Data from an Intensive Supervision Probation program in New Jersey are used. Results support the salience of offenders'perceptions of sanction certainty on their intensive probation outcomes, and implications for policy are discussed.     

Belief in a Loving Versus Punitive God and Behavior

We examined the extent to which beliefs in a loving God and punitive God correspond with self‐reported behavior in an online, longitudinal survey involving three waves of data collection, each separated by 6 months. Adolescents (N = 760) reported the extent to which they believed in a loving God and a punitive God (Times 1 and 3) and reported their engagement in benevolent (helping and forgiveness) and aggressive behavior (Times 2 and 3). Participants strongly endorsed a loving God but not a punitive God. In addition, belief in a loving God corresponded with reports of less aggressive and more benevolent behavior, whereas belief in a punitive God corresponded with more aggressive and less benevolent behavior.