Child custody evaluations and domestic violence: case comparisons

The literature indicates that witnessing domestic violence is harmful to children, that them is a high overlap between domestic violence and child abuse, and that safety is an important issue for separating women because separation from abusive partners is a particularly dangerous time for victims of domestic violence. Further, child custody is often a contentious issue in domestic violence cases. Child custody evaluations are typically used to assist courts in deciding custody when custody is disputed and when the best interests of the child are unclear. The concept of "best interests of the child" does not specify evaluation techniques or approaches, however, and while custody evaluation standards generally address the best interests of the child, they offer little guidance in high-risk situations such as parental domestic violence. In addition, there has been limited research focused on understanding the custody evaluation process or the degree to which practitioners differ in their procedures and reporting for cases with and without parental domestic violence. This study is one of the first to examine characteristics of disputed custody cases and their custody evaluation reports differences between domestic violence and non-domestic violence cases. This study selected a 60% random sample of cases with custody evaluations in Fiscal Year 1998 and 1999 (n = 82 cases). Out of the 82 cases, 56% (n = 46) met criteria for classification into the domestic violence group and 44% (n = 36) did not. In general, results indicated that although there were some important differences in court records between cases with and without domestic violence, there were only minor differences between custody evaluation reported process and recommendations for the two groups. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Sampling television programs for content analysis of sex on TV: how many episodes are enough?

Content analysis is widely used to analyze sexual themes and messages on television. Although researchers generally use a sampling procedure to identify programs for analysis, there is currently no gold standard for the number of episodes needed to establish a valid, representative sample. This study sought to explore how many episodes of weekly television programs should be examined for an accurate assessment of sexual content present throughout the season. Various sampling strategies were used to select episodes from programs that ran in the 1998-1999 season, and results were compared with data collected from all episodes of these programs to test representativeness. Findings suggest that to provide a representative assessment of sexual content on television programs for behavior-level variables, a random sample of five episodes of weekly television programs is sufficient, while three episodes may be acceptable if variation is minimal. A random sample of seven episodes is needed for character-based analyses.     

Explaining Social exclusion: Towards Social Inclusion for Indigenous Australians

Current policy often focuses on ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage’ by simultaneously addressing multiple deficits that many Indigenous people experience relative to other Australians. International literature often frames such issues in terms of the contested concepts of social exclusion and social inclusion. This paper attempts to analyse what Indigenous social inclusion might look like in a plural society such as Australia. In addition to contextualising Australian policy in broader debates, this paper also briefly introduces several relevant theories of justice, diversity and Indigenous rights to provide a theoretical framework for conceptualising social inclusion. The article concludes with some reflections on some practical suggestions to move the debate forward. In principle, enhancing Indigenous social and political participation in policy design should both increase inclusion and reduce disadvantage by enhancing the effectiveness of programs that have a substantial Indigenous client base.     

Once in Parkland,a Year in Hartford,a Weekend in Chicago: Race and Resistance in the Gun Violence Prevention Movement

Generally ignoring firearm‐deaths by suicide, “common sense” divides gun violence into two distinct types of phenomena: urban gun violence and mass shootings. At a cursory level, these phenomena seem distinct because of the difference in the number of victims killed during a particular shooting, rather than subtypes co‐creating a master category defined by gun violence. As a result, gunshot deaths of black and brown bodies in urban settings, which constitute the majority of deaths by gun violence after suicide, are viewed as routine whereas gunshot deaths in suburban settings are extraordinary and worthy of outrage. In this article, we draw on ethnographic observation to compare protest vigils in urban communities comprised predominantly of people of color, in suburban areas that are mostly white, and at the national level in order to uncover the racialized processes of symbolic classification by which this “commonsense” view is produced and how it is challenged by activists. We use the framework of cultural pragmatics to analyze these vigils, making visible the racialized forms of domination that structure activism and, we contend, ultimately divide gun violence into two distinct phenomena rather than constituting a master category. We argue that cultural pragmatics provides a way to understand what it means to challenge culture as emphasized by the multi‐institutional politics approach to social movements.     

Resolving Barriers to an Applied Science of the Human Condition: Rule Governance and the Verbal Behavior of Applied Scientists

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Rules / verbal behavior governing applied behavior scientists since Skinner have achieved great success resolving challenges experienced by individuals with severe...     

Relationship based social work practice: the case for considering the centrality of humour in creating and maintaining relationships

Relationship based social work practice has received increasing attention in recent years. The use of humour has infrequently been considered in relation to social work, and humour use is a neglected aspect in examining relationships in social work. As humour conveys humanity, is grounded in our earliest attachments and in the management of emotions, the purpose of this paper is to consider how humour operates in social work relationships. Importantly humour can help facilitate relationships with service users, and become a tool to help service users, social workers and their colleagues establish relationships.     

Qualitative inquiry of sibling relationships: reinforcement of disability devaluation through the exclusion of voices

People with disabilities share a history and culture of marginalization and oppression. In disability studies, disability has been re-defined as an inability or limitation in performance of the roles and tasks expected of individuals within society which excludes people from becoming full participants in social, cultural, and political affairs. Disability research has traditionally been ‘on’ rather than ‘with’ people with disabilities. This article examines how qualitative sibling disability research has been conducted, with a particular focus on the exclusion of people with disabilities.     

Toward a More Expansive Understanding of Family Communication: Considerations for Inclusion of Ethnic-Racial and Global Diversity

Building off essays by Gudykunst and Lee (2001) and Turner and West (2003), the purpose of this essay is to emphasize the need to be more inclusive in family communication research in terms of ethnic-racial and global diversity. After discussing the current state of scholarship, we outline important considerations for the field of family communication to achieve this goal.     

Discrete Effects of Religiosity and Spirituality on Gay Identity and Self-Esteem

Previous research has indicated that although spirituality may bolster development of a positive gay identity, religiosity may prove detrimental. Because the majority of this research confounds these constructs, there is little evidence as to the discrete roles religiosity and spirituality may play in LGB identity development. The present study endeavored to tease apart the unique effects of religion and spirituality on positive and negative gay identity and self-esteem. A sample of 376 self-identified sexual minority adults were given measures of religiosity, spirituality, LGB identity, and self-esteem. Models were built to evaluate the effects of religiosity (independent of spirituality) and spirituality (independent of religiosity), understanding that the constructs are greatly overlapped, on identity and self-esteem. Results included a positive association between spirituality and identity affirmation, identity superiority, and self-esteem. Religiosity was negatively associated with identity affirmation and self-esteem and positively associated with internalized homonegativity and heteronormativity. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Race,Religion, and the Social Integration of New Immigrant Minorities in Canada1

The social integration of Canada’s new religious minorities is determined more by their racial minority status than by their religious affiliation or degree of religiosity, according to results from Statistics Canada’s 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey. Interview questions tap life satisfaction, affective ties to Canada, and participation in the wider community. Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus are slower to integrate socially, mainly because they are mostly racial minorities. Degree of religiosity affects social integration in the same ways as ethnic community attachments in general, positively for some dimensions, negatively for others, and similarly for different religious groups. Patterns are similar in Quebec and the rest of Canada; results carry implications for the debate over “reasonable accommodation” of religious minorities in Quebec, and parallel debates in other provinces and countries.