Non-governmental organisations and philanthropy in Latin America: An overview

This article provides an overview of the emerging non-profit or voluntary sector in Latin America. Specifically, the article addresses the differences and communalities these non-profit organisations have across the region. It concludes by emphasising the huge variety of roles and functions performed by non-profit organisations within and across countries, and their often ambigious position between the private and public realms.     

Who Cares If Police Become Violent? Explaining Approval of Police Use of Force Using a National Sample

Understanding police violence is important in part because police violence, if generally tolerated, could transform a society based on law into one governed by political and personal whim. This research asks whether the conflict perspective can explain which groups are more likely to approve of police use of force, and whether several dimensions of power are at issue or just a few. Previous studies have found that race is the most important factor in determining approval of police use of force. Gender, age, class, and other variables have shown mixed results. Using a national sample (1998 General Social Survey), this paper contributes a more comprehensive examination of this issue to the small body of literature in this area. We look at approval of police use of force in five scenarios. Our findings show that minorities and women are more likely to disapprove of police use of force. Supporting a narrow application of conflict theory, other dimensions of power appear not to affect attitudes toward police hitting citizens. Context of violence matters too. When situations are not actively threatening for officers, by near consensus, violence is unacceptable. Disagreement comes from less clear-cut circumstances.     

Factors Associated With Substance Use Disorders Among Traumatized Homeless Youth

This study aimed to identify homeless youths’ lifestyle and trauma-related risk factors as well as protective factors associated with alcohol use disorder or no disorder and drug use disorder or no disorder. Youth receiving homeless services in Denver (n = 201), Austin (n = 200), and Los Angeles (n = 200; N = 601) completed quantitative interviews assessing demographic information, alcohol and drug use, homeless lifestyle risk factors, trauma-related risk factors, and protective factors. Findings showed differences in trauma-related risk factors between alcohol and drug use disorders, but not homeless lifestyle risks. Protective factors predicted substance use disorders beyond risk factors. Understanding trauma-related risk and protective factors associated with substance use disorders could improve interventions.     

The Malleability of Environmentalism

In this article, we predict and find that self-perceptions of environmentalism are changed by subtle manipulations of context and, in turn, affect environmental behavior. In Study 1, we found that people exhibit greater positive assessments of their environmental behaviors (1) in the context of denying harm to the environment than in the context of claiming to help the environment, and (2) in situations where behaviors are evaluated subjectively than in situations where behaviors are evaluated more objectively. In Study 2, we explored the relationship between self-perceptions of environmentalism and environmental behaviors. Our data suggest that environmentally friendly behaviors may be promoted by leading people to perceive themselves as good environmentalists.     

Identifying and comparing competencies for social work management: a practice driven approach

The study explicates a competency-based model of contemporary social work management practice and compares this model with frameworks derived from earlier studies. Using a purposive sample of 184 social work managers throughout the country, an exploratory factor analysis yielded twelve sets of competencies required of today's social work manager. A comparison of the present model to earlier management frameworks reveals that substantive changes in the nature, scope, complexity, and priorities assigned to management competencies and skills have transformed the role of the social work manager over the last decade. Implications for social work manager education are reviewed and future research directions are proposed.     

Associations of Marital Conflict With Emotional and Physiological Stress: Evidence for Different Patterns of Dysregulation

The goal of this study was to explore theoretically suggested but untested links between interparental conflict and stress physiology in late adolescence. A multi‐method study was conducted involving families (n = 42) who previously participated in the University California, Irvine site of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development; adolescents were 17½ years of age on average. Parent report and observer ratings of conflict, adolescent participation in a robust social‐evaluative stressor, and assessment of cortisol, cardiovascular, and emotional functioning were included. Marital conflict was associated with dampened physiological stress responses in adolescence but sensitized emotional responses, suggesting that conflict may be associated with problems integrating and coordinating emotional and physiological responses to stress.     

Making ends meet,in the household and on the planet

Policy‐making in relation to sustainable development is usually at the national (or, in relation to climate change, the global) level, yet the consumption it seeks to modify takes place at the household level. If households all ‘made ends meet’ in the same way then the much‐relied‐upon notion of per capita consumption would be valid and we could use ‘top‐down’ modelling to guide policy. Cultural Theory, however, predicts that there are five socially viable ways of making ends meet, and that all of them will be found (in varying proportions) within any nation. This prediction has been tested on a sample of 220 British households and shown to be well supported. Top‐down modelling, it is argued, has to give way to constructive interplay between the reflexive policy‐maker and a plurally responsive citizenry.     

Enhancing the Career Development of Individuals Who Have Criminal Records

Large numbers of individuals are involved in the criminal justice system. Upon release, most have difficulty finding employment and stabilizing economic resources, which contribute to recidivism. To date, the role of work in the lives of ex‐offenders has virtually been ignored in the vocational literature. The purpose of this article is to increase awareness of this group by highlighting vocational implications of having a criminal record; reviewing existing interventions demonstrated to be beneficial (e.g., teaching skills prior to release, restorative justice interventions); and providing suggestions to more readily include this group in future practice, research, and policy.