Attributions of Responsibility in a Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Vignette Among Respondents with CSA Histories: The Role of Abuse Similarity to a Hypothetical Victim

Previous research suggests that similarity to a victim may influence attributions of responsibility in hypothetical child sexual abuse scenarios. One aspect of similarity receiving mixed support in the literature is respondent child sexual abuse history. Using a sample of 1,345 college women, the present study examined child sexual abuse history, similarity to victim, and attributions of responsibility to a hypothetical victim, family member, and perpetrator in a child sexual abuse vignette. Results revealed no group differences in responsibility ratings among respondents with and without child sexual abuse histories. However, among the 133 respondents with child sexual abuse histories, results indicated that similarity to victim moderated the relationship between vignette characteristics, respondent history, and responsibility attributions. Results suggest that similarity to a victim may influence ratings in a self-preserving manner.     

Methodology out of context: Getting Zimbabwean entrepreneurs to participate in research

This paper reports on a project carried out in Zimbabwe in 1998. The aim of the work was to develop a methodology, based upon participative techniques, which could be adapted for use by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) in assessing entrepreneurs' perception of government and non-government business support services. The overriding purpose of the project was to improve DFID's policies towards facilitating an enabling environment for the private sector. The project was commissioned in order to alter the conventional donor agency approach to businesses in Africa of using questionnaires. Instead, the project team developed a system of semi-structured interviews with individual entrepreneurs and managers, supplemented by a variety of visual techniques and collective workshops incorporating the participants themselves, government representatives and agency staff. Whilst the techniques used are not in themselves unique, the approach certainly is, within an African context.     

An integrated and recreated nation: socio-semiotic approaches to Finnish vacation propagandist short films in the late 1940s

This article is a social historical analysis of a specific vacation propaganda campaign run in Finland in the late 1940s. The analyses of four propagandist short film narratives are opened up with a specific three-step socio-semiotic close reading. This article identifies which ways of spending one's holidays were regarded as ‘proper’ and worthy and how the imagined audience was defined, as well as towards whom vacation propaganda was aimed and in what ways. The ‘proper’ holiday ideology for Finnish people – to receive annual leave for rest and recreation – was pursued in the short films by various methods of verbal and visual argumentation. The interpretations are presented together with a case-connected social historical contextualisation. In post-war Finland the economic and political situation was very unstable. For this reason, the vacation propaganda can be defined as integration propaganda, where the people's work and patience were to be rewarded in the future with the promise of upward social mobility and a better standard of living.

The more you have to work staying still/the more vividly you have to exercise during leisure time. Our summer is short, so, use the fleeting moments for your health. (Summer Pleasures, takes 15–17)     

Rights Spaces: An Exploration of Feminist Approaches to Refugee Law

The exigent needs of refugee women necessitate feminist attempts to use legal mechanisms, however imperfect, to their benefit. However, the temptation to overestimate the importance of feminist gains in this realm must be avoided due to current constraints within the international refugee regime. Most forcibly displaced persons never reach the borders of western countries to claim asylum. Moreover, western 'refugee-receiving' countries are effectively closing their borders to migration claimed on strictly humanitarian grounds. Therefore, while feminists have successfully claimed a place for refugee women within protective rights mechanisms, they have been granted only a small portion of what is already extremely finite territory. Given this troubling state of affairs, I suggest that although proven avenues within refugee law must not be abandoned, the time is right for the sustained exploration of new and creative modes of engagement within refugee rights discourse. In this vein, the second half of the paper draws extensively upon the work of feminist legal theorist Jennifer Nedelsky to suggestively consider some possible alternatives for feminist theory and praxis.     

Defining a threshold of harm from gambling for population health surveillance research

The measurement of harm in the context of non-problem gambling has received little attention from researchers in the field. Using the combined data from six provincial gambling surveys conducted in Canada between 2001 and 2005 (N = 12,285), we compared how different thresholds of defining gambling-related harm impacts prevalence, the relationship with indicators of gambling intensity and the characteristics of non-pathological gamblers who report experiencing below threshold symptoms of problem gambling. Survey items defining harm were drawn from the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index. Three definitions of harm – reporting one or more problem gambling symptoms, reporting two or more problem gambling symptoms and having a PGSI score ≥ 3 – demonstrated a strong relationship with indicators of gambling intensity, and reliably differentiated low-threshold and zero symptom problem gamblers in terms of gambling characteristics and other risk factors.     

Welfare Policy and the Construction of Legitimate Authority: The Case of Puerto Rico

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the role of the welfare state in maintaining state authority by testing the relationship between participation in state social programs and the espousal of ideals that reject the sovereignty of the existing state. We use the case of Puerto Rico, drawing on surveys of residents of Puerto Rico regarding their participation in social welfare programs and their views on the legitimacy of the U.S. state, distinguishing between means-tested and universal social programs. The research demonstrates that the form and extent of social citizenship programs affect the continued acceptance of authority of the U.S. federal government over the island’s territory and population. Specifically, the use of means-tested social benefits predicts a greater acceptance of the authority of the sovereign state. These findings may be considered broadly informative to the power of social welfare programs in garnering quiescence among minority populations, expanding the existing literature to illustrate differences in opinion of state legitimacy based on the type of social benefits one receives.     

‘Baptism of Fire’: The First Year in the Life of a Newly Qualified Social Worker

This paper describes research commissioned by Skills for Care South West to identify and track the learning and development needs of newly qualified social workers through their first year of employment. The perceptions of 22 newly qualified social workers based in statutory settings are reported concerning the effectiveness of the social work degree (England), their induction and probationary periods and their progress towards post-qualifying social work education as part of their continuing professional development. The perspectives of line managers, people who use services and carers are also discussed. Findings from the research suggest that the social work degree has been well received by most newly qualified social workers and highlights the perceived importance of a statutory placement for social work degree students. Key social work practice skills that require further development are identified and a rationale is presented for greater investment in the induction and probationary periods of newly qualified social workers.     

The State of Social Work Supervision in Victoria According to the Practitioners

Though supervision has been an integral part of social work practice since its inception there has been relatively little professional writing in this area since the 1950s and even less research. Two surveys were conducted in Victoria (with practitioners and administrators) to obtain information on the state of staff supervision. Data from the practitioners (N=102) indicate supervision is more available than it used to be; is considered to be necessary for effective practice; and most respondents believe it should continue indefinitely. While the quality of supervision has improved, one third of the respondents believe it needs up-grading. A majority think there should be more training programs in supervision, and that the Australian Association of Social Workers has a leadership role to play in this regard.     

The influence of childhood personality and environment and onset of the psychosis on recovery from dementia praecox 1

Beyond Ego Psychology: Developmental Object Relations Theory. Rubin and Gertrude Blanck. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.)

The Perilous Bridge: Helping Clients Through Mid‐Life Transitions. Naomi Golan. (New York: The Free Press, 1986.)

Progress in Self Psychology (Vol. I). Arnold Goldberg (Ed.). (New York: Guilford Press, 1985.)