Racial Disparity Under Sentencing Guidelines: A Survey of Recent Research and Emerging Perspectives

Recent concerns over racial disparities in sentencing have led to dramatic reform in criminal sentencing, including the widespread promulgation of sentencing guidelines that are designed to constrain judicial discretion and create greater fairness, transparency, and equality in punishment. Although there is broad consensus that guidelines have increased uniformity in sentencing, contemporary research continues to identify important racial and ethnic disparities in criminal punishment. This essay reviews recent empirical research on racial and ethnic disparities under guidelines, highlighting recent advancements in the field and identifying important directions for future research.     

Motivations for Providing and Utilizing Child Care by Grandmothers in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to construct a conceptual understanding of the motivations of grandmothers and mothers to provide and utilize child care by grandmothers in Korea. Grounded theory methods were used to collect and analyze interview data with 21 matched pairs of caregiving grandmothers and employed mothers. The grandmothers' motivations were concern for their adult children's well‐being and a feeling of responsibility to fulfill their parental responsibility for support. The mothers' motivations were the benefits they received as employed mothers and their trust of family care with prior expectations of the grandmothers' support. The core category integrating the findings was bilateral familism supporting traditional gender role ideology. The results suggest that changes from patrilineal to bilateral kinship interactions have been largely based on the influence of familism, which has created a cultural setting of expectations for downstream intergenerational support to maintain traditional gender roles despite increased maternal employment.     

Sexual behavior of resident street prostitutes with their clients in Camden,New Jersey

This paper describes a prospective study of the sexual behaviors of 20 resident street prostitutes and their clients. Prostitutes were long‐term residents of and practiced street prostitution in their community. They worked full‐time and reported averages of four clients per workday, four to five workdays per week, in an eight‐year career. Sexual behaviors with clients on five to eight workdays were recorded over a seven‐month period. Forty‐nine percent of contacts were with repeat clients. A regular client was defined by prostitutes as one who visited at least once a week. The results of the present study indicate that long‐term sexual relationships exist between some clients and prostitutes. Typically, a regular client had one to three sexual encounters per week with the prostitute, spent several hours with her at a motel (or one of their homes), and was more likely (than the occasional client) to engage in vaginal intercourse. Reported condom use was in the range of 39 to 74 percent.     

Emerging adulthood among former system youth: The ideal versus the real

Recent research has indicated that emerging adulthood, the late teen years and early twenties, is a distinct developmental period, which occurs gradually and is often filled with exploration, stress, uncertainty and a lack of a distinct role in life. Few studies, however, have examined how emerging adulthood tenets are experienced by young people involved with social service systems. With this in mind, fifty-nine young adults, ages 18 to 25, participated in in-depth interviews regarding their perspectives on transitioning to adulthood and adulthood. Participants were struggling with emotional difficulties, and shared a childhood history, which included a mood disorder diagnosis and utilization of public mental health and social services (e.g., child welfare, juvenile justice, and/or public welfare). The study sought to understand whether or not young adults with mental health and social service histories experience similar (or different) dimensions of mainstream emerging adulthood developmental theory during the late teens and early twenties. Theoretical thematic analysis indicated support not only for the theory of emerging adulthood, but also aspects unique to this sub-population. Implications for practice, policy and research are discussed.     

Donald Molteno and South African liberalism

Donald Molteno: “Dilizintaba ‐ He‐Who‐ Removes‐Mountains” by David Sher, Johannesburg: The South African Institute of Race Relations and The Donald Molteno Memorial Committee, 1979.     

THE SOUTHERN CULTURE OF HONOR AND VIOLENT ATTITUDES

ABSTRACT

Research on subcultures of violence has mostly focused on the existence of a Southern subculture of violence or a black subculture of violence. Recent theorizing on this topic has addressed many of the deficiencies in this literature and has reframed the issue by developing the notion of a Culture of Honor. Specifically, this perspective argues that if there is a subculture of violence in the U.S., it is most prevalent among Southern white males from rural areas. This study is designed to partially explore the veracity of these claims. Our analysis of GSS data reveals that Southern white males from rural areas are more approving of violence only under certain conditions, some of which may be construed as defensive in nature, and all of which have moderate to low approval ratings to begin with. In other words, when given scenarios in which the overall approval rate from the American public is high, this group is indistinguishable. But when given scenarios where overall approval is moderate to low, this group is more inclined to approve of the use of violence—a finding which we interpret as partially supportive of a subcultural explanation.     

Public relations aspects of brand attitudes and customer activity

Featuring the role of public relations in brand equity research and best practices, this study investigates how product, non-product, and customer–business relationship attributes affect customer-based brand equity (i.e., brand attitudes and customer activity). Analysis reveals customer–business relationships are central to a causal model linking evaluation (brand attitudes) and activation/motivations (customer activity). Findings demonstrate that for service businesses (e.g., banks), customer–business relationships are the primary, rather than minor, predictor of brand equity. These findings demonstrate how public relations scholarship and practice plays a central rather than peripheral role in customer satisfaction.     

School Social Work in Australia

Abstract

This study explores the current state of social work services in Australian schools. A total of 65 social workers participated in the survey. The majority of respondents had permanent positions and over half of them were working part time. The number of schools serviced was wide ranging and the median was six schools. The major funding source was state governments, the primary referral sources were school staff, and the primary reasons for referral were behavioural and mental health problems. Respondents reported good support from employers and high levels of work efficacy and satisfaction. A large proportion of their hours were spent on counselling, paperwork, case management, and consultations. The major barriers to their work were lack of time, lack of resources, and lack of recognition given to social work perspectives and roles. Given the paucity of literature, findings from this study are expected to lay a foundation for future studies.