Facts and Values in Risk Analysis for Environmental Toxicants

The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy describes toxic substance regulation as composed of two stages. Stage I (facts) uses empirical data and scientific judgment to characterize human exposure and risk. Stage II (values) uses social and political judgment to decide regulatory action based on significance of the risk, benefits of the agent, and costs of its control. This paper argues that such a view represents an unrealistic and unattainable goal. We present examples showing how values enter virtually every part of risk analysis, and we review work on the vagaries in human judgment concerning both facts and values. These issues indicate that U.S. regulatory policy needs reconsideration.     

Gypsy Children in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

SUMMARY: Far generations Gypsies have suffered from oppression and discrimination. Five centuries of slavery, attempted genocide during the Holocaust, forced assimilation and separation under communism have all been part of their history. In some areas of Eastern Europe, 90 per cent of children in state care are of Gypsy origin. In post-communist Eastern Europe economic recession has brought a new wave of anti-Gypsy feeling and violence. In such a climate Gypsy children face a forbidding future. Here in the UK we are currently debating new proposals under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill which could radically affect the lives of Gypsy children and their families. As we consider this legislation, do we have something to learn from the experience of Gypsy children in Eastern Europe?     

Anticipating the social consequences of AIDS: A position paper

Even conservative estimates of the future course of AIDS epidemic make clear that only a small fraction of people who ultimately will experience AIDS symptoms now have them and that the spread of the virus will continue for some time to come. This article focuses on the social consequences of the AIDS epidemic, some of which are beginning to be felt. I argue that sociologists have an important contribution to make anticipating the long range social consequences of AIDS. Intelligent planning is impossible without a reduction of uncertainty in what the future might hold. He currently is chair of the Methodology section of the American Sociological Association and vice-chair of the Board of the Directors of the Social Science Research Council. with research interests in gender, kinship, and biosocial science. Her concern for the AIDS epidemic flows from its being a major focus in an interdisciplinary course on human sexuality that she teaches. For the past two years at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, she has coordinated AIDS prevention programs for women and supervised the development of educational materials. For the past three years she has been actively involved in AIDS-related research.     

Teaching Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders to Mand for the Removal of Stimuli That Prevent Access to Preferred Items

Mand training is often a primary focus in early language instruction and typically includes mands that are positively reinforced. However, mands maintained by negative reinforcement are also important skills to teach. These include mands to escape aversive demands or unwanted items. Another type of negatively reinforced mand important to teach involves the removal of a stimulus that prevents access to a preferred activity. We taught 5 participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders to mand for the removal of a stimulus in order to access a preferred item that had been blocked. An evaluation was conducted to determine if participants responded differentially when the establishing operations for the preferred item were present versus absent. All participants learned to mand for the removal of the stimulus exclusively under conditions when the establishing operation was present.     

The use of the multiplicity survey to identify migrants

New approaches must be developed and tested to meet the needs for current data on population movement. One such approach is the survey with multiplicity (social networks). It allows respondents to report events (in this case, migration) that occurred to specified relatives living elsewhere. In order to test the value of the approach on a limited, exploratory basis, a two-stage research design was employed. A sample of persons resident in Cranston; Rhode Island who had changed address in the three years preceding the survey, was first identified and information was gathered in Round I on their mobility and on their relatives living in the State. In tum, these relatives (Round II) were asked about the mobility of their parents, siblings, and children. (The responses from Round II should have included the migrants in Round I.) Evaluation of the accuracy of Round II responses in comparison to those obtained in Round I was undertaken in terms of kin relationships, recency of move, and type of move. The results indicate that respondents had a low awareness of their relatives’ movements, that moves of females were more likely to be reported than those of males, that recent moves were more frequently cited, and that moves between communities were more likely to be reported than intracity mobility.