Mobilizing the Latino Youth Vote: Some Experimental Results*

Objectives. The objectives of this article are to test whether Latino canvassers are more effective than non‐Latino canvassers at increasing voter turnout among young Latinos, and to test whether young Latinos are more receptive to a mobilization message that stresses ethnic group solidarity or one that emphasizes civic duty. Methods. A randomized field experiment, conducted in Fresno, California in the fall of 2002, is the basis for the results reported here. Results. Young Latino voters targeted by Latino canvassers are more likely to be contacted. However, once contacted, Latinos reached by non‐Latino canvassers are just as likely to turn out to vote as are those reached by non‐Latino canvassers. The mobilization effect is particularly strong among voters who have participated in at least one prior election. Conclusions. The importance of using Latino canvassers to get out the Latino vote is confirmed, but should not be overemphasized. More importantly, this experiment demonstrates that door‐to‐door canvassing can have a substantively large and statistically significant effect on turnout among young Latinos, a demographic group often overlooked by parties and campaigns.     

Saving Babies: The Impact of Public Education Programs on Infant Mortality

We take advantage of unique data on specific activities conducted under the Sheppard-Towner Act from 1924 through 1929 to focus on how public health interventions affected infant mortality. Interventions that provided one-on-one contact and opportunities for follow-up care, such as home visits by nurses and the establishment of health clinics, reduced infant deaths more than did classes and conferences. These interventions were particularly effective for nonwhites, a population with limited access to physicians and medical care. Although limited data on costs prevent us from making systematic cost-benefit calculations, we estimate that one infant death could be avoided for every $1,600 (about $20,400 in 2010 dollars) spent on home nurse visits.     

The Big Freak Out: Educator Fear in Response to the Presence of Transgender Elementary School Students

Increased visibility of transgender children requires elementary school professionals to take on issues of gender diversity, sex and sexuality, which are considered taboo in elementary school spaces. School professionals who have worked with transgender children were interviewed about their experience with these students, perceptions of their school's success in supporting them, and recommendations for information and resources needed by schools to provide support. Findings indicate that fear and anxiety are common educator responses to the presence of a transgender child and the disruption of the gender binary, and these emotions are limiting the possibilities for schools to affirm transgender identity.     

Promoting “Zest for Life”: A Systematic Literature Review of Resiliency Factors to Prevent Youth Suicide

Suicide is a leading cause of death among youth globally. In this critical interpretive synthesis, we examined literature on resiliency factors and suicidality. Systematic searches identified 474 articles, 37 of which were included. Results revealed internal (positive self‐appraisal, zest for life, personal traits, and coping skills) and external factors (social support system and inclusive environments) contribute to resilience among youth, with age, sex and gender, and Indigenous identity as important intersecting considerations. Findings validated fostering resilience as primary suicide prevention among youth, with little explanation for how these factors may work to protect youth from suicidality. Continued research in this area requires a focus on how to promote resilience at the community and systems levels.     

No Easy Answers: Ethical Challenges Working with Sex Offenders

Therapeutic practice with sex offenders and similarly ostracized populations presents unique personal, clinical, and professional challenges for clinicians. This article examines four areas of difficulty—treatment efficacy, clinical competence, boundary maintenance, and stigmatizing policies—and reviews ethical and clinical standards for addressing these challenges. Specific recommendations for competent practice, supervision, research, and advocacy are given.     

Shortcomings and/or Missed Opportunities of the Global Compacts for the Protection of Forced Migrants

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) are norm‐creating exercises, in the sense of being international legal documents for a new framework that reinforces existing structures and attempt to renew migration governance globally. They were expected to further develop the protection of all migrants. However, despite some progress, there are shortcomings and/or missed opportunities in what they were able to achieve, especially in the case of the protection of forced migrants. Understanding these shortcomings and/or missed opportunities as being conceptual and institutional in nature, and to assess both these sets, this article presents the idea of forced migration and the lack of international protection of forced migrants (part 1), describes the protection of forced migrants achieved by the Compacts (part 2), and ends by assessing the shortcomings and/or missed opportunities in both Compacts (part 3).     

Safe Spaces,Nurturing Places

This article discusses the limited yet important literature on the contributions of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to students and the profession of social work. The vital role of HBCUs in social work education and their mission to advocate for social and economic justice for disenfranchised populations is also discussed. A case example is then provided to illustrate the safe and nurturing context of HBCUs. Implications for the future are offered.     

Puberty Blues—then and now: diffracting semblances of being girl in Australia

This paper attempts a diffractive analysis that reads Bruce Beresford’s Australian populist film Puberty Blues (1981) through the more recent (2012) Channel 10 eight-part series television of the same title. The purpose of this experimental analysis is to notice ways both of these filmic artefacts re/enact gendered semblances performatively, co-creating binary gender relations through Baradian intra-actions with a virtual audience (in the perpetual present). This paper is not a historical account of the texts and/or a review of the substantial literature connected to either text or television/film production in Australia. It attempts to conduct a non-representational analysis as a reading through of the texts with each other. What is significant is the process of examining “how different differences get made, what gets excluded, and how those exclusions matter” (Karen Barad 2007, 30) during inter-action with filmic text and viewer. This manoeuvre posits that by re/turning events as iterative interactions visibility of materiality in the making may be rendered visible. By understanding intra-active processes educators may be able to frustrate delimiting accounts of girlhood as just the way it is and rather utilise these texts to open up other imaginaries of affirmative difference.     

Barriers to healthcare for American Indians experiencing homelessness

Members of American Indian (AI) communities face many barriers to receiving both mental and physical healthcare. These barriers can have a negative effect on overall health. Barriers are compounded for AIs who are also experiencing homelessness, and AI make up a disproportionate percentage of the homeless population nationwide. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 service providers and 16 homeless participants in a mid-size Midwestern city to identify barriers to care for homeless participants. Key barriers identified in this study for homeless participants were: transportation, phone accessibility, discrimination, and cold and bureaucratic cultures of healthcare systems. Major barriers identified by service providers were: access to care, discrimination and mistrust, and restrictive policies. Given generally higher disease prevalence within the homeless population and health disparities within the AI community, steps should be taken to reduce barriers to healthcare.     

Having it both ways: Two and a Half Men,Entourage, and televising post-feminist masculinity

This article explores representations of juvenile post-feminist masculinity across two television texts: Two and a Half Men and Entourage. These programs exhibit a contradictory continuum of masculine performances allowing men to “have it both ways,” or to be both sensitive and casually sexist within contemporary culture. By detailing how similar kinds of masculinity exist across two seemingly disparate channels and television programs, this analysis also decouples automatic assumptions about representation as being primarily linked to notions of “quality” or “complex” TV emerging from cable and pay cable channels, and instead demonstrates the importance of looking for representational similarities as much as differences and distinctions across channels in order to fully understand the relational shifts between constructions of masculinity and post-feminist illogics.