Are Children Protected in the Family Court? A Perspective from Western Australia

Despite a landmark High Court judgement in the area of child sexual abuse allegations (M and M, 1988), a major concern in such cases seems to be the fear that mothers use false accusations against fathers as ‘weapons’ in custody and contact cases. This paper seeks to examine the validity of such views as they apply to Western Australia. In particular, it examines the belief that false accusations are rampant; the questionable nature of ‘parental alienation syndrome’, the belief that young children's accounts of abuse lack credibility, and the ignoring of the effect of abuse itself on the nature of a child's testimony. The paper argues that the principle of ‘protection of the child's best interests’ should not necessarily be equated with the child having access, even supervised access, with a parent previously accused of having abused the child.     

Social order,cultural capital and citizenship*

The question of whether education should be seen as an instrument of social order is an old topic in the social sciences. There exist several theories concerning this question. Two of these rival theories are dealt with in this paper. On the basis of each, historical data have been looked at anew and empirical research has been carried out into the prevailing conditions in the Netherlands. On the basis of the first theory, which was inspired by Bourdieu and which concerns economic, cultural (including educational) and social capital, data on the Dutch history between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries have been reanalysed with respect to the attitude of the diverse sections of the dominant class towards culture in general and the university in particular. Dutch history can be regarded as a national variant of the universal tensions between ‘culture’and ‘knowledge’and between ‘culture’and ‘economics’in human societies. On the basis of Bourdieu's theory it is assumed that under the prevailing social conditions elementary schools will differ in ‘educational status’in the schools market. Empirical investigation confirms this hypothesis. The ‘educational status’of elementary schools mediates (reproduces) almost all of the influence of the childrens’social background on their school career, and reinforces this influence. On the basis of the second theory, which is based on the work of Meyer, Boli and Ramirez, data on the Dutch history in the Enlightenment period have been reanalysed with respect to the rise of mass education. These historical data give substantial evidence to the theory that the construction of the nation-state is of decisive importance for the rise of mass education. Our empirical investigation, however, does not confirm the hypothesis that in the actual situation elementary schools differ in ‘comprehensiveness’. Neither schools nor parents are oriented towards integration. Rather, the contrasts seem to be getting sharper in the 1980s and the schools as well as the social classes seem to be distancing themselves further from each other. Various sections of the dominant class are busy strengthening their position of power in education. In short, the use of schools to constitute citizens does not lessen the pressure towards differentiation. Thus, the theory of Boli and Ramirez explains the rise of mass education, but cannot explain its social class bound form, a fact that can be explained very well by Bourdieu's theory. Therefore the theories of both Bourdieu and Boli and Ramirez should be regarded not as rivalizing, but as complementary.     

Gold coasters overseas, 1880–1919: With specific reference to their activities in Britain

One effect of the British conquest of the Gold Coast was an acceleration in the exodus of members of Euro‐African families from the coastal townships to the British West African empire and to the imperial metropole. Using Gold Coast sources, in the main, to identify these expatriates and to ascertain the nature and purpose of their migration overseas, the article suggests that while the exodus may be interpreted as a nationalist response to colonialism, it also represented a pragmatic and indeed successful reaction in defence of the political and economic interests of an emergent Euro‐African Society, whose origins may be traced to the early phase of ‘informal’ imperialism, associated with the promotion of ‘Commerce and Christianity’ in the Gold Coast.     

Social Work,Social Policy and the Journal

There are problems associated with mainstream sociological and criminological research into youth violence. Conventional frameworks ignore the interpretive component of violence and thus fail to treat youth violence as a form of action in which motivations, moral impulses and feelings are constitutive of the action. Young people historically have had little opportunity to enter into dominant discourses about violence. This paper reports on the accounts of 29 young people who have been directly involved in violence. Those young people were asked to define violence and describe what personal and collective meanings they attach to their actions.     

Ethical Practice and Narratives of Resistance to Violence: Becoming Resilient Part 2

This paper is the second part of a previous publication in this journal and is based on a plenary address at the 30th Australian Family Therapy Conference in 2009. It develops the idea of ethical practice in therapy for men and boys with a history of significant violence and abuse. This fosters a connection with resilience that resists or refuses to participate in historical narratives that support violence and its effects. In the paper, I provide several therapeutic examples of working with narratives of violence and present a theory of resilience and ethical practice drawing on the ideas of Deleuze. This helps to understand resilience as a process of ethical agency, creative renewal, and the production of expansive difference.     

Beyond Performance Enhancement: Polypharmacy among Collegiate Users of Steroids

Abstract

The extremely low prevalence of steroid use among college students makes it virtually impossible to conduct analyses on any single college campus. By studying a cohort of 58,625 college students from 78 institutions that administered the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey in 1990 and 1991, a critical mass of 175 users on which it was possible to conduct statistical analyses was identified. Compared with a randomly selected group of nonusers, the steroid users reported consuming dramatically more alcohol and demonstrated higher rates of binge drinking. In addition, a significantly higher percentage of steroid users reported using tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, sedatives, hallucinogens, opiates, inhalants, and designer drugs. A higher percentage of steroid users than nonusers also reported experiencing negative consequences as a result of substance abuse, and a greater percentage of the steroid users reported family histories of abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Implications from the standpoint of student development are discussed.