The Ethics of Research With Men who Have Learning Disabilities and Abusive Sexual Behaviour: a minefield in a vacuum

In the wake of the recent awareness of the sexual abuse of people with learning disabilities is the recognition that a small number of men with learning disabilities are themselves sexually abusing. The need to understand the men's behaviour and provide effective responses is pressing yet the search for an ethical course of enquiry appears illusory. The two conflicting dilemmas which make this task so difficult are whether the men's learning disabilities preclude their giving informed consent to the research process, and/or whether men who are sexually abusing have lost some rights to exclude themselves from research which is intended to prevent further abuse. This paper explores in depth these dilemmas and describes the authors' attempts to resolve them as they attempted to devise a protocol for consent to involvement in a qualitative study of men with learning disabilities who sexually abuse. Issues raised in this particular context have relevance to many other issues in learning disability services where robust ethical debate is needed, but often glossed over.     

Non-governmental organisations and philanthropy in Latin America: An overview

This article provides an overview of the emerging non-profit or voluntary sector in Latin America. Specifically, the article addresses the differences and communalities these non-profit organisations have across the region. It concludes by emphasising the huge variety of roles and functions performed by non-profit organisations within and across countries, and their often ambigious position between the private and public realms.     

Who Cares If Police Become Violent? Explaining Approval of Police Use of Force Using a National Sample

Understanding police violence is important in part because police violence, if generally tolerated, could transform a society based on law into one governed by political and personal whim. This research asks whether the conflict perspective can explain which groups are more likely to approve of police use of force, and whether several dimensions of power are at issue or just a few. Previous studies have found that race is the most important factor in determining approval of police use of force. Gender, age, class, and other variables have shown mixed results. Using a national sample (1998 General Social Survey), this paper contributes a more comprehensive examination of this issue to the small body of literature in this area. We look at approval of police use of force in five scenarios. Our findings show that minorities and women are more likely to disapprove of police use of force. Supporting a narrow application of conflict theory, other dimensions of power appear not to affect attitudes toward police hitting citizens. Context of violence matters too. When situations are not actively threatening for officers, by near consensus, violence is unacceptable. Disagreement comes from less clear-cut circumstances.     

Factors Associated With Substance Use Disorders Among Traumatized Homeless Youth

This study aimed to identify homeless youths’ lifestyle and trauma-related risk factors as well as protective factors associated with alcohol use disorder or no disorder and drug use disorder or no disorder. Youth receiving homeless services in Denver (n = 201), Austin (n = 200), and Los Angeles (n = 200; N = 601) completed quantitative interviews assessing demographic information, alcohol and drug use, homeless lifestyle risk factors, trauma-related risk factors, and protective factors. Findings showed differences in trauma-related risk factors between alcohol and drug use disorders, but not homeless lifestyle risks. Protective factors predicted substance use disorders beyond risk factors. Understanding trauma-related risk and protective factors associated with substance use disorders could improve interventions.     

Racial Salience and the Consequences of Making White People Uncomfortable: Intra‐Racial Discrimination,Racial Screening,and the Maintenance of White Supremacy

Most sociological research on racial discrimination has had an “inter‐racial” focus. That is, researchers have been principally concerned with the disparate treatment that people of color receive relative to Whites in different social contexts. However, recent theoretical work emerging from legal studies suggests that an alternative conception of “intra‐racial” discrimination exists that extends beyond colorism. This theory of intra‐racial discrimination stipulates that many organizations in the “post‐racial” era desire some measure of racial diversity. Yet, in their efforts to achieve this racial diversity they screen people of color based on their degree of racial salience. Whether a given person of color is hired, promoted, or in the case of college admissions, accepted, is a function of whether or not Whites within the organization consider them racially palatable, or not overly concerned with race. This creates an incentive for people of color to work their identity to allay any concerns among Whites that they may be too racially salient. In this paper I critically review this work and attempt to further buttress its claims by highlighting how this process has clear historical precedent. I conclude by showing how the audit method can be used to empirically examine this practice contemporarily.     

Risk Detection and Self‐Protection Among Homeless Youth

Utilizing qualitative interviews with a large sample of 145 homeless youth seeking services at homeless youth service agencies from across three U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Denver, and Austin), this study sought to explore youths' perspectives on ways in which they detect risk and protect themselves on the streets. Results indicated that youth use a combination of internal cues (affective responses) and external cues (reading people) to detect danger, although many times danger was described as undetectable. Certain contexts, includes those that were unfamiliar, difficult to escape, or involved drugs were described as most dangerous. In response to these dangers, youth employed self‐protection strategies such as carrying weapons, banding together with trusted others, isolating, or seeking programing to leave the streets.     

The Malleability of Environmentalism

In this article, we predict and find that self-perceptions of environmentalism are changed by subtle manipulations of context and, in turn, affect environmental behavior. In Study 1, we found that people exhibit greater positive assessments of their environmental behaviors (1) in the context of denying harm to the environment than in the context of claiming to help the environment, and (2) in situations where behaviors are evaluated subjectively than in situations where behaviors are evaluated more objectively. In Study 2, we explored the relationship between self-perceptions of environmentalism and environmental behaviors. Our data suggest that environmentally friendly behaviors may be promoted by leading people to perceive themselves as good environmentalists.     

Identifying and comparing competencies for social work management: a practice driven approach

The study explicates a competency-based model of contemporary social work management practice and compares this model with frameworks derived from earlier studies. Using a purposive sample of 184 social work managers throughout the country, an exploratory factor analysis yielded twelve sets of competencies required of today's social work manager. A comparison of the present model to earlier management frameworks reveals that substantive changes in the nature, scope, complexity, and priorities assigned to management competencies and skills have transformed the role of the social work manager over the last decade. Implications for social work manager education are reviewed and future research directions are proposed.