Child Therapy and Evidence in Court Proceedings: Tensions and Some Solutions

Correspondence to Kate Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD. Summary Recent policy developments in the UK, implemented in the wakeof well-publicized child abuse court cases, have highlightedthe tension between offering the abused child adequate supportand providing sound evidence in any statutory proceedings. Therapeuticwork can give the court clear indications of the child's wishes,feelings and developmental needs, with or without explicit verbalstatements, and non-directive play therapy, because it is non-coerciveand largely free from therapist suggestion, is particularlyeffective in this respect. Particular features of non-directiveplay therapy which enhance the validity of such evidence areconsidered and a range of factors involved in presenting therapeuticwork to the courts are explored.     

Likelihood Inference for Unions of Interacting Discs

Abstract. This is probably the first paper which discusses likelihood inference for a random set using a germ‐grain model, where the individual grains are unobservable, edge effects occur and other complications appear. We consider the case where the grains form a disc process modelled by a marked point process, where the germs are the centres and the marks are the associated radii of the discs. We propose to use a recent parametric class of interacting disc process models, where the minimal sufficient statistic depends on various geometric properties of the random set, and the density is specified with respect to a given marked Poisson model (i.e. a Boolean model). We show how edge effects and other complications can be handled by considering a certain conditional likelihood. Our methodology is illustrated by analysing Peter Diggle's heather data set, where we discuss the results of simulation‐based maximum likelihood inference and the effect of specifying different reference Poisson models.     

Gender and the Limits of Social Capital*

Dans cet article, l'auteure examine l'intensification de l'intérêt envers le concept de capital social dans la politique publique au Canada et considère que ce concept est assez prometteur, en même temps qu'il entraînera des problèmes considérables, pour les femmes. Elle explique les paramètres du concept de capital social et tente de l'approfondir à l'aide de questions féministes essentielles sur l'économie politique. Cette approche jette les bases de la tâche primordiale d'associer un sexe au capital social, de telle sorte que les résultats des politiques dans le contexte canadien n'augmentent pas le fardeau du travail social et de prestation de soins de groupes déjà surcharges. This paper considers the rise in Canadian public policy interest in the concept of social capital, and suggests that the concept holds some promise, along with considerable problems, for women. It elucidates the parameters of the concept of social capital and attempts to deepen it with critical feminist political economy questions. It begins the crucial task of gendering social capital so that policy outcomes in the Canadian context do not increase the burden of social and caring work onto already overburdened groups.     

UNDERPAID and OVERWORKED: MEASURING THE EFFECT OF IMPERFECT INFORMATION ON WAGES

This paper investigates the degree of shortfall between the wages workers earn and what they could earn assuming perfect or costless information in the labor market. We use the stochastic frontier regression technique to estimate the degree of shortfall found in wages on an individual basis. The paper tests, in addition, a number of hypotheses supplied by search theory in this context. The results generally confirm the propositions from search theory and indicate that, on the average, worker wages fall short of worker potential wages by approximately 10 percent.     

MEASURING CRACK COCAINE AND ITS IMPACT

Numerous social indicators turned negative for Blacks in the 1980s and rebounded a decade later. We explore whether crack cocaine explains these patterns. Absent a direct measure, we construct a crack prevalence index using multiple proxies. Our index reproduces spatial and temporal patterns described in ethnographic accounts of the crack epidemic. It explains much of the 1980s rise in Black youth homicide and more moderate increases in adverse birth outcomes. Although our index remains high through the 1990s, crack's deleterious social impact fades. Changes over time in behavior, crack markets, and the user population may have mitigated crack's damaging impacts. (JEL K42, J15, I30)     

“Prelude to Imperialism”1: Whiteness and Chinese Exclusion in the Reimagining of the United States

Abstract The debates around Chinese exclusion were part of a racial reimagining of the United States after the Civil War. These debates show how the Exclusion Acts were the “prelude to imperialism” overseas. By employing competing racisms toward Chinese migrants, disparate groups of whites created contradictory stereotypes of the Chinese, such as the “coolie” and “celestial.” Focusing on working‐class whites’ messy and violent racism toward the Chinese has contributed to ignoring more paternalistic “civilized” racism of missionaries, reformers, politicians, and capitalists that led to more lasting stereotypes of Chinese, such as the “model minority.” This study analyzes how these racisms simultaneously contributed to the transformation of the racial state and the extension of imperialist policies, while they disciplined workers of all races, Chinese immigrants, Filipinos, and whites.     

COMPARING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REGULATION AND PRO‐SOCIAL EMOTIONS TO ENHANCE COOPERATION: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM FISHING COMMUNITIES IN COLOMBIA

This paper presents the results from a series of framed field experiments conducted in fishing communities off the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The goal is to investigate the relative effectiveness of exogenous regulatory pressure and pro‐social emotions in promoting cooperative behavior in a public goods context. The random public revelation of an individual's contribution and its consequences for the rest of the group leads to significantly higher public good contributions and social welfare than regulatory pressure, even under regulations that are designed to motivate fully efficient contributions. (JEL C93, H41, Q20, Q28)