Violence Exposure Among Children of Incarcerated Mothers

Social workers are becoming increasingly aware of the unique experiences faced by children of incarcerated parents. Little is known, however, about their experiences prior to their parents being incarcerated. Using data from a broader study of incarcerated women, we examined women’s accounts of their children’s exposure to violence prior to maternal incarceration. Open-ended interviews addressed family and relationship history, physical and psychological victimization, lifetime delinquency and crime, and interactions with service and justice systems. Interviews were analyzed using ATLAS/ti software and a grounded-theory approach. The emergent themes revealed a myriad of consequences experienced by the children, including child witnessing of violence, emotional sequelae, bodily harm from abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, and birth defects from prenatal violence. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Correlates of gay and lesbian couples' relationship satisfaction and relationship dissolution

A sample of committed gay and lesbian cohabiting couples engaged in two conversations after being apart for at least 8 hours: (a) an events of the day conversation and (b) a conflict resolution conversation. Physiological data were collected during the conversations and a videotape record was made. Couples viewed the videotapes and rated their affect during the interaction. The video records were coded with a system that categorized specific affects displayed. Models derived from physiology, from the perception of interaction, and from specific affective behavior were related to relationship satisfaction, and to the prediction of relationship dissolution over a 12-year period. Results supported previous findings that satisfaction and stability in gay and lesbian relationships are related to similar emotional qualities as in heterosexual relationships.     

The maximum cardinality cut problem in co-bipartite chain graphs

A co-bipartite chain graph is a co-bipartite graph in which the neighborhoods of the vertices in each clique can be linearly ordered with respect to inclusion. It is known that the maximum cardinality cut problem (\({\textsc {MaxCut}}\)) is \({\textsc {NP}}{\text {-hard}}\) in co-bipartite graphs (Bodlaender and Jansen, Nordic J Comput 7(2000):14–31, 2000). We consider \({\textsc {MaxCut}}\) in co-bipartite chain graphs. We first consider the twin-free case and present an explicit solution. We then show that \({\textsc {MaxCut}}\) is polynomial time solvable in this graph class.     

If Love Then Justice

Love belongs to the personal realm, while justice belongs to the public. Love originated evolutionarily in the subjective parent-child relationship. Justice originated in the objective perception of our social relationships. Both concepts have deep roots in our feelings. Although justice and love are interdependent, love is a prerequisite to justice. Most of those who love would behave justly to their loved ones, but not vice versa. Laws and norms try unsuccessfully to enhance love among us. However, they would hardly attain justice. With love we do not need laws or armies. Justice would necessarily prevail, and much more. Intuitively and psychologically, love is more basic than justice for our existence. Research shows that in our pursuit of happiness, love plays a central role, while justice does not. For many, love is also a goal of our existence.
"The long demand for justice exhausts the love which nevertheless gave it birth." (source unknown)     

What do we know about drug-endangered children when they are first placed into care?

Although the methamphetamine epidemic in the United States has caught the attention of law enforcement and the media, the needs of the children living in so-called "meth homes" have not yet been addressed. These children are endangered from not only the chemicals involved, but also parental abuse and/or neglect. Little is known, however, about how drug-endangered children are faring. This article summarizes the levels of health and well-being of drug-endangered children at the time they were removed from meth homes. Differences between children whose parents use meth and whose parents use other drugs are noted. Overall, the subjects are a highly traumatized, troubled, developmentally delayed group of very young children.