Aids outreach

Frank Espada is a documentary photographer who received international recognition for his Puerto Rican Diaspora Documentary Project, a traveling photographic and oral history that has been displayed in over 28 cities since 1982. The exhibit will soon be published as a book by Temple University Press.     

THE TRUANCY INTERVENTION PROGRAM OF THE RAMSEY COUNTY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO SCHOOL SUCCESS

Chronic truancy has far‐reaching effects, both for the youth who become disconnected from school and for society. Crime, unemployment, underemployment, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and risky sexual activity have all been linked to chronic truancy. In 1995, the Minnesota Legislature authorized the creation of diversion programs specifically for truants. That same year, in response to the growing truancy problem, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner directed her staff to create a program for early intervention in truancy cases. From its beginning, the goals of the Truancy Intervention Program (TIP) have been to reduce the rate of truancy, to increase school connectedness, and to improve high school graduation rates. The program has accomplished these goals and, along the way, forged strong bonds of cooperation with schools, law enforcement agencies, and service providers. Ten years after the creation of TIP, the graduation rates in the city of St. Paul, the largest school district in the county, have improved by over 50 percent; the number of students missing 15 days of school of more (excused as well as unexcused) has decreased by more than 50 percent; and a large majority of chronic truants and their families have been successfully connected to services to address underlying problems.     

Responsibility and Rights: Children and Their Parents in the Youth Justice System

Responsibility is one of the key themes to emerge from the reformsto the youth justice system that have taken place since 1998.Now, the child and his parents are responsible for the offendingbehaviour of the child. This article explores the nature ofchild and parental responsibility in the youth justice system.In particular it analyses the type of responsibility demandedof both child and parent, drawing on the work of Hart and Caneto provide a conceptual analysis of responsibility in youthjustice. It goes on to consider the impact on the rights ofthe child and his parent of the mechanisms used to require responsibilityfrom parents for their child's offending (such as parentingorders, bind-overs, and the payment of fines and compensation).It suggests that there has been a lack of conceptual clarityin government policy and that if the current scheme for demandingparental responsibility continues then better attention needsto be paid to the rights of both parent and child.     

Do Social Services Matter for Child Maltreatment Prevention?: Interactions between Social Support and Parent's Knowledge of Available Local Social Services

Despite wide recognition that increased social support is associated with positive parenting behaviors, there is limited understanding regarding the mechanisms through which the neighborhood context can increase or hinder social connections. In a sample of 1,050 parents in Franklin County, OH, this study examines the role of availability of social services in child maltreatment. Through negative binomial regression, the study finds that greater availability of social services is associated with lower levels of child abuse and neglect. Additionally, the availability of social services moderates the relationship between social support and child maltreatment, such that the relationship between social support and child maltreatment is weaker for parents in neighborhoods with greater availability of services. The findings suggest that increasing services and awareness of such services might be an opportunity for child maltreatment prevention.     

After the Critique of Rights: For a Radical Democratic Theory and Practice of Human Rights

The critique of human rights has proliferated in critical legal thinking over recent years, making it clear that we can no longer uncritically approach human rights in their liberal form. In this article I assert that after the critique of rights one way human rights may be productively re-engaged in radical politics is by drawing from the radical democratic tradition. Radical democratic thought provides plausible resources to rework the shortcomings of liberal human rights, and allows human rights to be brought within the purview of a wider political project adopting a critical approach to current relations of power. Building upon previous re-engagements with rights using radical democratic thought, I return to the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to explore how human rights may be thought as an antagonistic hegemonic activity within a critical relation to power, a concept which is fundamentally futural, and may emerge as one site for work towards radical and plural democracy. I also assert, via Judith Butler’s model of cultural translation, that a radical democratic practice of human rights may be advanced which resonates with and builds upon already existing activism, thereby holding possibilities to persuade those who remain sceptical as to radical re-engagements with rights.