Moving up versus moving out: Neighborhood effects in housing mobility programs

Abstract

This article suggests ways to better design, conduct, and interpret evaluations of the effects of housing mobility programs on participants, with emphasis on how to isolate neighborhood effects. It reviews earlier critiques of neighborhood effects research and discusses the key assumptions of housing mobility programs—about the benefits of affluent neighbors, the spatial organization of opportunity for the urban poor, and the meanings of “neighborhood” to residents, researchers, and policy makers.

Studying mobility contexts, especially in suburban areas, offers special challenges to researchers. More research is needed that looks at residents’ social ties and uses mixed‐methods approaches. Ethnographic data, in particular, would enhance the validity of the quantitative data that now dominate studies of neighborhood effects. Adding substantially to what we know about the processes or mechanisms—the “how” of neighborhood effects—mixed‐methods approaches would also make research much more useful to policy makers and program managers.     

Analysis of DNA profiles extracted from degraded samples from archival of formalin fixed tissue included in paraffin (FFTIP) and hairs

The possibility of studying DNA extracted from archival of formalin fixed tissue included in paraffin (FFTIP) enables valuable retrospective investigations. However, according to some authors it is difficult to obtain genomic DNA of good quality, since the process of fixation often results in fragmentation of DNA. In order to evaluate the quality and quantity of DNA extracted, necropsy samples of FFTIP (spleen/lung) and hairs, with or without bulbs, were analyzed using three methods of extraction (QIAamp DNA mini, QIAamp DNA micro-kit and phenol–chloroform followed by microcon YM-30). The amount of DNA recovered was quantified by spectrophotometer. The β-actin, amelogenin gene and the profiles of STR were analyzed. Based on experimental results, a general guideline concerning the appropriate extraction method according to the tissue and the quantity of the starting material for the analysis of DNA from FFTIP and hairs could be suggested.     

Artifacts Caused by Leaf-Cutting Ants of the Genus Atta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Postmortem Bite Injuries and the Tearing of Clothes

Ants are one of the first insects to find an exposed cadaver and can be present during all stages of decomposition. Although these organisms are not commonly used in postmortem interval estimates, they are to be taken into account on criminal investigations involving human corpses, since they can leave bite marks that can be mistaken for antemortem or perimortem injuries, which could be misleading when ascertaining the occurrence of abuse or physical altercation during a crime. A few studies report the action of ants on human cadavers and even though leaf-cutting ants of the genus Atta are frequently encountered in succession studies that use animal carcasses, there are no records of these fungus-growing species on human corpses. Atta is a genus restricted to the New World, ranging from northern Argentina to southern United States and acts as one of the most conspicuous neotropical herbivores. In this study, we report three cases of violent death that illustrate the impact of ants, especially those of the genus Atta, in a forensic setting. We compare the patterns displayed by postmortem bite injuries caused by leaf-cutter ants and other common species with less robust mandibles. We also present the capability of Atta ants to create artifacts by cutting victim’s clothes in a crime scene, contributing to the knowledge of ant-mediated confounding factors in crime scene investigation.     

Voices on Paper: Multimodal Texts and Indigenous Literacy in Brazil

This paper focuses on the recent production of multimodal writing in an indigenous community in Brazil, resulting from the equally recent introduction of literacy. Seeing this form of writing as part of the process of intercultural semiosis and cultural translation, the paper discusses how concepts of local indigenous oral culture and received wisdom interact with the Western concept of writing as the ‘record’ or ‘representation’ of speech, bringing to writing the indigenous notion of cultural ‘enactment’ or ‘performativity’. In an effort to overcome a view of alphabetic writing as semantically only propositional, mimetic and decontextualized, the Kashinawa´ community, by adding visual components to alphabetic texts, appear to transform writing into contextualized performative ‘poiesis’, which simul taneously inaugurates a complex process of semiosis inseparable and only comprehensible from their local cultural perspective.     

El Título en la Mano: The Impact of Titling Programs on Low‐Income Housing in Texas Colonias

This article analyzes the impact of The Community Resources Group Receivership Program undertaken from 1998 to 2002 that provided clean property titles to residents in several informal housing colonias (subdivisions) in South Texas. Survey data were gathered from 260 low‐income households comprising two populations: those who had secure title from the outset, and those who were beneficiaries of the land titling program. Focus group interviews were conducted to explore how the beneficiaries construct the meaning of ownership before and after title “regularization.” Formal titling consolidates understandings of absolute property relations in comparison with de facto rights born of use (legal or not), which strengthens people's sense of self‐esteem and potential for political involvement. We found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, title provision per se appears to have little direct impact either upon home improvement or upon residents' receiving enhanced access to credit and financial services. We also found evidence that informality and illegality is likely to reemerge as owners die intestate, and as they revert to informal land market property transfers.     

Jenseits von Zentrum und Peripherie

The central question for Karl Marx concerning the specific role of symbolic domination in capitalism challenges us down to the present day. We continue to improperly perceive the symbolic and immaterial structure subjacent to capitalism that is responsible for its peculiar ??symbolic violence.?? This article analyzes two interrelated issues: first, the racism implicated by concepts that articulate central and peripheral capitalism; and secondly, its principal consequence, which is the absence of broad and encompassing concepts in modern social theory. This eliminates a chance to articulate universal contexts??at least as universal as capitalism in its global expansion. The reach of contemporary critical theory is therefore limited in terms of central questions. Among the concepts that are abandoned by the fragmentation and contextualization is that of social class and that of the symbolic violence produced by structural changes that encompass capitalism as a whole. The following article draws on empirical studies concerning under class and the ??new?? middle class conducted in Brazil to illustrate its thesis.     

Identification of gunshot residues in fabric targets using sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique and ternary graphs

During criminal investigations involving firearms, the detection of gunshot residues (GSRs) is one of the most important evidences. In the present study, a new method to identify trace evidences of GSRs, deposited around the bullet entrance hole, in different types of fabrics used as targets, is described. The experiments were carried out using a 0.38-inch caliber revolver, and 9-mm and 0.40-inch caliber pistols. Testimonies of 2.25 cm(2) of the fabrics were cut around the bullet entrance and digested with 10% nitric acid. Antimony, barium, and lead were analyzed in the remaining solution using a sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. The concentrations of the elements were detected at levels up to few microgram per square centimeter. The use of ternary graphics allowed us to identify specific patterns of distribution for blank samples and the clear distinction between the revolver and pistols used.     

“Do You Wish Her to Marry?” Brazilian Women and Professional Diplomacy, 1918–1938

In 1918, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs [Itamaraty] hired its first female employee. The organisation would henceforth confront the discussion of the role women in diplomacy. Traditional European aristocratic values had heretofore shaped the Brazilian diplomatic profession, and they relegated women to the role of supporting wives. Countering the status quo, those interested in opening diplomatic positions for women argued that the gendered nature of diplomacy was, in fact, feminine and used the rhetorical strength of traditional values to reframe the career. The transition of the masculinity model associated with the “new” diplomacy and the transnational constitution of the acceptability of female diplomats, however, precluded female activists from strategically using discriminatory gender stereotypes to succeed. Only in 1954, Itamaraty opened careers permanently to women.