Vulnerability among paupers: Determinants of individuals receiving poor relief in nineteenth-century northern Sweden

This study combines computerized parish registers with parish meeting records that account for individuals who received poor relief in the nineteenth-century Sundsvall region, Sweden. The combination of sources especially helps to explore the recipients who are overlooked in the literature or difficult to trace in historical data. Their demographic characteristics in relation to relief allocation and experiences prior to it are analyzed and show that they did not only share the occurrence of entitlement. Vast but insufficient family networks failed to give the recipients support to manage their distressed situation. Deaths and births of relatives jeopardized their capability to guarantee subsistence for them or their family, and so did also their gender and phase in the lifecycle. The multi-dimensional concept of vulnerability is employed to comprehend the dynamic determinants of poverty represented by individuals granted poor relief. It is argued that this concept has to be further developed but nevertheless helps to identify and stratify some of the vulnerabilities that characterized paupers in the past.     

Central European household and family systems,and the ‘Hajnal–Mitterauer’ line: The parish of Bujakow (18th–19th centuries)

The article examines marriage behaviours, household patterns and household formation rules prevailing among the population of the Upper Silesian parish of Bujakow during the late 18th and the first part of the 19th century. Their character, it is argued, is crucial not only for the proper understanding of European family systems in the past, but also for accurate comparisons of family systems in Europe and Asia. The family pattern prevailing in this part of central Europe exhibited a ‘hybrid’ nature in many respects. The pattern's chief characteristics were a moderate age at marriage, the dominance of simple family households and the high incidence of lifecycle servants. Serial household lists revealed, however, the significant diversity in proportions of household types between censuses and between villages. Despite the strong indication of a stem family pattern in the parish, the analysis of headship transmission revealed the concurrent co-existence of various modes of household formation among families. Some of these formation processes did not vary much from neo-local principles or followed exactly this type of pattern. This study also made it possible to reconsider the supposed relationship between the seigneurial authority and family behaviours in the parish pointing out the considerable degree of autonomy of the peasant subjects.     

Poverty and the family-income cycle: Casual laborers in Amsterdam in the first half of the 20th century

Based on data collected from the files of the municipal poor relief institutions, the incomes of Amsterdam casual (dock) laborers and of their wives and children, poor relief, and other sources of income are plotted against their family cycles. The emerging patterns confirm results arrived at in American, British, and Belgian studies: Married women worked for wages mainly in the first period of the marriage, when the children were still too young to earn. For the same reason, families relied more on poor relief in this first period than later on. Only in the second and third periods could families rely (more or less) on their own labor due to the substantial contribution made by their children (from age 14). Wives of these casual laborers worked more for wages (often as charwomen) than did the wives of skilled laborers. Obviously, norms and rules about wives' responsibilities in the home were strong enough to prevent women from aspiring to substantial, or even lifetime jobs, although only a few families in this sample could survive on the males' incomes alone.     

Poverty and the family-income cycle: Casual laborers in Amsterdam in the first half of the 20th century

Based on data collected from the files of the municipal poor relief institutions, the incomes of Amsterdam casual (dock) laborers and of their wives and children, poor relief, and other sources of income are plotted against their family cycles. The emerging patterns confirm results arrived at in American, British, and Belgian studies: Married women worked for wages mainly in the first period of the marriage, when the children were still too young to earn. For the same reason, families relied more on poor relief in this first period than later on. Only in the second and third periods could families rely (more or less) on their own labor due to the substantial contribution made by their children (from age 14). Wives of these casual laborers worked more for wages (often as charwomen) than did the wives of skilled laborers. Obviously, norms and rules about wives' responsibilities in the home were strong enough to prevent women from aspiring to substantial, or even lifetime jobs, although only a few families in this sample could survive on the males' incomes alone.     

Peasant and hunter households in Oulanka,northern Russia, 1710–1910

This article examines the family system prevailing among the population of a parish in the subarctic zone of northern Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. At the beginning of the period, the Oulanka area was occupied by Lapps, who lived chiefly by hunting, and Karelians engaged in agriculture. Although the Lapps later reverted to a more permanent way of life, the area still possessed two distinct communities with differences in their economies. This research relies on demographic sources such as taxation records, nominal censuses, and parish confessional lists.

A high proportion of large, complex households was typical of the population of the area throughout the period studied. The shaping of the family system was crucially affected by the desire of the inhabitants to ensure the vitality of their households by pursuing several labor-intensive forms of economic activity simultaneously. Although the inhabitants were not serfs, their choice of the optimal ways of organizing their lives in different situations was to a great extent determined by the obligations placed upon them by the government. The similarities between the family system prevailing in Oulanka in the 19th century and that observed in ethnic Russians in general are presumably attributable to the fact that both populations came under the same judicial system.     

Visit Coaching: Building on Family Strengths to Meet Children's Needs

Visits between children in foster care and their families often do not build on family strengths or help them demonstrate they can meet their children's safety and developmental needs. Visits can alienate parents, children, and foster parents, and the parent's grief, anger, and preoccupation with complying with court‐ordered treatment often obscure their children's needs. Visit coaching is an innovative approach that can replace parenting classes and office‐based visits with hands‐on guidance for families in meeting their children's needs. The visit coach, who may be their caseworker or a variety of other trained individuals, helps parents take charge of visits and demonstrate more responsiveness to each child.     

Law as Co-ordination

Abstract. The concept of co-ordination problems helps solve the problem of authority and obligation in legal theory, but only if the concept is carefully distinguished from the game-theoretical concept of co-ordination problems and their solutions. After explaining the game-theoretical concept, the author defends its application to legal theory by reviewing the exchange he has had with Joseph Raz about the authority of law. Extending that debate, he argues that criticisms from Raz and others miss the point of the co-ordination thesis; its primary benefit is that it illuminates the source of law's moral authority in the way law enables individuals to co-ordinate their actions for the common good without imposing a national common enterprise upon them.     

Stay or leave? Individual choice and family logic: the destinations of children born in the Valserine Valley (French Jura) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

"To study inheritance, it is necessary in the first place to know the number of heirs in each family, how property was divided between them, and whether their inheritance was sufficient to enable them to maintain and support several children in the parish. This study examines the process by which the populations of the parishes of Valserine Valley in France reproduce themselves from one generation to the next, by means of examining the ?effective' progeny of couples to determine how many of them produce children (heirs) who continue to live in the Valley. The ultimate goal of these researches is to establish the characteristics of those who leave the Valley, and how these differ from those who choose to stay. The article examines whether it is possible to discern a family strategy in the way these decisions are made, and whether behavior of the persons in question is determined by individual choice."     

Marriage,residence, and occupational choices of senior and junior siblings in the english past

Even when parents had few resources to transfer to their children, the dynamics of the family life-cycle may serve to advance the occupational, residence and marriage careers of certain children and hinder the careers of others. This hypothesis is tested by calculating for a number of small English communities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the proportions of children, ranked according to their position in the birth order at the time of the census, who were resident in the parish of their parents. The data suggest that even when parents had few resources and their children made their own way in life, certain differences in residence and marriage patterns and in occupational histories were associated with specific birth ranks.     

Widowhood options and strategies in preindustrial northern Europe

This article reassesses the variety of demographic, social, and economic forces that shaped the residence patterns of widowed and intergenerational relationships in northern Europe in the past. Factors considered include occupational status (landholders and landless), retirement contracts, system of poor relief, age at widowhood, and number of children surviving from previous marriages. Detailed findings are presented for two communities in southwestern Finland. Women in rural western Finland should not be viewed as helpless or dependent. Legally they might never have been the equals of men, but if their lives were affected by a number of restrictions so were those of men. Cooperation with kin and the creation of strategies for maintaining the family land were not unique to southwestern Finland. The stem family indeed had the capacity to act as an institution providing for the maintenance of the old and the young whenever it was supported by stable property. The possibility that this property might pass from the family to nonrelatives provided the motive for detailed retirement contracts. Such contracts did not signal intergenerational tension with the parental generation trying to protect its interests in the face of pressure from the children, as Gaunt [The property and kin relationships of retired farmers in northern and central Europe. In R. Wall (Ed.), Family forms in historic Europe (pp. 249–279). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] has suggested. With the proletarianization of society in the 19th century, the proportion of poor widows increased. These paupers circulated among farms being taken care of for a specific time at each place. However, even in the late 19th century, landless widows usually did not reside alone.     

Widowhood options and strategies in preindustrial northern Europe: Socioeconomic differences in household position of the widowed in 18th and 19th century Finland

This article reassesses the variety of demographic, social, and economic forces that shaped the residence patterns of widowed and intergenerational relationships in northern Europe in the past. Factors considered include occupational status (landholders and landless), retirement contracts, system of poor relief, age at widowhood, and number of children surviving from previous marriages. Detailed findings are presented for two communities in southwestern Finland. Women in rural western Finland should not be viewed as helpless or dependent. Legally they might never have been the equals of men, but if their lives were affected by a number of restrictions so were those of men. Cooperation with kin and the creation of strategies for maintaining the family land were not unique to southwestern Finland. The stem family indeed had the capacity to act as an institution providing for the maintenance of the old and the young whenever it was supported by stable property. The possibility that this property might pass from the family to nonrelatives provided the motive for detailed retirement contracts. Such contracts did not signal intergenerational tension with the parental generation trying to protect its interests in the face of pressure from the children, as Gaunt [The property and kin relationships of retired farmers in northern and central Europe. In R. Wall (Ed.), Family forms in historic Europe (pp. 249–279). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] has suggested. With the proletarianization of society in the 19th century, the proportion of poor widows increased. These paupers circulated among farms being taken care of for a specific time at each place. However, even in the late 19th century, landless widows usually did not reside alone.     

Medicare program; Medicare secondary payer for individuals entitled to Medicare and also covered under group health plans--HCFA. Final rule with comment period

These regulations establish limits on Medicare payment for services furnished to individuals who are entitled to Medicare on the basis of disability and who are covered under large group health plans (LGHPs) by virtue of their own or a family member's current employment status with an employer; and prohibit LGHPs from taking into account that those individuals are entitled to Medicare on the basis of disability. They also implement certain other provisions of section 1862(b) of the Social Security Act, as amended by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Acts of 1986, 1989, 1990, and 1993 and the Social Security Act Amendments of 1994. Those amendments affect the Medicare secondary payer rules for individuals who are entitled to Medicare on the basis of age or who are eligible or entitled on the basis of end stage renal disease and who are also covered under group health plans (GHPs). The provisions that apply to all three groups include-- The rules under which HCFA determines that a GHP or LGHP is not in conformance with the requirements and prohibitions of the statute; The appeals procedures respecting GHPs and LGHPs that HCFA finds to be nonconforming. The referral of nonconforming plans to the Internal Revenue Service; and The rules for recovery of conditional or mistaken Medicare payments made by HCFA. The intent of the MSP provisions is to ensure that Medicare does not pay primary benefits for services for which a GHP or LGHP is the proper primary payer and that beneficiaries covered under these plans are not disadvantaged vis-a-vis other individuals who are covered under the plan but are not entitled to Medicare.     

What the #@!* are they Fighting About?!?: Reflections on Fairness,Identity, Social Capital,and Peacemaking in Family Conflicts

Peacemaking is particularly challenging in family conflicts. Deeply held feelings about identity, fair treatment, moral issues, and protecting social capital often cause people in conflict to make self‐defeating decisions. There are, however, techniques that enable mediators, Collaborative Practice professionals, and other peacemakers to overcome the settlement barriers created by these strongly held views. These techniques include those pioneered by psychotherapists using the Internal Family Systems model, which enables parties to see that their strongly held views comprise only part of the constellation of feelings that they have about the conflict.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:
• Parents who feel that their role as father or mother is in danger often find it difficult to focus on the children's best interests.
• The “rule of reciprocity” causes people who feel wronged to exact even harsher punishment on those who harmed them.
• The concept of “social capital” explains why people care so passionately about whether they are treated fairly and about their reputation for fairness.
• The Internal Family Systems model helps peacemakers to understand how to work with the parties’ ambivalence about settlement versus courtroom vindication.

     

法律语境中弱势群体概念构建分析

弱势群体本质上是一个社会学概念,法律语境中的弱势群体既包括经济贫困群体,也包括权利贫困和能力贫困群体。弱势群体应根据人的社会地位、生存状况而非生理特征和体能状态来界定,它在形式上是一个虚拟群体,是社会中一些生活困难、能力不足或被边缘化、受到社会排斥的散落的人的概称。     

RESIDENTIAL CHANGE AS A TURNING POINT IN THE LIFE COURSE OF CRIME: DESISTANCE OR TEMPORARY CESSATION?*

Many former prisoners return home to the same residential environment, with the same criminal opportunities and criminal peers, where they resided before incarceration. If the path to desistance from crime largely requires knifing off from past situations and establishing a new set of routine activities, then returning to one's old environment and routines may drastically limit an ex‐prisoner's already dismal chances of desisting from crime. This study tests these ideas by examining how forced residential migration caused by Hurricane Katrina affected the likelihood of reincarceration among a sample of ex‐prisoners originally from New Orleans, LA. Property damage from the hurricane induced some ex‐prisoners who otherwise would have moved back to their former neighborhoods to move to new neighborhoods. Findings from an instrumental variables survival analysis reveal that those parolees who moved to a new parish following release were substantially less likely to be reincarcerated during the first 3 years after release than those ex‐offenders who moved back to the parish where they were originally convicted. Moreover, at no point in the 3‐year time period was the hazard of reincarceration greater for those parolees who moved than for those who returned to the same parish.     

Notice inviting applications for new award for fiscal year 1999. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), DHHS

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) announces the availability of funds and invites applications for research into the status of applicants and potential applicants to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, individuals and families entering the TANF caseload, and individuals and families who leave TANF. Approximately four to six States or large counties will receive funding that will enable them to monitor and conduct research into the progress of individuals who apply for TANF benefits and their families. ASPE is particularly interested in targeting those applicants who apply for cash assistance but are never enrolled because of non-financial eligibility requirements, participation in up-front job search or other diversion programs, or failure to complete the application process. Proposed studies of new entrants onto the TANF program and of individuals leaving welfare also will be given consideration. Research topics could fall into the broad categories of employment and earnings, participation in government assistance programs, and child and family well-being. Grant applicants may choose any method for their proposed studies, including the linking of administrative data, surveys, or other methods as appropriate. The funds could either support a newly designed project or could be used to add new data sources and analyses to an existing project.     

Incarcerated male and female offenders' perceptions of their experiences in the criminal justice system

This study compared the experiences of males and females who have been convicted of criminal offenses and institutionalized. The inmates were asked about their arrests, trials, sentencings, and incarcerations, their impressions of the criminal justice system and court personnel they encountered, and their feelings about justice in America as it applied to them.It was found that substantial percentages of both the males and females in the sample were minority group members, poorly educated, products of disorganized family life, and individuals who had experienced repeated contacts with the criminal justice system. Males were more likely than females to have had contacts with the criminal justice system from their early teens, to view the police as unnecessarily harsh and harassing, not to have been released on bail, and to have entered guilty pleas without going to trial. The females as a group received swifter dispositions of their cases than did the males.The vast majority of both males and females felt that the sentences they received were too harsh and they were dissatisfied with their lawyers' services. Most felt that a poor man cannot get a fair trial in America.     

Narratives on World War II in Poland: When a life story is family history

Memories of the World War II in life stories about its events and experiences are part of every Polish family history. The analysis of life stories of wartime helps to discover the meaning of past events and experiences to individuals, as well as to whole social strata. The role of family affiliations in Polish narratives about the war is briefly discussed, and chosen details of historical background are characterized in one case, using the biographical narrative interview. Two sisters, when telling their own biographies, present the history of their family. Their reasons for concentrating on the collective aspect of their war experiences are explained, and significant social and historical processes exemplified in their story are described. The sisters' family history represents a part of tradition that has been forgotten in postwar Polish society. Pauperization of the landowner stratum prevented the process of transmitting this part of cultural heritage to forthcoming generations. Communist authorities welcomed this process of forgetting, whereas the important aspect of Polish cultural and social heritage based on the lifestyle of the countryside estates was emasculated.     

Long-Term Follow-Up of Young Children Placed in Foster Care: Subsequent Placements and Exposure to Family Violence

This study examined the quality or characteristics of permanent placements at 6 years of age for 254 children who had been removed from their homes prior to attaining 3.5 years of age (mean = 13 months). Although the primary objective when removing children is protection, subsequent permanent placements are prioritized by federal legislation with a stable family environment, especially one with the biological parent(s), being preferred. Three a priori comparisons (i.e., reunified vs. nonreunified, adopted vs. foster care, relative vs. nonrelative foster care) were conducted for caregiver and child reports of exposure to family violence. The results indicate that both reunified children and their parents report more family violence (witnessed and child victimization) than do nonreunified children and their caregivers. Adoptive parents did report that they used more minor violence in disciplining their children than did foster caregivers, but their children reported witnessing significantly less physical violence in the home. Recognizing that the development of children removed from their homes because of maltreatment is likely a function of both the maltreatment as well as the quality of subsequent family experiences (i.e., violence exposure), implications of the findings for determining placements are discussed.     

Narratives on World War II in Poland

Memories of the World War II in life stories about its events and experiences are part of every Polish family history. The analysis of life stories of wartime helps to discover the meaning of past events and experiences to individuals, as well as to whole social strata. The role of family affiliations in Polish narratives about the war is briefly discussed, and chosen details of historical background are characterized in one case, using the biographical narrative interview. Two sisters, when telling their own biographies, present the history of their family. Their reasons for concentrating on the collective aspect of their war experiences are explained, and significant social and historical processes exemplified in their story are described. The sisters' family history represents a part of tradition that has been forgotten in postwar Polish society. Pauperization of the landowner stratum prevented the process of transmitting this part of cultural heritage to forthcoming generations. Communist authorities welcomed this process of forgetting, whereas the important aspect of Polish cultural and social heritage based on the lifestyle of the countryside estates was emasculated.